Tuesday, June 28, 2011

the ice cream truck

The following is a scene that happens quite frequently around here.  The ice cream truck typically comes down our street anytime between 3 and 4:00 every day, which happens to be right when these two wake up from their nap.  

So Poppy grabs her change purse and gets into position to wait...

 and wait...

 and wait...

 "Mom, shouldn't he be here by now?!"

 "My sister is so silly for waiting like this every day!"

 Then the whining begins.  "Mom, I don't think he's coming today."

And then he comes and she practically throws her money at him... 

And she orders the same Dora ice cream every time (because of the gumball eyes).  And you would think I would have taken a picture of her eating her ice cream, but after all that waiting, she was sooo not in the mood for any more pictures.  And that is what happens almost every afternoon at our house!

Wednesday, June 22, 2011

strawberries

Saturday morning, we were up bright and early to hit up the strawberry fields...
Sam was happy as a clam to sit back and watch everyone do the hard work.


 And Poppy was happy as a clam to be able to eat her weight in strawberries.

And then Sam began to get a little restless in the backpack, so I plunked him down in the strawberry patch.  He knew exactly what to do.  He went straight for the red, ripe strawberries...

...and did not stop eating them until he was pretty much covered from head to toe in strawberry juice.  And then somebody was tired from all this hard work, and ready for a nap...

We had a great time.  We were able to meet up with a bunch of Poppy's cousins and it was so fun to see how excited all the kids were to dive into the strawberries.  As soon as we got home, the strawberries were washed and we made dozens of jars of jam, strawberry ice cream, strawberry daiquiris,  a strawberry cream puff cake, and we froze a bunch of them for smoothies.  Poppy just couldn't help herself from eating as many fresh strawberries as she could get her hands on.  She honestly looks forward to strawberry season all year long, and so far, this year did not disappoint.

Monday, June 20, 2011

Father's Day

Marc asked Poppy if she wanted to take him fishing for father's day this year.  She happily obliged and off they went for the morning.  Poppy caught a few sunny's, and Marc was happy that he actually managed to catch one himself.  Towards the end, Poppy said that she wanted to sit back and read a book while she waited for another fish to bite.  Within a few minutes, Marc said her bobber flew to the bottom of the pond and she started reeling it in, complaining that it was too heavy for her to do by herself.  Um, that would be because she caught a 12" smallmouth bass!

Marc said she was beside herself with excitement because this was the first fish she could bring home and eat!  Mind you, this is the same girl that is petrified of ants.  I cannot believe that she is even willing to hold this fish up!  She is so into fishing, it is adorable!  And the only person more excited about her big catch was her proud daddy.  This totally made Marc's father's day.
Happy father's day to the best dad these two could ever ask for!

Friday, June 17, 2011

gone fishing

Marc was finally able to take Poppy fishing a few weeks ago.  They met up with her cousins at Ellicott Creek and waited patiently for something to take the bait...
 {Poppy's 1st fish!}
I think the total ended up with Tucker catching 2 fish, and Poppy catching 3!  She was so excited and proud of herself.  She can't wait to go fishing again!

................

And here is what I ended up doing for end-of-the-year teacher thank you gifts...
A copy of Family Fun magazine, a beach towel and some candy to start their summer off right.  I found the idea on Pinterest and it only took a quick stop at Target to get all the items needed.  A few of you suggested making a Wordle cloud and then printing it and putting it in a frame.  That's a great idea that I definitely plan on using in the future, but as a gift from the entire class, one of the parents designed a similar piece of artwork that they gave the teachers.

....................

Sammy here is giving mama a workout lately.  He is almost 11 months and still can't crawl.  He tries all day long, but he only ends up going backwards and gets super frustrated, which leads to constant whining (or grunting).  He wants to be on the move soooo bad!  I think he's gonna figure it out this weekend though.  :)
One thing he has figured out recently is how to pretend to talk on the phone.  All day long, he loves to either play with this phone (that Poppy can't believe was in Toy Story) or he just holds his hand up to his ear and pretends he's on the phone.  It's so super cute!

................

Running update:  I just finished week 5 of the c25k program and I still absolutely love it!!!  I've been running every other day since I started the program and getting my sneakers on taking a run around my neighborhood is something that I look forward to all day long.  Unfortunately I just experienced my first (and hopefully last) knee injury.  I've had pain in my left knee since I started running, but I figured that it was just sore muscles from never being used.  After getting a new pair of sneakers, the pain went away for a few days, but then it came back and went from just hurting while I was running, to now it constantly hurts all day long.  Yesterday I went to see a doctor that specializes in sports related injuries and he was able to diagnose the problem.  Apparently my left leg is longer than my right leg, which is causing certain ligaments to become strained and now inflamed.  An x-ray to determine the exact length difference, a lift in my right shoe, another new pair of sneakers and a few weeks of PT will get me back in shape to be running pain free.  Isn't that crazy?!  He said it was pretty important to stop running until I feel no pain at all in the left knee, which he thinks will take about 2 weeks.  I'm super bummed about that, but he also explained the importance of working on my core muscles in order to prevent any further injuries, so that is exactly what I am going to do starting today!  

