Love, The Pond Girls

 

 

 

 

What an awesome end to a 3 year wait to all be together again!

 

I love these happy fun little girls that love letting me dress them up, even for swimming! 

 

 

Happy Birthday Noelle!  Love, Poppa and Rara (bubble gum necklace, money for college and a heart-felt note)  Rock it out, Bella!

This is my absolutely favorite picture from our reunion!  Hudson fell asleep in Andy’s lap while we were swimming one afternoon.  Heart melting, for sure!

 

Brother Man and Auntie Momo loved letting Hudson show us around our phones, and Noelle got picked to act out a game of charades.  I love Drew taking a guess! 

 

Harper got super scared and Noelle was comforting her until she just couldn’t take it anymore!  These GWL characters are a little creepy, but “There’s nothing to be scared of here!”  (yet…) 

Good times, good people, and good good friends!

 

 

My sister, Michele, and I with her and Andy’s new baby boy, Hudson!  He’s such a sweet, confident, happy boy, and was so much fun to get to know!  So excited he is a part of our family!

Some people get a kick out of splashing themselves in the water, hahaha!

Cutie Kate!

Be afraid, Harper… be very afraid!  Lol! (Perfect picture)

 

Thumbs up, Buttercup!

Loved watching these two play today!

Rara didn’t get to swim, but she was a great sport!

 

Anna arrives on the scene!

 

Sweet baby Saylor and Noelle with a random wolf! 

We had so much fun at the BanksFam5 family reunion last weekend!  It was our first time to all be together in 3 years!  That’s forever, especially with little ones growing so fast!  It is a blur looking back on it now, but a total blast was had by all!

 

First up, saying hi to our Ebert cousins and meeting our newest addition, Hudson!!!  Isn’t he awesome!?!  I snapped a quick pic of Drew (my sister’s oldest son) with Noelle and Hudson (my sister’s youngest son) with Rose but somehow I missed our middles, Anna and Anna Kate, and the Banks girls as they were just arriving.  They were all so incredibly cute together, loving on each other the whole time!

  

 

The girls have been waiting to sleep in bunk beds for their whole lives.  First time for everything, but no time to snooze, we were off to the water park!

 

Our little wolf pack! 

Wish I had Great Wolf Lodge pictures ready to post from last weekend, but Noelle and I got strep throat this week!  (and right when I said we were finally over all of our ailments, lol)  I’ll update as soon as I am able and until then, we’re going to spend some extra time getting well!  XOXO

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Noelle is the kindest, most compassionate, tender-hearted human being that I have ever met!  She is so beautiful in every way and today, with so much joy, we celebrate her!!!  Love you to the moon and back, Noelley!  You’re rockin’ it, oh yeah!

 

Loved Anna Kate’s last Easter egg hunt at Mrs. Paula’s!

This is one of my favorite salads at McAllister’s.  It’s the turkey cranberry salad and is only served during the holidays, but if you ask, they can still make it.  Mike and I are going nuts over salads these days!

 

What a great quote to live by!  This hits so true to home for me because although things may look great on the outside, my chronic fatigue/fibro/TMJ trio rages on.  You just never know what someone is up against until you walk in their shoes (if they have the strength to put them on).  I promise you would be way more happy in your own (talking to me too).  I think I follow this rule about 99% of the time, unless I am pushed to the limit (you know we all go there).  If you meet a sweet and kind kid, chances are, they have respectful parents that are kind to strangers, take interest in waiters, grocery checkers and who try their best to be gentle and kind to their kids.  This is my daily heart’s desire; My little part in making the world a better place and leaving it that way.  I want our girls to be good caring people, and it starts with my example and the way I treat absolutely everyone.  I try my best to be the best person I can be, some days are easier than others, but my intentions are always pure.  Whew!  That’s different than my normal scrapbook caption!  On another serious note, ever since Disney, my eyes have been opened to the insane amount of sugar we consume as a culture… also carbs.  Mike’s educated himself on the subject, and I’ve been blown away by all that he’s been learning over the past several months.  We’re trying our best to establish a healthy lifestyle for our family, but it is sooooo hard!  If you are interested in learning more, there is an eye-opening documentary called “Cereal Killers” that may change your mind about the foods you think are healthy for you and vice versa.  These are just interesting things I want the girls to know we are thinking about.  If this blog hangs out long after our generation and next are gone, I don’t want my greats to think all our cupcake consumption on here is all we are doing!    We are thinking about taking care of ourselves for them too!

