The last few from Maryland

I should have gotten these pics up for Memorial Day, but I just didn't get to it. I had bought Emma, Parker, and Clara some matching red-white-and-blue outfits, so we tried to take the kids' picture together on Sunday before we left. I wasn't so successful, but hopefully Julie got some better shots. Still, a couple of these are pretty funny, so I thought I'd share them.

I have the most exciting big brother in the whole wide world!

Emma is growing by leaps and bounds it seems lately. She keeps showing us fun new sides to her personality. This picture is from bedtime tonight. Everytime Liam walked by the doorway, Emma's whole body would tense up from head to toe and she would shake like she was having a tremor. The first time she did it, I was actually a little worried. Really hard and really fast, but it was just because she was so darn excited to see her big brother! It's hard to describe, and hard to capture with a still photograph, but I think you can see the excitement on her face.

And I was on a picture taking spree again this morning. Liam had his friend, Steffen, over to play. Don't ask me why Liam is wearing a clip-on tie in the second picture!

The many faces of Liam McShea

A few pictures of my little goofball.






And one with Sissy :)

A nice fluffy pillow?

I still have a few pictures to share from my trip, but I think it's time for some up-to-the-minute reports from the McShea house. Emma's new "thing" is that she will pull herself up to the end of her crib that faces the door so she can see us as soon as we walk in the room. After every nap, she is propped up peeking over her crib bumper and smiling from ear to ear. This is how I found her sleeping tonight, just after she fell asleep. I guess she wasn't convinced it was really time to go night-nights!

In other Emma news, Brendan has been telling me for the past few weeks that she is using the words "mama" and "dada" in the correct context. (As opposed to normal baby babble.) She seems so young to be doing that, but it's getting hard to deny. Hmmm...what do you think? Am I imagining this? Is it possible for a 9 month old baby to speak real words? I swear, she looks right at us and says "mama! dada!"

Emma has also started dancing whenever she hears music. It is so funny. We went to Fudrucker's for dinner last Friday night and she was dancing to the overhead music the entire time. The people at the table next to us were ooohinh and ahhhing over all her cute moves! I will have to try to get a video of it.

And last but not least, Emma waved bye-bye tonight! (Boy, this is turning into an Emma brag session, lol.) Brendan and I were waving to her and she was intently studying our hands. You could see her little brain working. Then she started waving to us. And she continued waving all the way down the hallway while I walked her to bed.

However, I am convinced she may never crawl. This is as far as she will ever go:

:)

Griffin's 5th birthday at Elioak Farm

Still more from Maryland. On Saturday, Griffin celebrated his 5th birthday at Elioak Farm. It was like a cross between a petting zoo and a fairy tale wonderland. It had lots of different figures from popular fairy tales that the kids could explore, and all sorts of animals to visit, too. The kids each took a ride on a pony and we all went on a hay ride. Back at the Goyette's, we had cake and played a fun game of whiffle ball/t-ball. Griffin's best bud from school, J.P., and his family also joined us. It was another really fun day.

Baltimore Science Center

More from Maryland! On Friday, we went to the Baltimore Science Center in the Inner Harbor. It was a huge thrill for Liam because there were...drum roll, please...DINOSAURS! My little paleontologist literally gasped as he walked up to the huge window of the science center to see a huge brachiosaurus staring right at him. He kept telling people, "I'm so excited, I keep fainting!" He did pretend to faint, that is just how much he loves dinosaurs, lol. Here he is at the dinosaur "dig site."

Posing for a picture at the foot of the giant brachiosaurus.

After we saw the dinosaurs, we headed to the "kid zone." Here are Julie and the kids being kids. ;)

Liam and Griff being silly out front by the Inner Harbor. It was an overcast day, but it was still very pretty.

Preakness Hot Air Balloon Festival

It was hard narrowing down the pictures from this day of our trip. Eventually I will get them all uploaded to Shutterfly. But for now, here are the highlights of the PREAKNESS HOT AIR BALLOON FESTIVAL! We had so much fun. Two moms on 5 kids under 5, plus two strollers we had to get on the shuttle bus to get from the parking area to the balloon launch site. It was a big adventure, that's for sure.

One of the first things we did when we got there was attend a kiddie show called Bob the Vid Tech. Bob is a local Maryland Public Television personality and we had front row seats. As you can see, the kids were part of the show.

Look who else was there - Nemo!

Pretty little Clara waiting for our turn to ride in the big balloon.

There we are! Going up up and away! (Well not too far away, the balloon was tethered.)

Hmmmm...looking at this now it seems a bit dangerous to have had Emma up there, but I was holding on tight. She didn't really like the sound of the gas being blown into the balloon. It was really loud. She liked it much better than Parker, though. See below....

Parker cried the whole time. Whoops!

On your marks, get set...go! In the Kiddie Preakness hippity hop race.

Clara may have finished last, but doesn't it look like she had fun?

Have I mentioned how cute Parker is? This makes me laugh so hard!

We finally sat down on the lawn and watched the rest of the balloons being blown up and launched. The big kids each got an ice cream cone.

Elizabeth & Emma at the end of a very fun day.