We’ve been… playing iPad games with Lesleigh…

 

Hanging outside with neighbors… this is Rose’s friend Berkeley and Lesleigh swinging with Rose at the park!

Making an appearance in a magazine!  I was flipping through a local magazine and did a double take when I saw Noelle.  It took me a second to figure out what it was from, but Noelle went to VBS at this church a couple of summers ago, and they picked a picture of her with her friend Jasmine for their ad.  It was a fun surprise!

Playing soccer… this was Noelle playing soccer last Saturday, the morning of her birthday!

Going to Sonic… the girls got to sit on the patio when their Daddy took them to Sonic!  That was a huge treat for them!

Having fun at Pump It Up!  We celebrated with Ava Simmons for her 4th birthday!

Eating patio dinners… they are the best!  I sent this picture to Mike on his way here after work and said, “We can’t wait to see you!”  I love my new phone!

Getting bucked off a horse!  This was taken right before both girls got bucked off this horse… very scary!  I don’t think they will ever want to ride it again!

Enjoying Noelle’s picture in the birthday hall!  Noelle’s school has this really cool birthday hallway, and you get to (pay to, lol) be on it during the month of your birthday! 

Here’s Noelle’s poster!!!

Relaxing and catching up at home!

 

Trying sushi for the first time!  Noelle tried sushi with Autumn! 

Making trips to Target… It was fun having 5 kids at Target with me… I got some stares, but I felt like super mom!  Lol…  having the two older kids with me is soo much easier than being with the girls by myself!

 

…counting the days for school to be over!  Before and after school on Friday! (thanks for the cute headband, Holly!)

On Friday afternoons, Noelle is just done from the week.  She gets sooo tired from the long week at school!

 

But mostly, we’ve just been enjoying life and having fun!  Noelle has been putting together the neatest outfits (she always has, but lately she has been really creative)!  Creighton and Lesleigh hang out at our house a bunch, and the girls all love them so much!

Happy Mother’s Day to all the lovely mothers in our lives! We love you guys!

Happy 6th birthday, chica!!!

On the way to dinner, the birthday girl had to talk to Poppa and Rara in England, and draw in her new sketch book, of course!

Chatty Katey had to say “Hi!” too!

And look who we saw at a stop light on the way!?!  None other than the prettiest little boy in the world (oh wait, he’s in the back seat, lol)!

When I saw this, I just had to take a picture! 

 

Blowing out the her candle…

Uh oh!  Anna Kate blew it out instead!!!  Not to worry, we quickly relit it, and all was well!

 

And then the kiddos danced!

 

  

 

Love these happy kids!

And then there was Rose, who was perfectly content to eat her tortilla, hold a fork and kick back and relax!

She was so intrigued by her new buddy who we can’t wait to meet in June!!!

Hey, where did everyone go?  It’s 2 hours after the party, and we’re still going strong!

 

 

Noelle opened Emily’s “N” heart box first and was so excited to find all of her favorite things inside!  At this point, I just wanted to hang out with Noelle, so I only took a couple of pics and called it good!

 

Noelle got a crown ring just like Bekah’s, and a Bratz doll head from Autumn, which she has been wishing for forever!  Yay for birthdays!

 

Poppa and Rara gave her a fun cowboy hat and a sparkly green purse and while Noelle was modeling her new present, Anna Kate and her friends were tripping us out!

Singing “Happy Birthday, dear Noelle…”

Blowing out the candles!

You go girl!  Hope all your birthday wishes come true!

Noelle’s school counselor, Mrs. Arnold, came by to wish Noelle a happy birthday!  She has been a God send to our family this year, and we are so thankful for the love she has shown Noelle.  She and Noelle have a lot in common, among other things: fashion!Noelle always talks about how fancy Mrs. Arnold is and will give me the run down after school about what Mrs. Arnold was wearing… seriously, the child loves fashion!  She came home from school one day last week and said, “I want to be fancy just like Mrs. Arnold when I grow up!”  It made her day to have her role model at her party!

This was one more section of party pics I forgot to post!  Oops!  Enjoy…

 

Noelle made a play list for today, and every now and then I caught her dancing to her favorite songs!

  

 

Noelle wanted all of our outdoor toys out in the yard so that the little kids who are scared of the horses will have something to play with, but the big kids enjoyed all the activities as well! 

Balloon art and face painting station, compliments of Rachel, Emily’s mom!

Rachel worked so hard painting faces and making balloon art for the kids while they were taking turns riding horses.  She did an amazing job!!!  To say thanks (which we can never do enough), we are going to take Noelle and Emily to Sweet and Sassy! *There is a tiny peek in this pic at the water bottles I worked so hard making, lol!

My buddy and me… introducing to the PondFam5 blog, Victoria’s boyfriend, Andrew (Andy)!

 

Illyana and Dee havin a good time!

 

She can dish it, but she can’t take it, lol!

The monster came roaring after the children…

and they laughed and laughed!

Jacob and Cameron jumping off the slide on their sugar high with snake balloons and party favors in hand… this is definitely one of my favorite pics of the day!

Noelle was SO excited to ride the ponies!!!

The kids lined up at the trailer as the guys unloaded the horses.  As soon as they saw them, they were all oohing and ahhing… it was so cool to see their excitement! 

And she’s off to venture the wild west!

Noelle started lassoing down the street to have fun as all her friends were watching her!  She’s such a little ham…

and she was loving every minute of it!

Anna Kate rode one time… for some reason she didn’t really like it all that much.

Holly got this cute picture of Julia!  I had to show you guys, even the hoofs had glitter on them, lol!

