June 2018
We do visit Granville Island a Lot
Vancouver International Children's Festival
Granville Island has held a children's
festival for as long as I remember - every year for a week, the
parking went from bad to just terrible. The festival has
actually been going for roughly 40 years. We were down at
Granville Island because of a class at the rec center and the kids
wanted to go into the play area. Saturday we were busy, but
Sunday we went.
There is a face painting tent with about
20 people paining faces. I've never seen so many painters
all in the same place. Claira picked a tricky picture so
there was a bit of a wait.
Next up was a ball pit on a large scale - yoga balls! About
8 kids go in at a time and it's a giant scavenger hunt for the
balls marked "Sun" and "Moon". Nara got pretty good at it -
Claira really enjoyed hiding and the effect of the static
electricity on her hair.
One of the local music stores (Long and
McQuade) runs a Musical Petting Zoo - a large tent full of
instruments that the kids can try out. The kids started with
the stringed instruments and gave them a pretty good try!
The main attraction were the electronic drum sets. These
kits comes with headphones so the kids can bash as much as they
want and they don't bother other people. The kids though it
was almost magic to smack the rubber pads and yet hear strong drum
sounds on their headphones.
And of course their are crafts!
The project was a bird tied together with
ribbon. There were feathers you could glue on and lots of
markers to color your bird. What really impressed me was all
of the volunteers! A whole bunch of high school students
were behind the tables helping the kids through the various
stages. It was really nice to see the kids helping kids.
First Time This Year at the Water Park
Living near Granville Island means you can
walk down, have an activity and walk home all in the same
hour. The water park open after the May long weekend so we
brought bathing suits. You know it's a bad sign when you
have to ask the staff to turn on the water slide. Nara had
three slides, Claira just one before they got too cold.
The park has new hoses this year so the spray goes a lot
farther. Unfortunately Claira got soaked with the large
fountain and it ended her day. The kids had lunch at the
picnic table and we went home.
Richmond Night Market
It's been something like a decade since I've last been to the
Richmond Night Market. Years ago the show split and
there were two competing markets and neither did well. We
are back to a single night market and it seems to be doing quite
well. We parked outside (there was a 45 minute line up to
get into the free parking lot) and waited perhaps 20 minutes to
pay our admission fee (4.25 each adult, kids were free).
The attractions have gotten much
fancier. They had a giant pool with paddle boats - 10
dollars for a roughly a 10 minute paddle. While the kids did
get life jackets, they weren't CSA certified and we missing straps
so I don't know how effective they would have been. The kids
had a good time.
The real attraction is the food.
Each food stall makes between three and a dozen different things,
generally from place in Asia. While there are a lot of
classic food stall food (bubble tea, curry fish balls), there are
also lot of fusion items such as waffles with Asian fruits or
tornado potatoes.
Our kids picked the most safe thing
possible - waffles (in an interesting shape that lends itself to a
skewer) with chocolate, thin slices strawberries and some powdered
sugar. They were about 7 dollars a serving.
The market also has product stalls (think
socks, phone repair and silly knives) and a few stalls had these
balloons with lights ($10 each). The kids walked home with a
pair.
Clairas' Gymnastics Photo Day
Claira's gymnastics is near the end of their term. They had
a "Hawaii" themed day that includes an opportunity for parents to
take photos of their kids.
Crab Park Before Chinese Class
It was a beautiful day and the kids were
going a bit squirrelly at home (Helen was working) so we decided
to go to Crab Park before we went to Chinese class. The
parking situation is a bit dire (it's really better to bike if you
can), but we paid and got parking. The kids really enjoyed
some time on the playground in the warm sun.
Crab park has a great view of Canada Place where the cruise ships
dock. At this time of the year cruise ships are arriving and
going up to Alaska at a regular pace - almost every day there is a
large or small cruise ship changing over for a new cruise.
Keira and Kaylee's Birthday
Keira and Kaylee are my cousin's
daughters. They happen to have the same birthday 2 years
apart. Their mother, my cousin kindly invited us to their
birthday party at Queens park in New West. Marcus and James
were also invited so the four kids played together for a few
hours.
Queens Park has a lot of attractions in a small area. They
have a lot of playground including a two story climbing
structure. The kids like to play grounders (a variation on
tag) but unfortunately Claira had a tough time getting out of
"it".
Queens park also has a nice petting zoo.
Thanks again to Sonia and her family for inviting us!
Claira's Birthday
This year Claira wanted to go to the Adventure Zone at Granville
Island for her birthday. We have held so many birthdays here
that the staff know us by name and we knew to book it a few months
in advance.
Crawling in the play gym with the kids is getting tricky.
The kids are bigger and faster and they don't always see having a
parent around as being helpful. I stuck around with some of
the younger kids, but the older kids did their own thing.
Claira really wanted a chocolate plaque that said Happy Birthday -
it turned into a special order. Getting 2 dozen cupcakes at
10am on a Sunday is actually a bit tricky - most of the cupcake
places don't open that early or can't provide the numbers that
early. We wound up going with whole foods who had no problem
with the special order.
After the birthday party, we went out to the water park to play
around before coming home.
You sometimes don't appreciate the nature
in your back yard. In the summer it's not unusual to see a
dragon fly float by the sidewalks around our condo. Down at
Granville Island there are a few freshwater ponds where the
dragonflies likely grow up before they get to the flying
stage. While I got some photos of an insect perched, I was
able to watch another animal laying eggs in the water.
Considering it's an international tourist attraction, it's nice to
see wildlife finding a way.
Let the kids go at a water park and they
can figure out what to do. The water is never "warm" so they
do limit their time actually getting wet.
We brought towels, dried the kids off and walked home.
Claira's Ballet Class
Nara took Ballet when she was younger but
the teach moved so the classes stopped. Claira wanted to as
well and we finally found a class available at the Granville
Island Community Center. Her last class of the spring
semester was today and they let parents in to see them
dance. Her class was less than half full - I suspect many
families were out of town for Canada Day.
The kids had two dance numbers. First
they did Sleeping Bunnies where they started by lying down and
then "woke up" and hopped around until the song told them to lie
down again.
The next dance was a bit more
choreographed. The kids had practices but the instructor was
behind us reminding them of the of the moves.
Tags: Granville Island(6), ballet(6), Richmond Night Market(6), gymnastics(4), paddle boat(4), water park(4)
People: Claira(37), Nara(21), Marcus(9), James(4)
From: John Harvey Photo > Blogs for 2024 to 2005 > June 2018
Last Modified Saturday, January 28th, 2023 at 22:54:13 Edit
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