picasso 1 - ketchup painting

Liors paints during dinner--ketchup on her bread. She is a very serious artiste.

fourth at didi's and george's

We had a super busy 4th weekend, as you have seen. Our last evening, we had another BBQ, this time with the Yaunches family out in Reston, Virginia. Liora got to wear her beautiful red dress, and hang out with some kids. There was also a surprise special guest that she was extra excited about.

Hanging with cousin Becca

Mommy and Daddy got to spend a bit of time together because Liora was so interested in the kids.

Fourth of July Fish Face?

That is very interesting Karen, please tell me more!

And here is the special guest. Can you see in Liora's eyes...the need for a puppy of her own? I'm trying to teach her this sentence to say to daddy: "Daddy, can I please have a puppy?" But so far she just goes around saying: "puppies, puppies, puppies!"

It was extremely difficult to get photos of Liora with Rylee--since the puppy was such a special guest, every kid there wanted to cuddle with him.

"Maybe if I stand real close, he'll come home with me?"

Thanks to Aunt Didi and Uncle George for a fantastic BBQ. I'll email more photos to share with the crowd who attended.

more July 4th - patriotism

On the last day of our long weekend, we went out to breakfast at our favorite place. Here Liora taught mommy what July 4th is all about:

FREEDOM! Don't put babies behind bars.

Then, mommy did some food shopping while daddy and Liora went to our local playground. When I returned to the park, I learned that a July 4th parade had found them and swooped them up into their exciting bicycle ride, firetruck exhibit, and popsicle eating. This was Liora's first popsicle. She heartily enjoyed it!

July 4th is all about the freedom to have blue tongues, right?

Mommy agrees.

sunday funday with ep and jp

For our next July 4th BBQ, we headed north of Baltimore to the Putsche-Parowski residence. It was a super hot day, but Auntie Elizabeth made the outdoors enjoyable with a battery-powered bubble blower and some sidewalk chalk (more on that in anothe post--Liora became a little sidewalk chalk obsessed).

We had a great dinner, complete with a red, white, and blue layer cake. We also got to spend some quality time with Stackhouse (the real dog who Liora's favorite stuffed animal dog is based on), and their two cats, Frank and Bella. Of course, we didn't take many photos of all of this fun until the end, when Uncle Jason was having fun with Liora in the sunroom.

Liora thinks he's hilarious. Jason thinks so too apparently. :)

Jason rolled Liora up like a donut in this chair, and she LOVED it.

Adam obviously misses our kitties! Poor guy. Bella wasn't too interested, but she pretended for a moment because she felt sorry for him.

The ladies. Here we were watching the menfolk be silly while we were being perfectly normal.

Thanks for another great visit guys. So happy to see your beautiful home and as always, excited for our next time.

big-girl swinging and July 4th bbq #1

Brace yourselves people. Here is Liora looking very grown up.

We started July 4th weekend off right--at the playground of course!

And there Liora INSISTED on getting on the big girl swing. Then she impressed mommy and daddy by holding on tight and moving her body back and forth to get herself moving.

Don't worry though! She's still young enough to go topless at the pool.

At a yummy bbq at Tony and Rebecca's, it was really hot! But, we were rewarded with Liora and Nate getting to take a nice dip in the pool together. Thanks for the good times T, R, and N! 

kitchen dancing

And now for some dancing:

More Gobie!

June did a post about Liora's visit on her Gobie blog (us bloggers stick together).
If you want to hear more about the visit and see Gobie giving me kisses, check it out!
http://hnhr-gobie.blogspot.com/2011/06/visit-from-liora.html