*All this coming from a dentist’s daughter who has LOVED candy/sweet treats all her life… we are no examples, yet, but we are cutting out sugars/carbs little by little and are getting educated and intentional about being more responsible/moderate.  Join in the fun! 

* The documentary “Cereal Killers” can be rented for $5 at http://www.cerealkillersmovie.com  The kids loved it too and, it helped them understand why we need to change.  Educating the kids on “why” instead of just saying “no” gets them on our team and motivates them to want to take care of their little bodies as well!  I was surprised to learn the food pyramid we were taught in schools is totally upside down wrong, and why… also, who has funded this education.  It’s gonna be a long road for me/us, but we’re on it!  Health is your first wealth, and although I’m naturally thin, that doesn’t mean I’m healthy.  Lean is just another body type.  I want my heart to be healthy, my arteries to be clean, my body to feel better, all of it.  Let’s do it!

Anna Kate and her science lab!  She sets up little stations all over the house, all the time, where she is working on inventing something or playing store or doctor.  Ask anyone who hangs out with Anna Kate, this child is obsessed with all things science!  Her favorite show right now is “Cosmos” on Fox on Sunday nights.  She begs for it all week, and we have loved watching it together!

 

How about this vintage pull by the chain toilet?  Guess that’s why they used to call it the water closet… and our kids are serious animal lovers!  We recently lost a sweet special dog in our life, Asafa.  Our heart goes out to his parents.

Noelle had her first sleepover with school friends this spring.  They all did great and had tons of fun!  I missed her but even I did great (of course, we texted all night)! 

 

Both of the littles had well visits this spring and got great reports!  Here’s another one of Anna Kate’s work stations.

 

Sad to say, we’ve had our fair share of sickness this late winter/early spring.  We had a stomach bug that stuck around for 2 weeks.  Two days with the bug is bad;  That was cra-cra!  After all our ailments had passed, Rose got to start at Mrs. Paula’s on her sub list.  She has loved every minute of “big kid school!”  Here’s her first craft home: z is for zebra.  So fitting for Rose to start her pre-k experience on the letter z.  What kid does that?  Only Rose!  We just couldn’t wait until the fall to join in on all the fun!

 

The girls with all of Anna Kate and Rose’s preschool friends and their siblings at their school Easter egg hunt a few weeks ago! 

 

First day to hit the park this spring!  Yippee!

 

“What’s up, people!”  

 

Love finding quotes and little loom animals all over the house! 

 

Noelle came downstairs one night recently after her shower with her hair all pinned up like this (she did it herself).  I asked what was going on, and she said that she wanted to twist her hair all around and see what it would look like the next day after she slept on it.  Love her little ideas!  Pic on right is the girls #twinning for a casual dinner one evening last weekend.

Oh my, Cutie Kate!  What am I going to do with her!?!  She told me the craziest story of a lie that took forever for her to tell.  I can’t even go into it, it was that silly.  When she finished, she looked up at me, and I said, “REALLY!?!  That’s actually what happened?” and she gave me face #1 on the left.  That’s the, “Yeah, I’m not buying it either, but I tried really hard!” face.  Face #2 was her “I’m sorry about it all!” face.  She pretty much got a pass this time.  Good grief, this child is cute cute cute!

 

My creative genius has me stepping out of my comfort zone to do things with her hair that I’ve never even imagined!  And the patterns she has self-taught herself on the loom (with tutorials she has found helpful) are amazing!  She’s now into making little rubber band animals.  Noelle is so cool!

 

Rose loves to draw Bekah on the hair salon app and does a pretty good job (we text them to her as they are created, but this is a new one)!  Noelle had a blast on field day (minus insane allergies, grr).  Pics of the day when everything was orange soon! 

*I decided to title my iPhone posts, Y.O.L.O. (You Only Live Once) because these are the pictures that happen when I don’t have my big camera, so I either take a quick pic with my phone, or I miss it (that and I pretty much love this silly-sounding acronym)!  These are more of in the moment, every day shots in life, either that, or Instagram collages that I really like!