We stayed local this year for Canada’s birthday.

Our day started with a bang (literally) as a local historical society staged a mock sea battle with period costumes, loud artillery and boats.

It changed pace as we checked out some of the attractions.

D and P loved the dog show, the snakes and the marshmallow guns I bought them.  I loved the girls in the pretty dresses, so much so that I quietly commented that sometimes I wished the boys had been girls so that I could dress them up in fancy duds.  OOPS!  That set off some indignation on their part and some recanting of remarks on mine.

We divided our time between what was happening downtown and an invitation by DA’s parents to join them for dinner.

The pre-dinner activities included a hunt for frogs at the local pond.

We saw them but we didn’t nab any.

We did find some wild strawberries though.

We also saw a great blue heron

some fossils

and a giant pike.

(That’s P looking over the dock into the water at it.)

Our time outside (or maybe the spotting of that giant pike) made the boys want to go fishing.  Uncle G was happy to help them out.  P caught a perch and DA caught a pike.

(That’s Uncle G showing off the pike his brother caught.)

The night ended with fireworks.  DA planned it perfectly.  We got there about 30 seconds before the fireworks started and parked far enough away that we weren’t stuck in a horrible parking jam afterwards.  It just started raining as we hopped in the car.

Going local was quite a different flavour from last year’s Canada Day on Parliament Hill but it was one that we all quite liked and one I’m sure we’ll sample some more in years to come.