Sunday, June 12, 2011

The craziness of summer has officially begun!  Last week was Poppy's last day at ballet for the year.  Her studio didn't do a full recital, instead they had a little show at the studio for the parents to watch.  Poppy's teacher has been commenting to me a lot lately about how far Poppy has come in just the past few months.  At the Christmas show she just stood there frozen, but at this show she actually performed!

After the girls did their first performance, they had two professional ballerinas dance in their pointe ballet shoes.  It was really neat to watch.  Then the teacher had the girls line up again to do another dance, and as they were lining up Poppy said (under her breath, but totally loud enough for everyone to hear), "Oh boy, this is going to be a lot of work for me!".  Marc and I just about peed our pants.

The performance was adorable, and best of all, it was super simple - no big costume, no stage make up, etc.  The studio had a little party afterwards and I volunteered to make cookies...
I couldn't find a "ballet" cookie cutter, so I went with roses instead.  Didn't they turn out cute?

And then we signed Poppy up for another soccer team, this time an outdoor one.  And her cousins and friends are all at this soccer practice, so it is extra fun for her.  



And now this is her last week of school before summer break.  Anybody have any ideas for a simple teacher thank you gift?

Tuesday, June 7, 2011

Poppies

A few years ago, I wrote a post that explained where we got the name "Poppy" from.  If you don't want to go back and read the whole post, I'll just sum it up by telling you that I fell in love with a small garden of poppies next to a church in our neighborhood.  All of the poppies bloom at the same time and they only last for a week at the most.  I've been trying to snap a pic of them for the past 4 years, and finally, last week I was successful!



And speaking of Poppy, I think it's time I give you all a little update about what she has been up to lately.  Basically, ever since she turned 4 years old (which was less than a month ago), she has grown so much, both mentally and physically, that I can barely even believe it.  Everything about her is different!  Her clothes don't fit, her shoes don't fit, her hair grew thicker.  She talks different!  She uses funny expressions, has complex thoughts, can be a con-artist when it comes to negotiating or trying to talk herself out of trouble.

One of the most fascinating things is watching her learn how to read on her own.  She has a ton of words that she has memorized from her favorite books, but suddenly, she is sounding out words and reading them!  The first time it happened was when we were in a public bathroom and I was holding her up on the toilet and she was staring at the wall behind me and she said, "No food or drink."  I was confused as to why she would say that and when I asked her why, she said, "Because I think that's what the sign says."  And sure enough, it did.  When I was taking down all of her birthday cards that I had set up on our table, she went through them and sounded out her cousins names and told me who each card was from.  For some strange reason she is obsessed with words that start with the letter "B".  Every day, all day long, she says, "Oh, mom!  I just discovered that blue starts with a B!"  "I just discovered that baseball starts with a B and has another B in it!"  She has been doing that for weeks (but only with the letter B).

She's also loving both soccer and ballet.  For a while over the winter she kept saying that she didn't like going to ballet, and I came to a point where I wasn't sure if I should make her finish out the semester, or let her drop out if she really doesn't like it.  In the end I decided that we paid for it, so she would have to keep going, and now I'm so glad I did because she is back to loving it.  She sings all of these cute songs she learned there and practices her stretches and even counts in french.



So yeah, basically Poppy has completely grown up right before my eyes over the past 3 weeks.  It's seriously crazy.

Thursday, June 2, 2011

feeling crafty

I have been feeling quite crafty lately.  Last week I went on a major shopping spree at the craft store and bought all sorts of new fun art supplies.  I saw this butterfly art project (via Whatever) and knew that Poppy would love to make one herself.

Didn't it turn out great?!  I love how bright and cheery it is hanging in our living room!  And Poppy loved making it so much that we decided to make another one to give as an end of the year gift to her ballet teacher.

And we had a few leftover butterflies that we decided to use on a birthday gift...  (if you are expecting a gift from us anytime soon, you can pretty much count on it looking exactly like this!)

And we are still plugging away at the art lessons from the art class we started back in March.  Ever since the weather started getting nice, we have slowed way down, but we still enjoy working on them whenever we have a rainy day.

And I didn't want to leave Sammy out, so here is a picture of what I refer to as "Sam vs. cottage cheese".  It's what happened when I left a small bowl of cottage cheese within his reach when I left the room to wash some dishes.  Awesome.
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