Annual Clemente BBQ

Some pictures from the annual Clemente Family BBQ.

Claire with the donkey (this is a tradition to have all the children pose with the donkey).
Claire and Zio Marc.

Claire upset that she is no longer the baby and Adam is.

The group shot. I love how Claire is still looking for me!

And I found this old shot from a few years ago. My things have changed!

Happy 5th Bday Thaiana

We celebrated my neice's 5th birthday today at Rainforest Cafe.

Claire enjoyed the scenery. She was scared first of the fish, then she was intrigued and tried to catch them!

Best buddies Thaiana and Mya making silly faces.

We went back to our place afterwards for some yummy melting ice-cream cake!

Indoor Playground

Since today was a rainy day, I decided to take Claire to the indoor playground where we'll be having her upcoming birthday party. It also gave me a good opportunity to "test it out" and see if Claire would enjoy the place. To say she enjoyed it is an understatement. There were a lot of kids there due to the weather so she was overloaded with little people to look at. She was so preoccupied I could hardly get her to look at the camera for pictures. Here she is breaking her neck to get a glimpse at the other kids.

Again, not looking at the camera, in a little pink car.

Inside the ball pit.

Going down the slide. She just loved this!

On the turtle rocker. Check out all those teeth!

And to top it off, she did the most walking I have ever seen. She was so inspired by the other kids and interesting toys to play with that it motivated her to move. She litterally walked across half of the room ALL ON HER OWN! Unfortunately I didn't film it, but it was incredible to see her go!

I ended up buying her a 12 visit play pass so that we can take her some more. We call it her summer gym pass!

3 km

As most of you know, we are doing a biggest loser couple competition against Marc & Joanne. To stay on top of the game, we enlisted the kids help and they took us out for a bike ride. The total distance was about 3km with half of the distance going uphill. My legs were killing afterwards, but it really paid off. Here we are all smiles before our ride.

Claire and Daddy. Claire was feeling a little self-conscious as she thought the helmet made her head look big.

Taking Steps Now

She is making progress!

Wonderland

I took the kids to Wonderland today. It was a beautiful day to be out. Somehow I didn't end up taking many pictures! Of the few I took, here are the kids heating up after some time in the wave pool. Gotta love Claire's new butterfly shades.

And taking a stroller break while waiting for big brother Isaac to come off a roller coaster.

We also had funnel cake and it was still as good as I remember.

We got seasons passes so I'll make sure to take more photos next time.

Strolling

This is her new thing - helping Mommy push the stroller. I let her do it a few nights ago when we went for a walk and now she expects to do this whenever we are out. She looks so cute walking down the street.

11 Month Milestone

I can't believe she's 11 months turning 1!! We are so excited yet sad at the same time. It's going by so quickly and we don't want her to get older. We just love our SWEET little girl so, so much!

Claire is a lover of Karen Katz' books. She loves opening the flaps herself now when we are reading to her. Or tearing them out of the books when she is reading to herself!

Not only do I have a thing for sunglasses on babies, I also have a thing for hats! Here she is in her new sun hat.

In 11 months, Claire never took to crawling but rather scooted about on her bum and shin with her palms just like a little chimp! It makes us laugh. This photo says call of the wild!

Most of all we love her smile and bright eyes. We are so glad she is here!

And the slideshow of months past:

Our Morning Rituals

Claire and I walk the neighbourhood in the morning before nap. It was a little cool and quite sunny this morning so here she is in her shades and jean jacket. She's just way too cool.

And the end of our walk we hit the park and I put her on the swings before we head home. She loves it so much that when she sees the park in view, she starts to point and squeal.

When she is on the swings I feed her sweet potato puffs so she'll hold her mouth open and I toss one in before she swings back. Then I'll ask for a hi-five and she'll put her hand up and she'll smack it every time she swings back and forth. She giggles the whole time.

This is the life!

When the City Strikes....

This is what happens. Critters find their way into the neighbourhood. This little guy - baby possum or large rat - sat in our neighbours driveway for over 2 hours. It was about the size of a small kitten and we think it was probably so scared to move that it was waiting for nightfall before it made its escape. I sent Anthony out to get a shot of it.

His fate was not well. Before we went to bed we went to check the driveway again to see if it left. Well, it played chicken with a car crossing the street and unfortunately lost.

We also saw a mouse run into our neighbours shed. Let's hope this strike is over soon and things start to get cleaned up. It'll be good for everyone!

Wreaking Havoc

This little scooter is trouble with a capital T. Who me? Yes you!

She's also cute with a capital C. Suri Cruise has nothing on Claire Clemente.

She loves rumaging through our cupboards in the kitchen.

What goodies do we have in here?

Mommy don't get mad at me. I love you Mommy! (She knows how to work it.)

Here she is startled when I caught her red-handed and up to no good again.

There is only so much you can let this little one get away with. So what happens to cute little girls when they don't listen to their Mommy? You get the naughty stool.

And even when she's being punished, she still looks cute!

Baloney!

Claire is not the only one who is a speedster. I got my first ever speeding ticket today. Apparently I was going 20 over in a 40 zone (no way, he caught me on a down hill so it wasn't intentional if I was speeding!). There goes my squeaky clean record!

Canada Day Morning

We had a great Canada Day this year. My neice stayed over the night before so we made sure to show her a good time.

We started off with a gourmet breakfast and then took the kids to the park. Here they are on the swings.

Claire holding on tightly. It was really cute to see her try to swing her legs to keep the momentum going.

Daddy and Claire.

Claire taking Daddy for a walk.

Mommy and Claire.

Isaac posing on the teeter-totter.

Claire sneaking for some snacks.

This was clearly a signal that it was lunch time so we took the kids to McDonald's.