Blast Off Sleepover

For Christmas, Santa brought Luke this space shuttle tent.

After pre-K finished, Luke and Miriam wanted to sleep in the tent one night.
While Luke loved sleeping inside, Miriam found her way into my bed before morning. This was our first adventure of the summer break! Now off to more exciting things!

Luke Graduates Pre-K

Congratulations Luke for graduating pre-k!

I was able to attend his graduation without the other little girls. I am very grateful to my visiting teacher for babysitting. They enjoyed seeing chickens and playing in a sand box while I was away. Eve was not a happy camper when I picked her up, it's getting harder and harder for her to be without me.

I was so proud of Luke and his classmates. As the parents entered, they stood in perfect silence until it was time for them to begin their songs and poems. They sang "I Believe I Can Fly" and an alphabet and number song. Then they proceeded to tell us the state bird, song, flower, tree, butterfly and fruit. They told us about some of the famous inventors they had learned about and then it was time to receive their certificates. Afterwards there was a meet and greet with the other parents and cake. Luke and I quickly ate cake and then went to pick up Miriam and Eve.

Ms. Brenda and Luke the Senator- when I dropped him off that morning, she said that he looked just like a senator. Is that a good thing?

We then went to McDonald's to celebrate the big day. The cashier at McDonald's let the kids have their pick of the new Shrek toys. She was super nice to them!

After our afternoon nap, we headed to the Lilburn park. Eve got to experience the swings for the first time. She loved it!

All 3 Fife kids swinging at the same time!

Miriam really liked climbing the walls

and Luke loved the monkey bars. He would never reach for the next one, just hang on and then drop to the ground. He's been pretending to be Iron Man so I think this was just part of his imaginary play.

The park was a lot of fun, but we had to head home and take a bath to cool down. It's getting really hot here in GA! Now that Eve is proficient at sitting up, I have started bathing all 3 kids at the same time. They love being in the tub together and playing! I feel so lucky to have 3 great kids who love each other and play well together...most of the time.

Now we are just looking forward to Memorial Day weekend with Morgan!

Luke's Mother's Day Card

Who knew that I was "all that?!" Thanks Luke! He was so proud of himself when he handed the card to me. The card also came with a bag of cheetos stapled to it. Mmmmmm...my favorite!

Triplets?

There is a family in our ward that has twin boys. Eve is 1 day older! We discovered one Sunday that they had matching outfits and decided that it was worthy of a baby photo shoot! Here are Matthew, Eve and Jacob!

Helen, Georgia

Grandma Fife was such a blessing to have around. My yard was in serious need of help and she took it upon herself to help beautify it. She mowed, weeded, sprayed for bees, planted flowers, and swept the carport and driveway. She also babysat for me so that I could go visiting teaching and go to doctors appointments. She did it all! Most of all she gave great moral support after Morgan left. Thank you so much. I truly have the greatest mother-in-law.

After working all week, we decided to head up to Helen, GA to sight see. On the way up we stopped in Cleveland, GA to pan for gems.

Grandma was hoping to strike it rich! We did find some rubies and other jewels that I can't remember the names of right now and of course fool's gold.
Then we headed up to Anna Ruby Falls and had a picnic lunch. The hike up to the falls was just about a half a mile. We had to take a few breaks for the kids and to also enjoy the beautiful forest and creek around us.

Anna Ruby Falls is unique because there are two separate falls.

Next was the actual town of Helen. It is similar to Leavenworth, WA and is set in the Bavarian theme. We visited some of the shops but Hansel and Gretel's candy shop was our favorite!

We took a horse drawn carriage ride around the town.

The ride was much sweeter with our chocolates!

After the ride, the driver gave the children carrots to feed our horse, Cadillac Jack. The children were a little hesitant but Grandma helped them!

I love Miriam's experience of feeding Cadillac Jack...this photo seems to capture how afraid she really was!

The children were well behaved and we stopped for a southern dinner at Cracker Barrel. Once we got home the kids went to bed so easily! I think we really wore them out! I can't wait to go back to the Falls with Morgan in the autumn when the leaves are changing. Georgia is really a beautiful state!

Stone Mountain

Grandma Fife came to visit us on April 22nd all the way from WA. She stayed until May 1st and we had a lot of fun with her...not to mention how she saved my sanity! We were so happy to see her! Morgan ended up having a long weekend break and decided to drive the 12 hours down to Georgia to spend the weekend with us. Since we are only 15 minutes from Stone Mountain, we thought that this would be the ideal place to take Grandma.

Can you name the 3 men carved in the stone?

One of the coolest things about Stone Mountain is the Sky Hike. Morgan and Shelley went on the version for adults:

Miriam and Luke went on a much smaller scale for children.

There is even a zip line for kids and Luke went on it 5-6 times. He impressed me with his bravery and loved every minute of the course! We will definitely be back there this summer!

We also got to "Ride the Ducks." Since all children were required to wear a life vest, here is Eve trying her best to comply with the rules.

The tear is not from wearing the life jacket...

Once in the water, each of the kids got to "drive" the boat. They thought they were really something!

What would the ride be without the quackers to blow on throughout the ride! Eve just sucked on hers like a pacifier!

Finally we took the Sky Ride to the top of Stone Mountain.

Downtown Atlanta can be seen in the distance.

Other than Luke vomiting in the Sky Ride line when we first got to the park, we ended up having a fantastically fun day. It was good to have everyone together and for us to be out and enjoying the beautiful warm Georgia weather.

Eve's First Solids

On Wednesday, April 21st, Eve tried her first solid foods...rice cereal. She seemed pretty excited at first to sit in the high chair and have a spoon to play with. However after a few initial bites, she decided that rice cereal was not her favorite food! I love her expressions in these photos! Since then, she has tried bananas and sweet potatoes with corn. None of those have been her favorites either. I think the only thing she hasn't spit back out was the ice-cream I gave her. She really liked that! Perhaps we will stay away from the sweets from now on until she takes a liking to other foods...