Well, this is the fam all “decked out” for a fun 4th of July!  Noelle told me the other day that teenagers are always “decked out.”  I asked her what that means and she said, “Fancy!”

Here are the stars of the parade!

 

 

Anna Kate and Jayne, and Noelle with Brittany, Griffin’s (Jayne’s son) girlfriend.

So proud to get to ride in the parade this year!

 

Jayne made us breakfast (thank you) and Rara made this flag bouquet full of glow sticks to play with after dark!

Duke (Mary Arnett’s sister, Polly’s oldest son) and Fay stopped by to wish us a happy 4th on their way to the hill country to see their grandkids!

Noelle is ALWAYS playing with Rose and keeping her happy.  She is the best biggest sister EVER!  I sing her praises!

Look how entertained Rose is… she’s really concentrating on those ribbons!

 

Poppa and Rara arrive on the scene Monday morning after greeting baby Harper into the world.  We were all really excited to see them!

Can you tell!?!

              

I really love this picture!

 

Our Rosies and one very happy camper who’s learning what the 4th of July is all about!

 

 

Check out Noelle’s hands… she is so prissy!

  

So, right as everyone was heading out to the pool, Uncle Andy pushes Poppa in… which, as of this year, has become a tradition to the start of the day!

 

But someone was not at all happy about it, and it wasn’t Poppa!

Anna Kate was screaming and crying and yelling, “Don’t do that!”  “Get out, Poppa!” in the sweetest little angry voice you have ever heard.

When Poppa came up he thought something else had happened while he was under water because Anna Kate was so upset; I think it made him feel pretty special!

 

But within minutes, we got Anna Kate in the pool and she was as happy as she could be!  And isn’t our little firecracker cute!!!

In this picture, Anna Kate was on the “sh” part of “fish.”  Can you tell?

Check out those great chunky legs!!!  Love.them.

 

More baby greatness.

Tag teamin’!

Rose takes baths and showers with me, so she is very comfortable in the water with her Mommy… she LOVES splashing, playing, and relaxing in the water!

And so do we!

Here’s Anna Kate with “the 4th of July lady” as the girls call Aunt Elsie… can’t say thank you enough to her and Uncle Andy for making this happen for all of us – it is such a great time for everyone!

 

Noelle trips me out in this picture!  As far as the game went, I think our highest number of continuous hits was 27!

This is some baby lovin’ right here!

I had to include this picture because this is what Rose looks like when she just wakes up.  Her little eyebrows squint down and she looks at me like, “Why in the world would you wake me up – I love it!

One happy girl!

 

Our girls were LOVING all of the special attention this weekend!!!

 

My girls don’t like guacamole (leaves more for us so it doesn’t bother me – lol), but I thought this was funny to put these pictures side by side – lol, I’m dorky like that!

What a privilege for Noelle to sketch with the best!

Rosie’s fried okra was incredible! 

Aunt Joe brought the best peaches ever!

Anna Kate wanted to watch Rara fry the okra.

The girls were crazy about these silly metal ants Aunt E had on her coffee table – lots of pretend bug frights going on!

Our little fashion designer, always busy working on little creations.

Next was Bridget’s fried green tomatoes… oh yeah!

Aww, Noelle is such a precious little girl!

Yummy!  Here’s to fried green tomatoes!

“You’ll always be my baby… du da du dah!”

Enjoying a perfect evening with my girls.

 

 

ThePondFam5

This picture is compliments of Uncle Jim – it’s fantastic!

 

This is a picture of the cocktail cruise… everyone except for Jayne, Poppa, Anna Kate, Uncle Andy, and me is pictured.

Poppa really worked with Noelle tonight on the fundamentals of kayaking. 

She’s really getting it down!

 

Aunt Joe (Anna) and Anna Kate were having a blast together on the pier.

Noelle was so proud of herself for paddling for the first time!

Anna Kate was a brave little kayaker too!

And while everyone was on the cruise, she got first dibs on dessert!

 

 

Anna Kate always puts on Noelle’s sun hat and walks around the house saying, “Old lady, old lady” in a really raspy voice.  This is her in the middle of saying, “Old lady.”  She’s the funniest kid you will ever meet, and she doesn’t even mean to be.  

Anna Kate July ‘09

Anna Kate July ‘11

 

Anna Kate (4 mos.) and Rose (5 mos.)

*I obviously don’t shy away from taking pictures of my girls because they love it, but I never want to bother anyone else, so I realized after the trip I had very few pictures of everyone unless they were holding or with the girls.  From now on, I might ask the adults for a few more pictures… I might even get wild and crazy and bring the tripod for a group picture!  🙂

A huge thanks to Uncle Andy and Aunt E for hosting our gathering and Poppa and Rara for paying for the hotel and food – we are so grateful and loved every minute of it!