Sunday outing with Nan and Poppa

I wanted to post the last few pictures we took while Nan and Poppa were here. We had such a fun visit with them and I know the kids loved the extra love and cuddles. Maura loves having an audience and Nan and Poppa are an enthusiastic crowd. We can't wait to visit with them again soon, probably over Thanksgiving, which is really not very far away!
On Sunday morning, I came out to the kitchen to witness this scene: Maura was sitting very quietly and still in a chair and allowing Nan to french braid her hair. I almost fainted! For one thing, Maura is NEVER still. For the second, she hates to have her hair messed with. Brent and I have to beg and threaten just to get her hair brushed in the morning. Nan must have worked that grandmother magic, because the end result was an genuine french braid.

Maura looked so cute and so grown up with her french braid. It's really the first "little girl" hairstyle that we've achieved. The best I can usually do is a hair bow or two barrettes. Occasionally she'll indulge me with some pigtails. I'll have to see if we'll ever be able to achieve the level of cooperation to repeat this hairstyle.
Maura LOVED having Patton and Lucy around. She was certainly the center of attention at breakfast. These dogs aren't stupid and they knew where to park themselves to gain a quick snack.
Maura loved it because her current favorite book is called "Bittle" and it's about a little girl who has a dog and cat who sit under her highchair and wait for handouts. She thought it was hilarious when we called her Bittle.
After church, Nan and Poppa treated us to a lunch out to celebrate Brent's birthday. Nan took Maura to look at the lobsters.
One of the servers actually got a lobster out of the tank for Maura and some other kids to get a closer look. They even got to pet it! Maura thought it was so cool.

Checking out the big lobsters.
Maura loved petting the antennae. Notice her pearls. Nan bought them for her because they were similar to a necklace of Nan's that Maura liked. She looks like such a lady wearing pearls!
Somehow the server caught wind of the fact that we were celebrating a birthday(even though that birthday was a month ago!) and she brought over the ice cream and did the embarrassing singing thing. Brent, who had pigged out on shrimp and ordered his own dessert, allowed Maura to eat his celebratory ice cream.
Is this girl happy or what!! She loves her ice cream! She managed to eat the entire bowl. I would expect nothing less from my child. She does come from good ice cream eating stock!!