Ezra’s seventh birthday turned into a week long celebration.
Navan Fair
It’s not often that we are in town for the Navan Fair so we headed there for opening night. We told Sierra and Ezra that they each had $20 to spend. None of them chose rides and we mostly stuck around the game section which was fun. I also appreciate that every game has a winner. I don’t remember growing up with that, but perhaps I’m wrong?
We also managed to find a great spot to check out the demolition derby! We stayed there for the first heat and it was loads of fun. There was a fellow by the name of Dr. John who was 77 years old who won the heat. Sounds like he is a bit of a local legend.
Shannon and Maureen’s Cottage
Next up, we ventured out to Shannon and Maureen’s cottage which is on Jim’s Lake in the Pontiac Region. I don’t believe I have ever driven up through the Pontiac. It’s a nice area and I feel it’s a mix of English and French communities considering the names I saw.
It’s been years that I have been out of cellphone range so I had to think about things like saving photos of directions to my phone. Turns out that if I load up Google Maps before leaving the cellphone area, it just keeps the map loaded with directions. I had forgotten about that.
After unpacking, we hit the lake and went tubing. The kids didn’t seem interested at first. But once we heard mention of heading back to the dock, I jumped into the water to get a taste of the lake and the kids quickly jumped in after me. They had a great time on the tub, even though it had popped and held half the air. They were having a fun time trying to stay afloat.
Shannon and Maureen live in Petawawa which is a little over and hour away. The property they bought years ago had a cottage further from the lake, and an unfinished one near the lake which they have been working on over the years. It’s pretty neat considering it has solar and propane as well as Starlink internet. I could get used to the place!
That night we had a great feast, and I played guitar while getting eaten alive by the black flies and mosquitoes. I also had a bit of a scare when I connected to the internet and noticed that my sump pump alarm had sent me a notification. I had a neighbour check it out and the crisis was averted as it was just a small leak in the cut off valve.
The next day we went fishing in the afternoon. The first time we went out, a massive thunderstorm pushed us off the lake so we raced back home. The afternoon, it got sunny again and we got to experience some amazing bass fishing. You don’t even need live bait to tempt these fish to eat your lure! We caught nine fish in an hour and headed back home. Sierra caught quite a few of those. That reminds me…I owe her $3 for catching the first fish, the biggest fish and the most fish!
A fish must have tried to escape the bucket!
A nice fish fry was had before a massive thunderstorm forced us inside for the rest of the night.
The next day we had a great breakfast and hit the road. Thank you to the Gramann family for hosting us!
Mini putt
On Monday, Ezra woke up to a Minecraft themed decorated living room full of balloons and creepers. Sierra also made a scavenger hunt full of clues leading him to various birthday gifts.
In the afternoon, we headed to an indoor mini putt course that he was excited to try out. It was pretty neat with the glow in the dark paint!
That evening we had some shepperd’s pie and a lemon pie with whipped cream, as requested. It was yummy!
Trip to Montreal
You can read about our trip to Montreal here.
The end
I would say we had a happy Ezra after a week of birthday activities!