Mia's Birthday

Mia turned 3 yesterday, and enjoyed her birthday party with her Auntie Angie, her grandparents and her cousins. She was a great help to her Mum by baking her birthday cake.

She had lots of presents, including Princess shoes which she wears all the time, a tiara, a Dora doll and a Dora bike.

Callum helped her to open her presents . . .

and Lachlan joined in on all the action and excitement.

A great week in San Antonio

As you can see from these pictures, we have had a busy and fun filled week here in San Antonio with Callum and Mia. Callum is doing really well with his swimming lessons, which he has twice a week.

He and Mia also love riding their bikes (Mia's bike is an early birthday present).

We have been trying out the various parks, which have a variety of swings, climbing structures, slides, and even a sandbox.

Our first week here has ended on a very happy note, with the safe arrival this afternoon of Yvonne and Baby Lachlan, after a very long and tiring journey. Callum and Mia were of course extremely excited to meet their mother and new baby brother at the airport.

San Antonio Childrens Museum

We arrived in San Antonio early Monday morning after missing our connection from Washington to San Antonio. The flight was overbooked and the only choices we had were a flight to San Antonio early the next morning or a flight to Austin later that night. Since Austin is only an hour's drive away (at least in theory), we opted for that. The drive in fact took closer to three hours, since we were blocked by two separate accidents on the highway. We reached the San Antonio airport just after midnight, and of course then discovered that our luggage had not left Washington. Fortunately it was delivered to us the next day.

Callum and Mia have been very well behaved and a lot of fun. Today we all went to the Children's Museum downtown, and as you can see from these pictures, they really enjoyed their visit.

We have been keeping in touch with Brian, Yvonne and baby Lachan for the last few evenings via Skype (video and voice chat), and that has been working extremely well. Callum and Mia have been missing their Mum and Dad, and they literally both jumped in the air with excitement when they saw their Mum, Dad and new baby on the laptop screen. Tonight, they were told about the train and doll presents they would be getting, and they had to be shown these on the video several times.

We are all looking forward to seeing Yvonne back home safely with baby Lachlan on Sunday.

Back in Canada

We are now back in Canada, after stopping in Charleston, SC on our way back. The journey to Charleston was a problem, with major traffic issues and highways shut down and alternate routes also blocked. We only made it as far as the Georgia border the first day, in spite of the GPS I had just purchased which showed us some good alternate routes. Once you are blocked on a highway, you don't have too many options!

However, we arrived in Charleston on Saturday May 10, in time for Lori to go out for her much enjoyed Mother's Day tea with Linda and Brian. It was good to see Brian, Linda, Steve and Caitlin again.




We made it back to Canada from Charleston in two days and are back in the swing of the simple life in cottage country. Lori is very active with her line dancing, and I have been busy with my consulting work, which should come to fruition at the end of June - around the time we expect to go back to San Antonio to be with Callum and Mia, when Yvonne and Brian travel to Taiwan to pick up Lachlan, the latest very welcome addition to the Crawford clan.

Our visit to San Antonio

We had a great few days in San Antonio this week, seeing Callum, Mia and Yvonne again. Has it reallly been a year since we were all together in Canada?

Yvonne bought a book for Mia that played Disney music, and both Callum and Mia were enthralled with the book and music.


Yvonne took us to the Botanical Garden. It was beautiful, especially the Japanese garden pictured above.

All enjoyed the swing there, which I think gave Yvonne the motivation to finally get a swing that she had always wanted for her deck at home.

There were lots of different areas there - this simulated desert section was particularly well done.


Yvonne also took us to a restaurant called The Magic Time Machine, where the waiters were dressed as pirates and cowboys. Our waiter loaned Callum his hat and gun, since he had left his at home.

Yvonne told them that it was her birthday, so received the usual little cake - right in her face, much to Callum and Mia's delight. Maybe this will become an annual tradition.

We drove with the kids to visit the River Walk - and of course took the boat ride. This was one of the many bridges crossing the River, which Mia had to go on with Lori, after she saw that Callum went on it with Grandpa.

We had initially planned to drive back to Canada today, but are staying another week, which will give us some rest and more time to pack up before we head off to Canada on Friday, via Charleston to see Linda, Steve and Caitlin.

Our Visit to Charleston

Lori and I just arrived back yesterday from our week's visit to Charleston. The highlight of our visit was seeing Caitlin starting to walk. Within a few days she had given up crawling in favour of walking. If there was no table to help her get into a standing position, she would use the nearest wall to get up.

Caitlin loves balloons.

I had a chance to try out my new telephoto lens.

Steve, Caitlin and I went to the beach on Saturday, where there was also a little playground. Caitlin loved the swings and was not afraid of the water at all!

She likes her gourmet meals . . .

. . . and was very pleased with her Easter dress

Brian was able to join us for dinner several times, which gave a good opportunity to get a group photo of a large portion of the Crawford clan. Hopefully the missing and growing contingent now in San Antonio will soon be able to join up and we can get the whole clan together for a Christmas newsletter photo opportunity.

Florida Kitsch and Alligators

One of the art forms practised here (and I think more popular in Florida than anywhere else in the world) is the use of "kitsch" art to decorate both inside and outside the house. This art form originated, I believe, with the placement of pink flamingos outside the house. Well, I have not seen any pink flamingos, as people here have moved well beyond that phase . . . to alligators, cranes, frogs, ducks, lighthouses and a myriad other art forms. I have been looking for a good subject to photograph, so maybe at some point in the future I can show you some of the most dazzling examples native to this habitat. I came across a mother lode of these for sale at the Red Barn Flea Market nearby. Be sure to put this place on your list to visit when you are down here, so that you can stock up and display this wonderful art form in your own neighbourhood. Your neighbours will be impressed!

Here are some pictures taken at the Flea Market so you can start making your selections now.

. . . and as in my last post, the sign above is very popular (who says us Floridians do not have a sense of humour).

Actually (as Callum would say), talking of "kitsch" alligators, we understand there are real alligators in the lakes in our community. We get possession of our house, which is on a lake, on April 1, so I hope to eventually get some alligator pictures to show you, but until then here is a picture of an alligator that was at least 10 feet long that we spotted recently at the Myakka State Park near Sarasota.