Mothers Day and Lynne's Birthday

This is a combined blog post to recognize Mothers Day but also Lynne’s Birthday. To Lynne, the best mother I know, wishing you a great day, you sincerely deserve at least one day a year when we recognize all the things you do for us all. Thank you. This is not to detract from our warmest wishes to my Mum, Theresa and Lynne’s Mum, Pat; we love you both and continue to thank you for everything you did for us over the years.

Lynne’s birthday is next Saturday but since I’ll be travelling this week and next (Italy, Ireland, Germany), we celebrated last night. The girls and I continued our tradition of Carrot Cake and she was wonderfully surprised. The girls were actually a huge help this year. Happy Birthday Lynne. The scanned pictures below are a sampling of the various hand decorations Lynne received.

New Apple Trees

One of yesterdays activities was planting two new apple trees. Our Golden Delicious tree didn't survive the winter so Connor and I bought a replacement plus an additional one. We went for a slightly hardier varieties this time, a Haralson and Honeygold.

Gran has Arrived for First Trip of 2015

Gran has arrived for her first visit of the year. It was late last night when she arrived, pretty tired after her long day. Her flight was delayed almost 3 hours from London. Randy was a hero though since he had travelled to O’Hare to collect her so the delay was minimized for her. 

Thanks again Randy, shown below in a striking pose with the girls last month.

Favorite photo that didn’t get posted in March 2015

I’m starting a new series (lets see how long it lasts), it’s called: Favorite photo that didn’t get posted in XXX…Here is the first installment:

Favorite photo that didn’t get posted in March 2015:

Anja's 10th Birthday Celebration

Anja will be 10 years old on Tuesday so we had her birthday celebration yesterday. This year had much more of an “Anja flavor” to it, she just wanted her friends over for a sleepover with tacos for dinner, cupcake decorating and movies. So last night we had six girls camped out in the basement, giggling until late into the night. They all seemed to really enjoy it.

Thanks as always to all who came bearing gifts to celebrate with Anja and making it special for her. Thanks Mum for the dress, it was beautiful as always and Anne for the cupcakes, they were a big hit. Happy Birthday sweetheart, Mummy and Daddy love you.

Charleston, South Carolina

Lynne and I had a short getaway to Charleston, South Carolina for a very relaxing weekend. We both needed a day or two to recharge. Of course we still raced around the city and soaked in many of the city’s historic sites in addition to managing a theatre performance on each night. 

We have long wanted to visit Charlestown and it did not disappoint. We stayed at a B&B on South Battery (photo below), literally the middle of the historic district and saw virtually all the old sites in the area, way too many to mention. We also spent a few hours on Saturday at Magnolia Gardens and Plantation. It was beautiful and well worth the visit. We can certainly recommend a visit to this great Southern city for anybody wishing to soak up some US history and take in some fantastic centuries old architecture.