June 2023
Summer, but with more clouds
Stand Up Paddleboarding
Nara basically missed her birthday party -
she was so busy with Science Fair that we didn't have a friends
birthday party. I felt bad about that so we picked a day for
a "redo" where she could do an activity with her friends.
She picked Stand up Paddleboarding and found a few friends that
were available for an afternoon paddle.
While the kids have been on Paddleboards once before on a field
trip, we didn't have a lot of confidence that her and her friends
going out with supervision would lead to everyone with a smile on
their face at the end of day. The
Yew Lake, Cypress Provincial Park
I was
hoping for a lot of alpine flowers but a lot of the ground was still
covered in snow so plants were just getting started.
We saw butterflies fighting and with a bit
of patience noticed to find them perching or eating mud when they
weren't beating each other up.
Nara spotted an animal swimming in a pond and with more of a look at
it, we realized it was a salamender.
Claira's Birthday Party
Claira wanted a larger birthday this year - she invited 10
kids - and she wanted a pool party. Sadly, the end of June
is a hard time to have a birthday party as a lot of families get
an early "beat the rush" summer vacation trip and are actually
already gone. Pre-COVID, there were a number of public pools
that offered "birthday party" packages where you would get a
dedicated party room and a package of admission tickets.
That went away during COVID and it doesn't appear to have
returned. The best we found was South Arm Outdoor Pool in
Richmond - a great outside pool with waterslides and picnic tables
if you get there early enough. Plan in motion!
We left the house at 10:30 to pick up
balloon and then arrive at the pool before it opened. At
11:45 (pool opens at noon) there was a line up of people with
coolers, chairs and boxes full of costco treats. We got a
table, but not the ideal shade spot. We spent almost half an
hour bringing in things (goodie bags, camping chairs, cooler and
more) from the car. At 1pm kids showed up and they knew
exactly what to do in the pool.
Pizza Hut was 30 minutes late on delivery so our 2:15 snack turned
into 2:45 and there wasn't much time after cake got served.
The kids got some last minute slides in and then got changed for
pick up at 4pm.
I know when a guest says "best birthday ever", they are doing it
to make the host parents feel less awful, but it's still nice to
hear. Too bad we didn't wear a bit more sun screen!
Tags: Cypress Provincial Park(5), butterfly(2), water park(2), water slide(2), snow(1), trail(1)
People: Claira(4), Nara(2)
From: John Harvey Photo > Blogs for 2024 to 2005 > June 2023
Last Modified Monday, June 26th, 2023 at 21:40:54 Edit
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