Y’all didn’t for real think I was quitting this thing altogether!?!  Here we go for August (You Only Live Once) cell phone pics series!  Not going to repeat what the littles are saying in this picture… but I’m sure they’ll tell you if you ask!   

 

I love Rose’s little blanket sticking out of her tricycle basket.  She takes it with her everywhere!  After dinner evening strolls are what life is made of, and we enjoy our neighborhood sidewalks so much!

 

Eden and Anna Kate watching their big sisters cheer, and Rose on a hot summer day watching her big sister play soccer!

 

Noelle is still doing her hair about 50 times a day.  It’s her new thing, but she never keeps them up long enough for me to enjoy.  She’s always busy on her next project.  So, Rose went to Camp P&R to hang out one weekend this summer, and she packed her suitcase before we got around to it.  She put a ton of thought into it and really surprised us with her choices: iPad, teddy, dress-up, pjs, 3 flashlights, puppy, one pair of socks, duster, pretend cell phone, pretzels, picture of herself (lol), big blanket, wipes and toys.  Her little 3 year old brain is fascinating!

 

Here was Anna Kate’s first kindergarten worksheet.  It said, “I feel…” and the one she circled was the exact thing she had done in her sister’s arms that morning.  Under the picture of the girl holding her hands over her face it said, “Scared.”  Bless her heart.  I love that her teacher wrote, “Good Job!” because expressing your feelings, no matter what they are, always takes courage.  I made her the little star picture for her locker to cheer her up!  I made the stars out of each family members’ favorite color/s.  It’s funny Mommy and Daddy can’t make up our minds about our favorite color (we each picked two), but all our little girls know exactly what they like!

 

I always love practical inspiration and boy did I need it on this day.  Let’s just say I’ve never been a Mama Bear like I was Day 2 of school when Anna Kate came running down the sidewalk to me, tears rolling down her face, because she was scared of the “yelling” bus driver (Noelle was talking for her as they were walking toward me).  It escalated the last week of school last year when a neighbor called me and told me that she heard the bus driver yelling from her house and that if she had had a kid on that bus, she would have wanted to know… she even called the bus barn to complain and didn’t even have a kid on the bus.  So… after all that had time to die down over the summer, when I saw Anna Kate running to me in tears, all my frustrations came rushing back, and can you guess what happened next!?!  Ummm… yeah, not one of my finest moments.  I was one of the parents you see on the news who charged the bus and gave him an ear full.  It was the only time in my life I was so mad I was seeing stars.  I had no clue what I said, but my friends said I was pointing to Anna Kate so he could see her tears.  So… the next day (Day 3 of school), with Rose in tow, I had to go up to the bus barn to constructively figure out how we were going to get our girls home safely and without stress/anxiety.  They were amazing to me and gave me assurances their bus driver was a very caring man who didn’t realize his grumpy tone was scaring the children.  After our conversation, I truly believed them, and it has been much better ever since.  And why might you ask, do we ride the bus?  Both my fibro and Rose’s nap routine (a rare peek into one of the ways it does affect our family).

 

Okay, so now you know things aren’t always hunky dory in the Pond household, but it is most of the time, especially when Noelle’s in the kitchen.  Here are some banana/peanut butter/low-carb tortilla sushi roll-ups made by Noelle, and she’s mastered the 45 second microwave cinnamon apple treat!  These were both her ideas (from tutorials), and I did not help her make them.  She is just that cool!

 

Another hair creation and our girls dressed up with their dolls (and their real-life baby doll) for dinner and corn hole with friends!

Silly faces!

Okay, so this happened.  We love Cute Girls Hairstyles!  They have over 2 million subscribers on their YouTube channel, and we’ve been watching Mindy, the mom, braid her cute girls’ hair for years and years.  I used to watch her videos before Noelle was born, but Noelle re-introduced her to me when she started bringing me the iPad and asking me to watch a tutorial and do her hair.  So, like a thousand times before, Noelle asked me if I could do her hair from one of CGH’s tutorials for the first day of school.  I did, saw that Mindy commented on Instagram that she loves seeing her fans’ interpretations of her creations, so I slapped a hashtag under the pictures of the hairstyle we recreated and didn’t think anything of it.  Turns out, Mindy noticed… and noticed enough to comment… and commented about Noelle’s character!  It was like a needle in a haystack that she found our little account.  Hundreds of thousands of people hashtag them.  I still can’t believe she found us because we are, what they call themselves, #CGHsuperfans!  I videoed Noelle’s reaction to seeing the comments for the first time, and it was unlike anything I had expected.  I knew she’d be so excited, but she was blown away.  She was shaking and couldn’t even talk.  So, that was an awesome awesome change in events to end our first week of school!  We never in a million years expected that and don’t ever expect it to happen again.  But it did, was super fun and was the total pick-me-up we all needed.

 

Noelle and I back to school shopping and a little something on her hook she’s making for a friend.  Any guesses? 

Jaalisa made this cartoon BEFORE she saw this real-life picture of Rose!  I love everything about this: friends that love each other’s kids so very much, kids that have such distinct personalities that they shine so brightly; Awesome all the way around!

 

I had literally just made this salad when a friend dropped off a bundt cake on the front porch!  It was so absolutely perfect, and the timing couldn’t have been better.  I mean, if I had just had burger and fries, I wouldn’t have enjoyed the cake as much, ya know?  And I did split it four ways… Mike refuses sweets.  I don’t know how he does it, but I admire him a lot.  Another little smiley face fruit creation brought to you by Noelle.  These little raspberry/banana bites were amazing with crazy contrasting flavors!

 

First cheer game with our new football team, the Lions!  Uniforms to come, and they were worth the wait!

 

We finally finished Noelle’s spirit sticks to throw out at her cheer games!  It was a lot of work but a lot of fun!  I always wonder which swim will be our last.  Turns out, it was the day of the long legs!  I remember that relaxing summer day like it was yesterday.  This summer was a good one.  We are going to miss it!

 

Mike tried out a new recipe of a favorite app in our house, Jalapeno poppers, and our Ebert cousins moved home to the states this summer to have fun in the sun! 

Best friends forever!

Anna Kate and some of her kinder buddies at a swim party!

Raspberry fingers!

  

Anna Kate dressed up like this one night and named herself, “Tina!”  When she saw me working on this post, she walked over to the computer, pointed at these pictures and said, “Mom, there’s Tina!”  She’s a crack up!

  

Sometimes Rose and I have slow sunny afternoons and get to watch the train pass through downtown. 

The sun was peeking out from under the clouds as we were leaving our house to attend the 911 Patriot Day service at the girls’ school, and it was simply amazing.  The rays were beaming every which way. 

Here’s Anna Kate’s kindergarten class!  Aren’t they precious!

 

Here was a #tbt post for Anna Kate!

  

A little piece of my weirdness.  Love this quote, this crazy old man owl, and my silly man who always knows how to make me laugh!