What a great relief it was, for the sun to appear after days of rain!  The sunshine was a treat for the kids attending the Nature Photography for Kids workshop held at Burnaby Lake this past weekend.

Many photo opportunities for the kids at Burnaby Lake – a beaver appeared, swimming back and forth in front of the young photographers as they snapped away with their cameras.

There was also a green bush with many lady bugs!

And just as many squirrels who were willing to pose for the camera.

Afterwards, the kids printed their favorite photos, which are currently on display at the Burnaby Lake Nature House.

Event: Annual Stoney Creek Salmon Send-off
Where: Stoney Creek Burnaby
When: May 9th, 11am – 3pm

Kiri Kids was there, proud to be a part of the Annual Stoney Creek Salmon Send-off in Burnaby. What a beautiful sunny day here at Stoney Creek.

There’s tons of fun things to do before we head over to the creek to release some salmon.

With a small donation, everyone receives a certificate, and gets to release some baby salmon.

Quite a line-up! Woopie, off the go baby salmon. Hope you return soon to spawn!

Event: A Baby Shower for The Survival Guide for Rookie Moms
Where: Baby’s World Coquitlam
When: May 4th from 7pm – 9pm

We were thrilled when @rookiemommy contacted  and invited us to sponsor their Baby Shower and Book Launch event. We know right away that we want to be involved and show support for this wonderful guide.

“The Survival Guide for Rookie Moms” is great for any first-time moms. It’s priceless to have someone share their physical experience and advice candidly. It’s good to know there’s a guide out there to support any first-time moms so there’s no need to panic.

Cupcakes, fine cheese, wine and chocolates, I was in heaven.

I picked up a copy of the guide for my girlfriend who is expecting her first baby next month. Thank you Erica for signing it, making it an even more special gift.

Our donation is a Kiri Octopus Baby Longsleeve Onesie, and a Kiri Whale Baby Hat – Grass Green. All the proceeds from the raffle are donated to BC Children’s Hospital Foundation. Even though Veronica and I didn’t win any raffle prizes, we are glad we could help that way.

Breezy sunny afternoon on Sunday April 24th, 2010, it’s EarthFest 2010 hosted by Wildlife Rescue Association of BC. We rounded up our friends and family for an afternoon of nature education, food, music and birdbox/beebox making.

We are greeted by the friendly miss Harrier!

Eventhough I have taken many walks around Burnaby Lake, I have never been to the pavilion here. There’s a mini dock for canoeing. I got a closer look of the lake and the swamp, where many birdboxes are occupied by the elegant blue swallow.

There are lots of interesting booths to check out. Many of them you get to touch and feel. Wings, bones, fur, nests. The most interesting thing me was seeing the furry owl droppings, they look just like a giant lint ball. Owls can’t digest completely what they eat, so they poop them out. Too bad I don’t have a picture for that. Moving on!

There were hotdogs, free Tim Horton’s coffee and donuts. Kids were busy constructing their very own bird/bee boxes, which were surely the most popular thing. By the time I wanted to make one, they already ran out.

The highly anticipated raffle draws were also popular with many great prizes, including our very own Kiri Koi T-shirt.

We wrapped up the day enlightened, and stuffed with Tim Horton’s donuts. And we hope you will join us next time for another nature event.

For more information about Wildlife Rescue Association of BC and sponsoring them, please visit http://www.wildliferescue.ca/

Wildlife Rescue Association of British Columbia will be hosting its 2nd annual nature festival – EarthFest 2010 at the Burnaby Lake Pavilion. This free event will offer unique opportunities for people of all ages to have fun while learning about our local environment. The day’s events include local stewardship booths, live music performed by local artists, a nature walk, bird and bee box-making, invasive plant removal, raffle draws, games, snacks & refreshments.

EarthFest 2010

Sunday, April 25th, 2010
Time: 11 a.m. – 3 p.m.
Fee: FREE
Location: Burnaby Lake Pavilion, Burnaby, BC Directions & Map
Event Schedule here

Kiri Kids is donating this Swimming Koi design Longsleeve T-shirt (L) for Kids to the raffle draws. we will be at the event, looking forward to the nature walk and bird box-making. Hope to see you all there, if not, we’ll blog about the event, so do come back and read more.

It all started with a whale watching adventure in Tofino, B.C. a few years back.

It was quite the experience. It was a beautiful clear day, and our captain said to look for a ‘sprout ‘of water on the horizon.

After sailing for about an hour our captain stopped all engines and we quietly floated in the deep blue ocean with our eyes searching for water sprouts. Suddenly, one of our passengers spotted something in the horizon

so we started up our boat and sailed towards that direction. And again we stopped all engines and quietly floated.

Soon we heard a loud spraying sound behind us. We turned around and there was another sprout. The captain said it seemed like 2 humped back whales.

A magnificent sight indeed! They were quite playful and started circling the boat unusually close – very curious yet shy – an adult and a young.

They circled and played going under, surfacing and spraying us for about 20 minutes and then started to swim off into the distance.

After this truly extraordinary encounter, we were in awe of these magnificent gentle giants of the sea. Being right next to them was an unbelievable experience and on our way back it came upon us that there is a very real possibility that in the future not many people will be lucky to have such an extraordinary experience as we just did.

It’s in our own interest to help care, conserve and protect these beautiful creatures and their natural habitats. Wouldn’t we want our next generations to be able to experience the same joy that we just experienced, having come in such close proximity to such gracious beauty that nature has to offer?

It is with this new inspiration that we started Kiri Kids Clothing and we named our whale ‘Kiri’.