Canada Day!

Our Canada Day was lovely this year. Rarely does a day that I have planned live up to expectation. This one did!

We started out with the small community parade not far from where my parents live. Since the city amalgamation, it is evident that there is even less money for it and it was tiny. We enjoyed it, though, and as soon as Pk heard the bagpipes, she started practicing her highland dance. Both kids had on their Canada Day shirts.

Gran and Momis (my parents) came with us. Dad managed to (mostly) hide his disdain for politicians of certain persuasions (I struggled with that, he refused to shake the hand of the politician representing a certain party and that bothered me considerably). Pk loved having them there.
Pk sat in "the" chair at "the" parade (if I looked, I am sure I could find many photos of me in that chair at the same parade back in the late 1970's).



Like all good Canadians, we had to include a visit to Tim Horton's. I am embarrassed to say that Pk can recognize their sign and immediately asks for timbits. My mother was in awe of the speed and glee with which Baby Bean polished off a whole-wheat raspberry muffin.
I managed to strike one item off my summer list. We took the kids to the wading pool at the end of my parents' street. A great time was had by all. Pk was put off by the cold water at first but in the hot sun, it quickly began to warm up and the sun made the cold water feel very refreshing.
We had to use up some time at the park beforehand since the guy who was supposed to open the pool didn't show up and his replacement was over an hour late. We tried, in vain, online to find the opening and closing times on the city website. You can certainly see evidence of cuts already from the new mayor (who my husband loves to call "Boss Hogg" as he does bear a strong resemblance in both appearance and ethics).






We wound up the day exactly as I had hoped - Pk and I went to our town fireworks. Daddy stayed home with Baby Bean since we didn't think he would be so keen on either the fireworks or the fact of being out at 10 p.m. Pk and I had a blast. For a smallish town, they were great. Needless to say, we were asked to sing, "O Canada" before they began and I cried like a baby - I wouldn't say I am a huge nationalist or anything but there's something about a large group of people singing that gets me every time.


I hope you had a lovely day and that your summer is filled with fun. For my American friends, best wishes for your July 4th celebrations!