A unusual birthday party

Mr A turned 11 this week.

As the school year started this week too, so there wasn't much time to organise a party.

In our garage were sacks of milk cartons from a rafting challenge last April that was indefinitely shelved after his Dad was rushed to hospital in an ambulance.

I happened to take the dogs for a walk on Friday near the river and realised that the conditions were great for building and then mucking about in the water.
So we sent out messages and gathered 6 boys for a raft building party.

They tied 4 broom handles into a frame and then tied bundles of 2litre milk cartons to it.

And my goodness! It worked!
It worked so well that they decided to move to the deeper, but still relatively calm waters further downstream. They all "boyhandled" the raft along the side of the river, with expert advice offered by a couple of older sisters.

This photo is part of the fun they had getting on and off the surprisingly robust raft. It looks like those clove hitches and lashings Mr A learnt at cubs and taught his mates were the real deal!