Brylee enjoyed the horses very much… she’s a party girl!

Rose had a blast using her sense of touch to figure things out.  She absolutely loves animals.  Puppies make her squeal, and this horse was no exception.  She had a blast!

I love this picture of her little hand going in to pat the horse!

Noelle looked so cute on the pink horse she requested (but he definitely needed a modesty patch on this one!).  It was so cool, she got to pick what color the horses’ hair was going to be for her party.  She picked rainbow and pink!

Can you tell she was in her element?  I wish she could be this carefree every day all the time… I just love seeing them have fun, not worry about the troubles of the world, and just be kids… it’s so much FUN!

Here’s cutie pie Malia, Anna Kate’s buddy and our neighbor!

 

This pic was soo cute of Noelle lassoing on her pink horse, but he needed a modesty patch here too!  I wonder where she got the idea to lasso on the horse?  We don’t watch country westerns or anything.  Noelle is so cool!

1. 

More PondFam5 fun… I love my silly family!

Great party guys!!!

Since Noelle didn’t have an official birthday party last year, we didn’t limit the number of kids she could invite this year… and it’s the last month of kindergarten, so this year is a milestone!  She had school friends, church friends, neighbors, and family friends… it was wild and crazy and so much fun hanging out with our friends all together! 

The Pond Girls looking good!

Rachel and me with Emily and Noelle excited to get this party started!

I had so much fun planning this party for my first baby!

My lifesaver, Sharon with Nancy and Harper!

 

Ananya and Noelle have literally grown up together (so fun seeing them getting so big and smart!), and Bekah and Noelle cuddling it up!

Cousin time – I loved baby Harper’s cute leg in this pic… made me smile so much!

 

Daddy’s girl!  Kay Kay and Grandpapa had a fun time enjoying all of their grandbabies!

Nancy, Harper, Holly, and Rose

 

Ethan and Ryan are two of Noelle’s “boyfriends” (boys that are friends), but she’s daddy’s girl for now!

Camera Dad… love it!

 

Ava is one of Noelle’s great friends from her class, and here is sweet Mattie from church going down the slide!

The “littles” of the party had so much fun! 

 

Emily and Noelle are such sweet friends!

John (Brother Man), Victoria, Andy, and Bekah havin’ a good time…

 

Noelle and Carson and Chloe and Noelle, all sweet friends from school!

On the spot, we took an adult friend picture!  It is so fun seeing all our friends that we know from different places all come together and have a good time!

Ava, Noelle, Illy, and Ainsley

 

Sweet Holly and Noelle and Brianna (our new neighbor, yay!) and Noelle

Brother Man, Fancy Nancy, and Harper helped the party run smoothly behind the scene… thanks for coming and having fun with us!

Classmates, Cameron and Jacob hanging out with Noelle and she’s loving every minute of it!

We got the special honor of meeting Noemi today (Mike’s brother Stephen and his wife Susana’s baby)!!!  Love love love this precious new creation!  Welcome to the family sweet girl!

Neighbors Hewan and Julia enjoying the party!

 

Little buddies Landon and Noelle… no matter what, Noelle would do absolutely anything for this guy!  She’s like a big sister to him and is charmed watching him and Anna Kate play so silly together. 

As you can tell, Noelle had a great day!  She was in heaven… she loves special attention; it fills her heart right up, so today meant a lot to her!  Thanks to all of our friends who came out to celebrate Noelle with us!!!

 

This party sort of just came together.  I got Noelle’s shirt on clearance at a boutique back in the winter, and she liked it so much, we decided to do a pink/brown themed party.  She originally wanted a horse drawn carriage, which we had booked, but somehow the company double booked us, and “couldn’t fit us in” two weeks before the party, which left Noelle in tears because she had already told all her friends at school there were going to be ponies at her party.  So then, by the grace of God, we found the adorable ponies to come let the kids ride that you saw in the earlier pics!  So thankful that all worked out and our little cowgirl got to rope the day away!  Lol…

I’m not a crafty person, but I’m a good learner and do take everything in… I had fun remembering neat ideas my friends have taught me along the way to decorate!

Sharon and Bo made this beautiful flower arrangement for the party, and I could NOT have pulled this party off without Sharon.  She was here 3 hours before the party, working with me the whole time getting everything ready.  She’s the closest person to Rara I could ever ask for!  Thank you Sharon… you know what you did!

Mike and I stayed up sooo late several nights last week dipping pretzels in chocolate and sprinkles.  We did get to talk and joke around a lot (and listen to The Ticket) while doing it, so it ended up being a lot of fun! 

Poppa and Rara couldn’t come because they went to England to visit the Ebert family, but in true Rosie fashion, she had a present wrapped in party colors waiting for Noelle on her big day!

I made this by tracing plates while watching American Idol… I think it turned out cute!

I painted this picture frame, designed this cake, and glued ribbon around this vase… you’d think I like crafting, lol!  I had the cutest water bottles with Noelle and 6 labels (you can see all 70 of them behind the flowers) but I didn’t take a picture of them.  Bummer, because they were cute and took the longest out of anything else to make.

I ended up finding a pic on my phone of the water bottles, yay!

With it being Cinco de Mayo and all, we had some adult beverages for the parents!

Noelle LOVED this cute pony card at the store and asked for it last week.  I didn’t give it much attention in front of her but couldn’t wait to go back and get it for her big day!  We sang happy birthday to her in bed to wake her up on Saturday and gave her this card… she was excited!  Of course, the party favors are always a fun part of any party… hope the kids liked them!  We had fun making them altogether!