April

 Spring Pictures:

Final Elementary school photo for Coco

 

Daddy/Daughter Dance:

Lots of "lasts" this month.... The Daddy/Daughter dance was a Glow theme and Rog and Coco had so much fun.

 

Grandparents Day: 

Coco had her final Grandparent's Day as SCS only does this celebration through Elementary School. Grammy and Grammy were in attendance and they had a fun morning watching Cora's class sing, see her classroom and do several fun activities. 

Row was around for part G &G's visit and then had to leave for a baseball tournament in Orlando. 

We dropped Cruz off at basketball practice on the way to the airport. 

Airport goodbyes are the worst! 

Misc. Coco: 

So big, so grown up and so pretty! 

Garden Party at her friend Suebella's house. 

Cruz Basketball: 

Cruz was awarded MVP of the Basketball A Team this year. We are so proud of the teammate and basketball player that this boy is. He's such an awesome kid. 

Cruz is playing in a rec league again this season just to keep his basketball skills up to date. ;) His team is undefeated so far and got to play/beat his friend Will's team.

All Saints Food Bank: 

I had the pleasure of going on the Sophomore class field trip to the food pantry. I spent several hours with these awesome kids sorting food, checking expiration dates, and boxing things up. The other half of the group packed over 1800 backpacks for local school children to take home on the weekend. We ended with lunch at Chick Fil A. High Schoolers are seriously awesome. 

Baseball: 

We are close to wrapping up a very interesting Varsity Baseball Season. Rowan has been so steady and accurate at second base. He made only a couple of errors on the season. He really plays the position so well. Row had a rough season with his hitting for several reasons but he worked through them and came out a more confident hitter in the end. In the last regular season game, Row fouled a ball off of his foot, finished the game and was in an incredible amount of pain. We headed to the ER for X-rays but thankfully, it was just badly bruised. 

Rowan's coach has handshakes for each of the boys as they're introduced each game. It's such a silly little thing but the boys have so much fun with it. 

 

Alex is a Senior this year and has been such a great friend to Row since Row started on the team in 8th grade. 

Love this group of guys. 

Revel: 

Cora and I attended Revel Dance Competition and Convention in Tampa. She didn't compete her solos but her group dances did well in a VERY hard competition. Their lyrical placed 9th overall which was incredible. 

Cruz 8th Grade Field Trip: 

The 8th grade class went on their traditional 8th grade field trip. They started out visiting the Kennedy Space Center and then continued on St. Augustine. They had three days and two nights of fun, community and getting ready for high school! 

Happy 14th Birthday, Cruz

It's crazy that Cruz is FOURTEEN. How did this happen so fast? His birthday was so much fun because Cruz was SO excited.

 

We started out his actual birthday with a cinnamon roll breakfast before school! 

Due to the fact that Rowan had a baseball game in the evening, we decided to let the kids go to school just a little bit late so that Cruz could open his gifts in the morning. 

Cruz saved up his money and purchased a razor dirt bike a month or so ago. He really wanted to modify that dirt bike with a new battery and other new parts so the bike would be faster. His birthday gifts were all dirt bike parts. It's by far the strangest birthday gifts I've ever bought. :) 

I had to add in one fun, surprise gift... a basketball hoop for the trampoline. 

Cruz loved his FaceTime with Grandma and was excited about a new Vineyard Vines t-shirt and Apple gift card. 

Cruz also FaceTimed with Grammy and Grammy and was happy to find new handlebars/brakes and a sprocket he needed for his dirt bike.. plus a little spending cash! 

Thank you, Linda for the card and check! 

Thank you O'Connors for the cash! Cruz used it to buy the spray paint for his bike! :) 

Thank you Uncle Randy and fam for the headlight and spoke lights for Cruz's dirt bike! 

After school on his birthday, Cruz got to choose a treat for him and Cora (Row was at baseball). He chose Smoothie King! 

I took Cruz out for a birthday lunch and he requested that Rowan join us as well! We went to Buffalo Wild Wings. 

We finished celebrating Cruz on Sunday with dinner at Texas Roadhouse. 

Brownies made by Cora. 

 

 

Happy Birthday, precious Cruz. 

This has been a year of growth in so many ways. Cruz is 5'2'' and almost 100 lbs. Basketball has passed up baseball as his favorite sport to play. Cruz loves math, he loves Jesus, he is so social and he loves all kinds of crazy, dangerous activities. :) Cruz is funny, brave and feels all his emotions. He and Rowan are still so close. It's hard to believe that he'll be wrapping up middle school next month but I can't wait to see him shine so brightly in High School. We love you! 

Dirt Bike: 

Modifying the dirt bike was a huge process and undertaking especially since neither Roger or Cruz had ever done this before. There was a lot of electrical wiring that was very tricky. It took three solid days, one fire, one new controller, some matte black spray pain and a lot of teamwork and patience but the hard work finally paid off.  

Thanks to our garage camera, the fire was caught on video. 

So proud of themselves! 

The finished product- the bike gained a beautiful new paint job, about 20 mph, a new brake system and a headlight. Proud of my boys for not giving up even when things got tough.