The plan was that the girls would join their grandfather on a float in the Canada Day parade up at my parents. At the first, it seemed that everything was set. The girls were dressed in their orange and were eager to join grandpa on the Loyal Order of the Pumpkin Float. The parade started and….the float broke. We ended up with two sad girls BUT the day was salvaged.
After rescuing the girls from the broken down float, there were lollipops, burgers/hotdogs, fries and juice. We followed that up with an animal zoo (Elspeth got to touch a turtle!! Katrine held a snake! and we held nothing!), face painting, balloon animals and puppets. We discovered that Elspeth finds ventriloquist disconcerting… maybe even downright scary. The balloon animals were worth the wait because of the balloon artist. He had a duckling who he shared with the kids and he was a teacher on vacation so had a great ventriloquist with the kids. Elspeth pushed him by asking for a shark. In the end, both girls were delighted with their balloons. During face painting, Elspeth revealed that she has a blooming interest in superheros…could we have a future comicon attendee in our midst?
Then we ended the day with dinner out beside the harbour, sparklers and some time in the sprinkler. Oh, and Katine tried to teach her younger sister how to cartwheel…not there yet.  Inspite of the float debacle, it was a fun celebration.
