Beach Week

Eleanor and Henry had a great week visiting the beach with Grandpa and Grandma, Auntie Susan, Uncle B, Mackenzie, Jack and Ben. They both loved the beach – making sand creations and playing with the waves. The water was a little too cold for either one to want to really get in and swim, but they liked it when Mom and Dad held them and walked out a bit. Henry loved to have someone help him dump buckets of water into the sand, and to walk in Grandma’s sand tunnels. Eleanor really liked making sand cupcakes. Neither one loved the splash park, Eleanor just watched, and Henry and Dad went in, but the jets were a bit too powerful for him. He liked it best when Dad covered the jet with his foot and then he could play in the spray. For non-water activities, the carousel was definitely a favorite, along with watching the many passenger and freight trains roll by.

Eleanor had her first try with regular size Legos when Ben shared his Ninja Turtle set. Eleanor really liked finding the pieces to match the instruction book, but she didn’t have much luck putting them together. She also enjoyed a ride on Molly the pony (not pictured :( ) and running in the grass with Mackenzie. We celebrated Eleanor’s birthday as well, which she really enjoyed, but she only had one tiny bite of her birthday cupcake, because she said she was “all full”. She loved the Barbie dolls and dogs that she got for her birthday, and immediately tried to put as many layers of clothes on the dolls as possible. She also loved the “baby Zozo” twins with their bunk beds, and was sweet enough to share one of the twin dolls with Henry – who slept with it for the rest of the trip. Speaking of sleeping, Monkey spent almost the entire trip “sleeping” on a red pillow in Grandma and Grandpa’s room. Eleanor would go up and check on her periodically, and ask Grandma to sing to her at night if she got lonely. One day, Grandma borrowed the pillow that Monkey was sleeping on, and for the rest of the trip Eleanor kept asking Grandma why she had taken Monkey’s pillow, and to please not do it again. Ha!

Henry got his first extended playtime with matchbox cars with Jack and Ben and safe to say he is hooked. He would grab the cars and take them over to Jack or Ben and then sit down and watch them roll the cars down the long hallway. He also loved listening for trains, and would run to the window anytime he heard one. His favorite animal on the carousel was the giraffe, even though it didn’t go up and down. It took me a little while to figure it out because he kept making and elephant noise when I asked him what he wanted to ride, but when I put him on the elephant, he shook his head no and pointed to the nearby giraffe. I’m not sure why he thinks they make the same noise…

When we got back home, Lala came over for a birthday celebration with Eleanor – and gave her some fun new Groovy Girls and a bed. Eleanor was especially excited about the one in a ladybug costume, which she named Eleanor and immediately added a red polka dot dress on top of the costume.