Happy Birthday, Miss Madison! We had a blast at your party celebrating your special day! Here’s baby sister Eden and Rose!
Go Noelle!
Someone screamed her head off at shamu and threw the fish at her daddy!
How did she get herself into this mess!?!
Swimming buddies!
Rose is throwing herself a little pool-side fit, just for the fun of it!
Madison’s little sister, Eden, is letting Rose give her lots of lovin’!
Mike and I took the girls to a local splash park one night last week to eat dinner and play. The idea came to us when we were talking about wanting Chinese food but being too tired to sweep crumbs up after dinner, so we took Chinese food to the park and had a picnic! I’m sure the birds loved the rice we left behind, and we came home to a clean kitchen and girls that were happy from a great night of family fun at the park!
Rose was interested in all the sprinkles, but confused at the same time. She kept putting her hands in fists and shaking them back and forth, like she was excited but nervous at the same time. It was cute! Anna Kate always loves to get right up to the sprinklers… the splash park is right up her alley! (no deep ends)
Rose loved playing in the sand! This is the closest to the beach will get this summer, but hey, it works for us! 
Noelle has the cutest little nose and cheek freckles in the summer! Love it!
Last zoo trip of the year! Mrs. Paula never ceases to amaze me with her creative all-about-learning pictures! She’s like a kid in a candy store at the zoo; the best teachers are the ones who are still fascinated with discovering new things! Mrs. Paula is the best!
June 2013… what an awesome way to end Anna Kate’s first year of pre-school!
For those of you new to our blog, here is a throw-back Thursday post of Noelle singing “God Bless America” when she had just turned 2 years old (which is so impressive to me looking back on it now)!!! Keep watching… it gets HILARIOUS mid-way through, trust me on this one! 
Noelle asked if she could type a message to you guys today (age 7). Here she is:
“When I saw this video I thought it was hilarious now I don’t know how to sing it and that’s pretty impresseve and when I’m ten which is three years more I’m going to probibily show all my friends this because it is really hilarious. I love you guys.” Love, Noelle
We had a blast swimming with the Horton girls and Katie earlier this week! It was a morning full of girlie FUN in the SUN!
Here’s a picture of The Pond and Horton Girls back in 2011! Noelle was 5 years old, Brylee and Anna Kate were 2 1/2 years old, and Cerly and Rose were only 6 months old!
Here they are today, summer of 2013! (and sweet baby Audree too, who was asleep during this picture) Noelle is 7, Anna Kate and Brylee are 4 1/2 and Cerly and Rose are 2 1/2! Time flies by so quickly!
Here’s a look back at Katie, Cerly and Rose during their first swim play date in 2011. They were 6 months old!
Here they are during their second summer at age 1 1/2, summer of 2012!
And here they are full-out 2 1/2 year olds in the summer of 2013! Love that these sweet girls have been friends forever!
And here are some throw-back pictures of Brylee and Anna Kate. The left picture is the summer of 2011, when they were 2 1/2! The right picture is the summer of 2012, when they were 3 1/2!
And here they are this summer, 2013, at age 4 1/2! Brylee was helping Anna Kate learn to hold on to the side. You can see Anna Kate was so proud, beaming with pride! Mike and I were talking about these pictures tonight, and we both noticed Anna Kate and Brylee both changed a lot from 2 1/2 to 3 1/2, but not much from 3 1/2 to 4 1/2. That means this next year for Rose will be a big growing, changing year! I can’t wait to see what she will look like when she’s 4; I think they change little by little after that, but the biggest changes are happening right now!
I love these super fun 2 year olds!
Snack time!
Cerly, Rose and Katie had fun posing for their adoring Mommies!
And here are the big girls, Anna Kate, Brylee and Noelle, growing up too quickly! Thanks guys for such a playful, giggly morning!
Rose relaxing on the mud bench by our back door!
This.baby.
Kevin and Katie’s baby shower
Marcos braiding Noelle’s hair
Tea parties and dress-up
Play doh with Illy!
Anna Kate’s swimming lessons turned into a little something like this! Never.a.dull.moment.
Here are our happy girls, right before our sweet Anna Kate attempted her first swimming lessons with her preschool teacher’s son, Dylan!
Dylan is a lively senior grad who loves to teach swimming lessons. We thought it would be the perfect set-up for Rose and Noelle to play in the back yard, while Anna Kate works on getting comfortable in the water. All was fun and happy until Dylan asked Anna Kate to get in the water. She looked at me and the tears just started falling as she went into panic mode! Mrs. Paula came out to help, but Anna Kate was not having it! She loves the stairs of swimming pools so much that we call her “stair girl.” Up until now, it has been a wonderful set-up for me to be able to take all three swimming by myself, because I always know where Anna Kate is… but we yearn for her to feel the happiness and freedom of swimming! Anna Kate is going to require the best swimming lessons that money can by, with Mommy no where in sight. We decided to spend this summer going slowly, focusing on her just feeling comfortable in the water and emphasizing to her that we will always keep her safe. Next summer will be the big challenge and hurdle to overcome. I’m praying I’ll find just the right program to meet her needs. If any of you local friends have a recommendation, email or text me, please.
We did have a wonderful night of laughing at Rose and playing with Paula’s puppy, Patriot, once we relaxed and let Anna Kate know that swimming lessons were over… for now.