Lucy would like to show you how a bad idea develops.

The entire Purcell clan (plus spousal appendages) got together last weekend to celebrate Great-Grandma's 93rd birthday (sidenote: GO GREAT-GRANDMA!!). Lucy and Austin are only recently really into playing together...or at least, in the same general vicinity as each other so long as no one toddler has any toys or food that the other toddler does not have an EXACT REPLICA OF. All is fair in goldfish crackers and Elmo books...as they say. Or whatever.

During the festivities, while Brian and Deb watched, presumably pointing and laughing at poor Austin, who is just not *quite* big enough to get out from under the iron thumb of Lucy "My Will is Your Command" Purcell, Lucy came up with an awesome idea for a new hat for Austin.

At the end I put a cute picture of them both smiling, just so you know that Lucy and Austin eventually made up....although Lucy appears to be pointing and smiling as if to say "Wasn't that fun? I thought that was fun! Austin, SAY YOU THOUGHT IT WAS FUN!"

Lucy has the rope swing all figured out...just in time.

Lucy spent 13 weeks in gymnastics class - 12 weeks of which were spent running in the opposite direction of where she was supposed to be and throwing temper tantrums. This week she finally figured out the rope swing, and Daddy was there to catch it all on video, including her "all done" at the end.

Lucy knows that I am a glutton for punishment....

Which is why I gave her a duck whistle to blow, and blow, and blow, and blow...to be fair, Brian's the one that taught her to use it though. Before that, she thought it was just another thing to throw at me when she screams "NO!"

Lucy has learned 5 of the 7 Deadly Sins.

And, guess what, she learned them all at Grandma and Grandpa Dietz's house.

Pride: If this isn't pure playground arrogance, I don't know what is. It's sliding, but, you know...more gymnastic-y.


Greed: ALL OF THESE APPLES ARE MINE. NO APPLES FOR YOU.


Gluttony: Thanks for the Magnum Bar Grandma...MOREMOREMORE!

Wrath: Don't tell me how to play the piano Grandpa. I KNOW WHAT I'M DOING!

Sloth: Can I get some Law and Order over here? What about some Elmo and another one of those Magnum bars?

Although I did see her Lusting after a number of baked goods, I sadly did not get a picture because I was probably stuffing my own cookie-hole instead of manning the camera like a good Mommy. We're also missing Envy, although let me assure you that Lucy is jealous of anything you have that she doesn't have and will gladly fight you for it to the death. Just trust me on this.

Lucy will relocate your penguin.

You may be wondering why there is a penguin in our front yard. Needless to say, we initially thought that maybe he had a little too much to drink and just decided to "take a nap"...because, well, who hasn't been there? But, then we discovered that Mr. Penguin, as we've come to know him, has a little helper, and her name is Lucy Jane.
Here is Lucy fleeing the scene of the crime. She looks so sweet and innocent, but we know the truth.

CAUGHT RED-HANDED! Next stop: America's Most Wanted - Toddler Edition.


Placement of Mr. Penguin is one of the most important considerations. He should be in just the right place to both a) potentially hurt the maximum number of both Mommy and Daddy, and b) be aesthetically pleasing to Lucy. This is a complex algorithm that only Lucy can perform...a stroke of genius fueled by blueberries and furious sucking on the Thinkie (tm).
Uh oh- maybe Mr. Penguin should go here? Wait, here? Over here? I KNOW! Where will Mommy most likely trip over it and break her leg?


Wait, I'm invisible right now, right?

This is where Mr. Penguin usually lives...under the red bamboo in front of the front door. I hate the red bamboo sooooooo much, so I can see why he hates it there. It's like the witness protection program for garden gnomes and Lucy is the US Marshal. Relocation complete! Well, I just hope he agrees to testify against the red bamboo...life in the compost bin, WITHOUT PAROLE.

Lucy is enjoying her one day of summer!

Here in Seattle we have been lucky enough to have THREE ENTIRE DAYS of summer so far this year. And they were this past weekend. Because I am a psychic, we had already planned a BBQ and were lucky enough to have all of our friends and family here to celebrate that big round warm circle in the sky with us. Lucy celebrated by eating ice, which she is obsessed with, and playing in her tugboat sandbox. Sometimes, to mix things up, she ate ice covered with sand. Her gizzard is most likely in fine shape right about now.

What I love most is that now that she knows what the camera is all about, she always looks right at it, and always looks totally guilty. Ice covered in sand? WHAT? Who, me?

Lucy is wondering about that big yellow thing in the sky?.

For those of you not in Seattle, this has been, literally, the longest winter in the history of mankind. We went to Grants Pass to see Grandma and Grandpa Dietz for Memorial Day, where it is ALWAYS reliably warm and sunny on that weekend. Please note below Lucy's long pants and jacket...so, yeah.

All the way to Grants Pass, a SEVEN HOUR DRIVE for those of you keeping track of the definition of "brutal," Lucy randomly screamed "YAYO!" She was noticing these beautiful, YELLOW, pollen-filled plants which grow all along the interstate in Washington and Oregon, and also in my parents' yard. We thought she'd be thrilled to be placed in the YAYO PLANT for a picture, but as usual, she refused to cooperate with my picture-taking plans and ran out of the YAYO PLANT, screaming ALLDONE ALLDONE - one of her newest favorite phrases and a surefire indication things are about to go downhill for Mommy.

After the YAYO PLANT scheme went awry, my dad somehow produced an entire bucket of sidewalk chalk (note...what?? he just happened to have it laying around...uh, ok) and Lucy happily screamed ART! ART! ART! and then drew three blue lines on the driveway before running away to dig a hole into the septic tank and set it on fire.

Sadly for Lucy, my parents' neighbors have a pimped out mini-playground...BEHIND A FENCE. But, in a cruel twist of fate, it's a see-through fence and Lucy made sure to walk up to it at every opportunity, bang on it like a prisoner in the exercise yard trying to start a riot, and point furiously as if to say "WHAT IN THE HECK IS GOING ON OVER THERE PEOPLE??" Oh the humanity.