June 2014
Summer has a Lot of Photo Worthy Activities - 1268 photos this
month.
Reifel Bird Sanctuary
The
Reifel
Bird Sanctuary has something attractive for every
demographic. The sell bird feed cheap so the kids love
it. They host a number of exotic (and seemingly wild) birds
- it's an easy place to get close to Sandhill cranes. The do
a great job maintaining the paths so it's a nice for an early
morning stroll. And they must be doing something right
because the place is full of birds, even birds that don't eat the
feed they give out.
There are two populations of Sandhill
cranes - the breeding pairs (which are very territorial right now
because they have eggs or chicks) and the juveniles which are out
cruising for food all day. The Juveniles aren't to be messed
with either - they have no problems giving other birds a beak full
of opinion and I'm sure if they weren't respected, they would lash
out at you too. The Canada geese are more of a problem for
kids - they will bite little people and they can be pocket bullies
if you have a bag of food. You can't blame them - they all
have families, but you do have to watch.
I personally like the park past the gate area where the crowds are
thinner and the big birds are a little sparser. I saw a new
bird for me - Marsh Wrens. These little brown jobbies are
very vocal and apparently prolific nest builders - the males build
more than a dozen in their territory to demonstrate their fitness.
It's been a warm spring so the flowers are growing like mad.
With the plants come Tent Caterpillars - Nara didn't want to touch
one, but she enjoyed trying to find their houses.
If there weren't so many birds, perhaps
people would appreciate the flowers more.
We all had a great time.
Mmm, Raspberry Fingers
Every kids does this - put raspberries on
your finger tips. Nara did it so I took a photo.
Stanley Park Train
Apparently it's the 50th Anniversary of
the Stanley Park Miniature Train. The park had a three day
special event to commemorate the event. We were pretty early
in the morning and got perhaps the last spot in the last parking
lot - I thought it would park would be nuts. Turns out there
was another event (a sports event) in Stanley Park that took all
the parking so the train event had short lineup and lots of open
space.
The ticket booth (no line up!) had a bubble machine on the roof
and Claira apparently really likes bubbles! Claira is in
daycare so we don't see everything she likes or has learned how to
do - sometimes you just discover. Turns out she likes
bubbles.
Almost no line up, we got on the train and went
for the tour. The ride is maybe 10 minutes and actually
loops around about three times. They have lots of displays
set up and a few "natural" features like a trestle over a
pond. The kids were captivated.
There were other displays and games to play. A giant sized
ring toss was fun. The reptile rescue people had some
animals on display including a tortoise bigger than the
kids.
Grandma's House
We sometimes head out to Grandma's house for
dinner and a play on the stairs. (We don't have any stairs
in our condo). Claira and Nara both like to play with the
exercise ball and getting a little free baby sitting is always a
nice thing for the parents. Reality - both kids fell down
the stairs while three non-parents watched. No serious
bumps.
Theresa's garden is beautiful this time of
the year - the peony's are just finishing and the roses are in
bloom.
Nara's Ballet Class
Nara's final ballet class of the spring
session is today. Her class normally has 8 kids but today
there was only four. Thankfully it was a pretty bright day
ourside and the lights in the studio were working so I was able to
get some sharp pictures.
The teacher has structured the class into a number of 5
minutes segments culminating with a stroll towards the audience
and a curtsey at the end. None of the kids follow all the
directions but overall they do a good job of ballet type
activity. The ribbon part is good for photos because the
ribbons encourage the kids to run and twirl giving more
opportunties to get nice poses.
Granville Island Water Park
Normally I bring both kinds down but
Claira threw a temper tantrum as we were leaving so she stayed
home with my Mom. Nara biked down and was very pleased to
find the water park was open. Even more surprising - Dad had
all the stuff to go play in the park. She got dressed
quickly and ran around.
I don't know what made Nara think of it,
but she decided to give the water slide a try. She's not
quite tall enough (perhaps 106cm) so she went down with me.
The jets of water at the start are really cold! It's
actually quite a nice slide - there are a couple of corners, there
seems to be lots of water pressure and the speed doesn't get to
high. Nara and I went down four times - I suspect we will be
spending more time on the slide this summer.
This weekend Helen is working so we stopped at the park by the
hospital for a picnic lunch. There is a playground there
that the kids like so after a quick lunch the kids went to
play. Claira seems to have mastered this equiptment - she
can walk up the slide and use the non-infant swings (they are very
low and have a rubber mat below them). Nara is working on
her monkey bar technique - Mom gave her a bit of demonstration.
Claira's Birthday
Claira
really has no idea it is her birthday, but we do so we had to make
a least a little bit of an effort to have a party. We
took the kids to the Play Palace in Kerisdale and then out of
dinner (and cake!) in the evening. Claira really likes cake
so I'm sure it was a good day for her overall.
The Play Palace is still a bit too grown up for our kids.
Claira enjoyed the obstacle course in the preschool area and liked
the plasma cars, but the bouncy castle toys weren't her thing.
Nara wanted to try the larger bouncy castles, but they were just too
high for here. Both kids played with the basketballs, but even
a game of pass was pretty much out of scope. Given that it was
a rainy Saturday after school ended, the arena filled up quickly and
the line ups started to get bad. Everyone did have a good
time.
Eric's Birthday
Someone observed that kids really need two
toys - balloons and boxes. Everything else is gravy.
When the kids arrived, everyone plays with the hosts toys (Xander
has a nice train set and a great collection of books) but Claira
found the balloon and pretty soon everyone was knocking around
with balloons. Haley started the static electricity balloons
(rubbing it on her Dad's head) and managed to stick a balloon to
the ceiling - an accomplishment the parents couldn't
reproduce. Every had a good time - thanks for hosting
Gabi/Eric/Xander!
Tags: Reifel Bird Sanctuary(7), ballet(6), water park(5), Kerrisdale Play Palace(5), Granville Island(4), Stanley Park(3)
People: Nara(21), Claira(17), Helen(4), Abby(2), Xander(2), Haley(2)
From: John Harvey Photo > Blogs for 2024 to 2005 > June 2014
Last Modified Saturday, January 28th, 2023 at 22:53:47 Edit
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