June is my favorite month!

Well.  It would seem that certain teenagers these days have forgotten the age-old adage, "Children are to be seen and not heard."  Said certain teenagers have decided that it is appropriate to post on certain older (yet amazingly youthful in appearance) people's Facebook pages rather bossy messages about how they just "have to" see pictures of their cousins on the blog, using clever language about how beautiful someone's profile picture is to somehow ensure that their photo-viewing needs are met.  I guess certain teenagers are well-aware that loving aunts such as myself, who cannot bear to see one moment of suffering on her beloved niece's face, are easily manipulated.  No Maddie, don't cry.  Mommy can't make you breakfast.  Mommy has to blog so that Caroline will have a good day today.  It's ok.  I guess you can just have a twinkie or something instead of the nutritious, well-balanced meal you are accustomed to.  Twinkies are good for 3 year olds, right, Caroline?

Anyways, it is probably for the best that Caroline has been stalking us, because it finally got me to post these pictures!  June really is my favorite month.  The whole year is really downhill from here.  Ha!  We have been having a great summer.  I am having so much fun gardening in our front and back yards, both of which look so pretty this year, and spending lots of time outside with the kids.  The summer months have brought the discovery that Lucy is just a...a dirt-loving child.  That is what she is.  I change Lucy's clothes 3 times a day.  I go through more bottles of laundry spray than I really care to count.  Part of this is because the Moose refuses to walk.  This week she started standing up on her own, and of course she crawls and cruises like a champ, but thank you so much, Lucy will just pass on the walking.  So while she is chasing Maddie around outside for hours, she is on the ground.  Lucy comes in most days for naptime covered in chalk dust, bubble juice, and...food.  Lucy's  a real "hands on" kind of eater.  She really insists on utensils because she wants to be like Maddie.  She starts throwing food about 2 minutes into every meal.  When she eats outside she crawls across the table to get to Maddie's plate.  In short, Lucy has a really, really funny personality.  She is always suprising us, because Maddie is such a fastidious little kid.  She really hates to be barefoot, she likes to wear pretty dresses every day, and really just prefers to be clean.  Which I of course adore (Lucy, I adore watching your quests for adventure, but I do not adore the laundry that you create, my love.).  It is just so funny to us to see, as Lucy gets older, how different the girls are in their preferences and approach to things.  

Luke has the girls two nights a week while I am working, and this has brought the summer discovery that the Poppish girls love hot dogs.  Like, a lot. Maddie ate her first one and said, "I wike dat hot dog." with utmost seriousness.  We walk over to Broadway to get ice cream cones at Sweet Action and dinner at The Hornet--Lucy eats macaroni and black beans (*such* an unappetizing sight for her fellow diners.  Sorry, folks.), and Maddie prefers a "cheesebooger and fries".  We also have a good pizza place by our house that we take the girls to.  Early next month we are starting swimming lessons with both girls.  Luke found a class at the Washington Park Community Center (just a few blocks from our house) where we can take both girls 2 nights a week and they sort of teach us to teach them to swim.  We'll see how this goes, but we are excited!  Tonight we went to "Jazz in the Park" over in the City Park, and that was really fun.  The jazz wasn't too...jazzy.  So that helped:)  Maddie and Lucy ignored all of the nutritious picnic foods that I packed until they both had the DumDums that were for dessert.  They danced and played around, Luke drank some beer, and a good time was had by all.  Until they crashed from the sugar and Maddie threw a fit in the car the whole way home, leading Luke to tell her to " Tell Mermaid your troubles."  

We have big trips planned this summer, too.  In a few weeks we are off to Maine for a long-awaited visit, and we are all really excited!  It has been just as long since we went to Memphis and we're excited to head there in August, as well as to New Albany and Louisville to see my Grandma and remind her of why I have always been her favorite grandchild.  

Here are some photos from our recent summer fun.  First, here are some really beautiful photos that Deedee took of the girls at school a few weeks ago.  You can see what a fun little world they have over there and how spoiled they are.  Like me, Deedee just leaves Lucy to it and lets her get as messy as her heart desires!  She also indulges Maddie's need for luxury and sends her home with pedicures in the most fashionable shades.  Also I am just jealous that I didn't take these photos myself...Deedee took them on manual!

Deedee changes Lucy into "messy clothes" everyday before she goes outside.  I finally had to start dressing her in shorts and tee-shirts because she gets so dirty.  This was really hard for me to do!  It's always funny to see how differently I dress the girls because Lucy is such a human tornado!

