Visitors, hair, etc. Basically, the rest of July

We were so excited to have Fiona and her cute kiddos come to visit us last week. Teresa had so much fun with her cousins and "Auntie Tara" as she insisted on calling Fiona. Every time we asked her to say Fiona she replied "I can't". So. I guess because Bran and Nuala were calling me that? Who knows. It was insanely hot and humid and nasty weather wise, but we still had fun at the park the first day.

The heat just sapped all of Nora's energy, and she fell asleep in the swing

We went on a fun pirate cruise in Annapolis. All the kids had been excited to go on a boat, and the pirate part was supposed to be a fun surprise. Too bad we couldn't get reservations until 5, and then all the kids fell asleep on the drive there. Also, there was jet lag involved. The first half of the boat ride involved a lot of crying and refusing to participate. Eventually they all warmed up and really enjoyed the rest of it.

Bran and Nuala helped haul up the pirate treasure:

And then they each got to fill a bag with treasure.

T immediately started lining up each piece of treasure. She's been doing it all week at home too, I keep having to step over lines of treasure on the stairs.

It was a pretty cool cruise, the kids got to be pirates and help find where the treasure was buried in the water. They got to shoot water cannons at another 'pirate' and pull up some pirate 'grog' (ginger ale) from the water as well. The only lame part was that Nora had to pay full price, too. Really, guys? She's five months. We totally should have demanded a bag of treasure for her.

The next day we did some backyard swimming. This was around 9:30 in the morning. While we were out there sweating, Marc came out of the air conditioning to let us know it was already 100 degrees, with a heat index of 120 or something. It was pretty ridiculous. But, the kids were having fun, so we suffered through it ;)

We were going to go to a real pool on base as well, but they don't open til 11, and by then there was a lot of napping going on. Turns out it's kinda hard to coordinate leaving the house with 5 kids!

Maeve is so cute! Seriously, she is just so happy and cute, I loved sitting at the dinner table with her, she would just randomly wave at people, with a big, cute smile. Love her.

And she looooved holding Nora. Nora did not love it so much.

They're just about exactly a year apart.

I know they'll absolutely love this picture one day:

We had to get some last minute cousin shots. These were the best we could come up with.

Auntie Fiona inspired us to be more adventurous with the girls' hair:

And Nora's just cute here:

And here too:

T was coloring this morning, and was just absent-mindedly singing to herself while she colored. Of course we thought it was so cute, so Marc tried to get a video of it without her noticing.

Monday morning from Tara Milligan on Vimeo.

And, one last picture of T. That's her little hair accessory holder, it's supposed to have three little drawers in it. I have no idea how she got in there, but she was freaking out about not being able to get out. I couldn't get her out either, so I had to carry her down like that to get help from Marc. We got her out eventually (obviously), but it definitely took some work. She's a crazy girl.