Rose and I met our friends Stasia and Katie at the park for Rose’s first one-on-one play date with a friend!  Usually she just tags along with her big sissies, but today was her day to have her own special friend to play with.  We had such fun time chasing around our tiny toddlers and visiting in the sunshine!

(This is the third Pond girl to wear this dress… those of you who have followed the blog for a while probably remember seeing it on Anna Kate and Noelle.  I love getting to see all three girls wear the same outfit because it brings back such sweet memories as we make new ones!)

This is Anna Kate doing her thing… love this kid!

This is Rose doing her thing… love this kid!

We had so much fun this weekend at Isabella and Aiden’s Coke/ice cream shop party!

Stacy’s a professional party planner, so if you want a decked out party with a special theme like this, let me know, and I’ll give you her info.  She’s amazing!

Here’s the birthday girl and boy!  Their momma and I have been friends ever since we moved to Arlington.  In fact, she was one of my first friends here.  Although we both stay super busy, she is a dear friend to me, and I love when we get to celebrate our kids together!

The tables were so cute!

The smartest thing Pump It Up does is let the birthday kiddo sit in the blow up chair to open presents.  Every kid begs their parents to have a Pump It Up party so that they can have a turn in the birthday chair… it’s a throne in their eyes.  Genius for repeat business!

Close-up of the place setting… so creative and fun!

Yummy was the theme and yummy is right!

The kids always love a silly picture… what a fun night!  Happy birthday friends!

This is Rose full-out!  You can see what her personality is really like in these pictures.  She’s so great, even when she’s being so naughty!  She LOVES crocs by the way, and Holly’s Ruby Sundaes.  These are Noelle’s, but Rose doesn’t care… she wears any she can find!  It’s pretty funny to see her walking around in them!  She put this headband on all by herself too!  These are the last of “The Day of the Mess” pictures!

The brown marker on her face made me laugh because it looks like kitty whiskers!

Sometimes it’s just too cute not to let them revel in their mischief.  I’m sure this definitely sends mixed messages to her, but I couldn’t help it… she was just too cute, but boy did I pay for it when naughty play time was over!  She wanted that tube of toothpaste back with all of her heart.  She thought me going along with it, laughing and taking pictures, was the new norm, and she had just won the lottery!  Back to reality Rose… we’re neat freaks around here and have to have major boundaries with 3 girls!  Ahh, good times!

Noelle has to be all dressed up anytime we leave the house… here she is on Saturday before we left for lunch.  I love my little diva!

First of all, Noelle looks too comfortable in those heels.  I don’t wear heels… they hurt.  I’m positive this girl will rock heels one day and enjoy every minute in them!  The second picture just blows my mind.  Noelle is 6… she wouldn’t tell me where she saw this quote, but it touched her enough to write it on her hand.  I asked her what it meant, and she told me… I was just sitting there like, “No way!  She’s 6… this is not happening yet.”  She loves to dream about her wedding and her husband.  She talks about the future a lot.  I want her to stay 6 forever… I don’t take one day for granted because she’s going to be all grown up in no time.  She told me she was going to cry at her wedding and that she better wear “water-proof mascara.”  She asked me if I was going to cry too, and I said, “I already am!”  then we both started laughing!

Saturday morning… Mommy’s turn this week for breakfast in bed with Anna Kate!

Thanks Anna Kate!!!  My breakfast was delicious!

“The Day of the Mess”

This kid knows how to use the iPad better than I do, which is both good and bad!

The iPad glow!

And she’s out!

Mike took these pics of Noelle just chillin’.  We love our kids!!!

Rose went with me on Anna Kate’s field trip to Krispy Kreme, when we found out that if you dress like a pirate any time that day, you get a dozen free donuts.  So, after dinner, Noelle put on her Halloween costume from last year, and we headed back to Krispy Kreme for dessert!  We got extra boxes and had fun passing out donuts to some of our friends!

We had a blast last week taking a field trip with Anna Kate’s preschool class!

Mrs. Paula and my pictures are all mixed together in this post of Anna Kate’s Week 3 of school.  I’m so glad she took a picture of me taking pics of the girls, because that is something I love to do!  They mesmerize me!

Here’s Anna Kate making her donut!

I love this picture of my little birdie!  She looks so much like Mike in this picture of his baby pics… I love it!

Anna Kate had a great time and was her happy-go-lucky self (until Mommy and sissy had to leave)… about an hour later, Mrs. Paula called and gave me the report that Anna Kate was having a great day, just so I wouldn’t worry.  She’s the best!

Finding treasures in the confetti for a lesson one day!

More play time at school!

One day, all the girls wore sparkle shoes, so Mrs. Paula took a picture… the girls loved that!

We are approaching our three year anniversary of building our house, and I haven’t posted any pictures since we moved in.  I can’t believe we’ve already lived here three years!  I still have a couple of small boxes in some of the closets I haven’t unpacked… If I haven’t needed the stuff in three years, I should just throw it away.  I procrastinate with that kind of stuff, saying I’ll get to it when all three girls are in school.  I’m a neat freak, our house is always super clean (I’m dusting all the ceiling fixtures and shutters this week as a matter of fact), but I am a tiny pack rat… more like a pack mouse. 

Anyway, the purpose of this post was to show you how hard I’ve been working for the past three years on our flower beds.  They really come alive and pop late summer and are at their prime in September!  When everyone else’s beds are dying off needing a fall spruce, mine are just coming to life.  That’s just the way it happens.  So, I work diligently taking care of them through the summer, and then the payoff comes as the season’s change.  It’s one of my favorite things to do… work on the yard, as the children play on the driveway… neighbors congregate with beverage of choice in hand, I’ve got dirt all over me from head-to-toe, and it’s just perfect.  I say this all the time, but we are finally home.  After years of wondering where we will live, we are so blessed to have such a safe and beautiful home, on the inside and out, physically and figuratively, lol! 

Here’s a close-up for you to see some of the purples, pinks and even oranges!  You can almost feel the cool breeze within the warmth in these pics.  I love the first signs of fall!  It’s in the air!

This is the before picture of our house in November of 2009 when very little landscaping was included with the house… we seeded, transplanted, and planted for years and the color is popping here and there, and I’m excited at how everything is growing!

Our happy home ~  September 2012