Look at those sweet dirty feet!

Crawling away!

Too cool for school.  I love this photo!

Maddie does some painting, which clearly she is taking very seriously!  They spend almost everyday at Deedee's doing *everything* outside.  They love it so much and it's so good for them!

She's loving this!

So, I bought each girl her own little pool thinking they would want to go back and forth from one to the other.  No.  That would be too easy, Mer.  They both have to be in the same tiny pool at all times.

The girls spend most of the day in the backyard right now.  It really hasn't gotten too hot  yet which has made things so easy for me!

Maddie loves to go to the pool, and she does love playing in the backyard, but even in her swimsuit she's just not into the barefoot thing!  you can see her here gamely picking her way around things!

Miss June, Maddie Poppish, models the latest styles from Gymboree.

You know, girls, I could have just gotten one, bigger pool.  Lesson learned!

The sad, neglected red pool.  I should note that thanks to Luke's hard work, our grass is now looking much better than this pic would indicate!  I just want to make sure Luke gets credit for the smooth, green carpet that is the Poppish lawn.  People come from miles around.  You have no idea.

Snack time.  For the 5 seconds it took me to take this photo, Lucy was actually sitting, and not standing, in the chair.

Mondays and Wednesdays we eat dinner out back.  Notice that we've completely given up on clothing for Lucy, but Maddie's over there dressed like Pollyanna!  lol!  Both girls *love* an ice cream cone!

I had to sneak in one photo of my calla lilies!  I have 3 kinds this year, these are the mini-ones from my back garden.  We did renovate the kitchen finally!  Sue and Dave and Emily came to help us paint.  We *just* finished the last few things this weekend, so I just need to get it together to take a few photos to put up.

This is what I typically see when I look out the back window to see what the girls are doing while they eat their lunch.  Sometimes Lucy's up on the table before I can catch her.

Something suspicious is obviously happening as Madelyn has her plate up by her face in both hands.

You seriously have never seen a kid love watermelon the way Maddie does.  This photo just reminds me of how much I really do love summer.

Laughing at some horrible thing her sister is likely doing.

Maddie likes to tell you what kind of "face" she has while she's eating.  Like, "Hey Mommy!  I have a ketchup face!"  This can get pretty complicated at times.  "Hey Mommy!  I have a ketchup and watermelon and yogurt pizza face!"  

So, Maddie and I went for a walk the other morning, and I loved all of these pictures so much I just couldn't exclude any of them. She was being so funny, and so herself!  Here she is "getting the mail" at the newspaper box down the block from our house.  This can go on.  For.  Hours.

I so love the way Maddie lets me dress her up!  

Maddie runs EVERYWHERE!  And she has such a funny little run.

Picking flowers.

So here we had to run, run, run until Maddie said "FREEZE"!  And then, you guessed it, we both froze.  It took us a long time to get around the block.

"Come on, Mom!"

She liked these red ones.  Our neighborhood is my favorite place to be in the summer.  The gardens are just so beautiful.

Here we are at the zoo.  Both girls love it there!  Lucy laughs at all of the animals.  Luke had the idea to get this cart to pull them around in... best idea ever.  They loved it.

Lucy pointing at the lions.  She really "notices" the animals in a way that Maddie didn't at this age.   Another one of those differences!

For the first time EVER we have a few good pictures of me with the girls!  I couldn't decide which one I liked best.

Lucy, the world's biggest daddy's girl.  She still SCREAMS at the top of her lungs, with pure  joy, when Luke gets home from work everyday.

Luke took the girls on the carousel.  Huge hit!

Later that day we went over to the playground.  Lucy was just not.  In.  The mood.  But I took her picture anyway.  Let us take time to consider, in the next few shots, the darker side of the 15 month old child.

Half-drumming, half-crying.

"Yes, I know this would be the coolest photo ever if I didn't have this constipated look on my face.  I'm still not giving in."

Dreaming of the future, in which she will become quite rich and famous for something scholarly, and immediately insist on paying for our Caribbean retirement.  Thanks, Moose.

"I HATE green grass and sunshine and shiny red balls."

Happy Anniversary to Luke and I!  We met nine years ago (feels like 20, as Luke would say.  He's SO funny.), and got married in Maine 6 years ago.  We also celebrated Father's Day today and had the best day celebrating with Luke.  We are so lucky to have him and only wish we didn't make him so crazy:)

We hope you all have a great month and that we get to see everyone soon!