Oh Mr Sandman

Last weekend the Grenko clan headed back to the beach.  Claire was stoked to hang with her cousins.

 She learned a new trick...

 How to climb on chairs.

 We spent all of Saturday afternoon hanging out on the beach.

 While Claire chowed down on some sand.

 And went for a walk with Daddy.

 She also played in the sand with Grace.

I think she got a little jealous Grace was so distracted by the sand.

She just had to climb up on her lap to play.  It was the cutest.

After playing in the sand for a while we headed down to the water to cool off a little bit.

Claire was on the move.  She had a blast crawling all over the place with no destination.  She just crawled and crawled.

And of course stopped to eat some sand.

The girl just loves sand.

Ooh that bite didn't taste too good.

Claire had a very busy day at the beach.  She even figured out how to climb up on chairs there.

Saturday night we headed up to the boardwalk for some rides!  It was a picture perfect night so we had to stop for a quick photo op...and by quick I mean about 100 pics later we finally got a shot with all 4 kiddies smiling for the camera.  It was worth it though :)

 Then they hammed it up with Nana making silly faces.  Love this one.

Once the little models were done with their photo session we finally got to hit up the rides.  We took Claire on one of Grace and Maddie's all time favorites, the Hot Air Balloons.  Claire seemed a little bored at first..

But after a quick chat...

She was pumped.

And I THINK she had a great time.  I really underestimated the stomach turning-ness of the balloons.  I mean it's a kids ride, right?  Well as soon as it started I grabbed on to Claire as tight as I could as we spun in circles while simultaneously going up and down.  It was a lot nuttier than I remembered. Luke was a first timer who seemed to have under estimated the ride as well.  I was so concerned with Luke's worried look across his face that I forgot to check out Claire.   According to Daddy on the sidelines though, she seemed to have a blast so maybe Daddy can take her on the Hot Air Balloons next time :)


Sunday, we spent the morning climbing some stairs.

 The girl is getting fast.

She's not walking yet but she's getting close.  She can stand on her own for quite a while.

And will even take a few steps towards us but she still has some work to do before she's moving on her own.


After a bit of exercise, it was time for a quick dip in the ocean. 

 And some QT with Daddy.

 And Mommy.

 AND Grammy and Pop who trekked down the shore to spend the whole day with the little lady.

It was a perfect weekend.

The weekends are just too short

As you might be able to guess from the title, the weekend flew by so fast I didn't even have a chance to take many pics.  

Mommy and Daddy got to go to a beautiful wedding on Saturday (Congrats Michael and Stephanie!!  We had such a blast as I'm sure everyone could tell :))  So Nana came down and hung with the little munchkin while we were gone.  She was happy to see her as always.

On Sunday, we hung at Grammy and Pop's and got to spend some time with Uncle Paul while he was in town.  Claire and her best bud Lilly had a blast doing what they love to do...climbing the steps.  I'm sure Aunt Laura had just as much fun...

They played...

And ate some toys.

And took a little snack break with some pretzel rods.

Don't even think about taking mine.

And just like that, it was Monday :(

On a happier note, Claire was super cute and smiley waiting for Grammy to come pick her up in the morning.  We play outside for a few minutes while we're waiting.  Claire usually sings really loud to try to wake the neighbors.  I'm sure they think it's just as cute as I do :)  Anyway, I finally brought the camera out with me and took a pic of the cutie patootie in her jammies.  I really need more of these - something so cute to me about babies in pajamas.

To make up for my lack of pics this week, I uploaded a video of the little character hanging out back.  She was yapping up a storm before I started the video (of course) but you can still hear her babbling a little bit.  If you can bear with me to the end of the video, you'll see a pretty good wave and a close "Bye Bye" from Claire.  Enjoy!

Hot, hot, hot!

It was a hot weekend in Philadelphia.  And we would know because we spent the ENTIRE day outside on Sunday.  We started with some shopping bright and early.  Claire tried to keep cool in the shade of her stroller with some water and goldfish...but it was still hot.

On our way back from Macy's we happened upon the best parade I've ever been to (although that doesn't say much considering I can count on one hand how many parades I've been to but regardless...it was a really great parade) - the LGBT pride parade.  Claire wasn't so sure at first when she heard the gang of motorcycles revving down the street starting the parade.

But there were a ton of great floats with beautiful decorations and colors, lots of great music, singing, and dancing and LOTS of embellished costumes.  

There were even rainbow colored poodles!

Claire had a blast.  She was smiling and clapping and waving to everyone.  

It was so much fun we watched the whole thing even though we were sweating our butts off!  From there we walked back down Walnut and did some more shopping.  Then we headed home and just so happened to stumble across another festival, O'Dunde (African American New Year).  They had all sorts of tents with beautiful clothing and jewelry and a big stage set up a few blocks from our house with an African band and dancers.  They were really jammin'.  I don't know how they did it in that heat - they were really moving.  God bless them.

After being out for over 4 hours we finally made it home.  But the fun didn't stop there.  We got our bathing suits on and enjoyed our luxurious $9 pool in the backyard/patio.  No matter how hot it was outside, that water was brrrr cold.  Claire didn't know what to think of the outdoor bathtub at first.

We SLOWLY put our toesies in to get warmed up. 

Claire was definitely hesitant and didn't want to let go of Mommy at first but, as always, Daddy got Claire into the partying mood and had her splashing and giggling in no time.

 I love how she looks up at him :)

 And always tries to grab the camera.

 $9 well spent :)

  

Biker Babe

Last week Claire enjoyed a spaghetti dinner.  Thankfully, we were wise enough to strip her down before letting her feed herself.  Needless to say, she loved it.

But what a mess.

Friday night, we celebrated Grammy's birthday with a little bbq...and of course some cake :)

Claire got to hang with her buddy, Lilly.

Who also loves Mommy's necklaces just as much as Claire does.

On Saturday, we headed back down to the beach.  This time we took the little lady for her first bike ride.  Turns out, they don't really make helmets for 10 month olds.

"What the heck dad?  How am I supposed to see?"

Claire spent most of her time on the bike trying to lift her helmet up so that she could see what a gorgeous day it was.

I tried really hard to get some good action shots but it was kind of hard to do while riding a bike myself (especially since I'm not the most coordinated).  This was the best shot I got.  Wish you could see Claire's face...

because she really had a blast smiling and singing the whole time.  

Right up until she fell asleep.  Yep, she fell asleep on the bike.  Not sure what I was thinking not taking a pic of that but we'll definitely be taking her for more bike rides so hopefully I can capture that super cute moment next time.


On Sunday, we headed to the beach.  Claire was so happy to be back.

She played in the sand, jumped some waves, and took a nice long nap while listening to the ocean.

Woke up an hour and a half later and then played some more.

After the beach, I got to hang with the cutie patootie for a little bit while everyone got ready for the boardwalk.

It was such a gorgeous night.  You can't tell from this picture but the moon was huge...even though it looks like a little speck.

We had such a great weekend and are already counting down the days until we go back.