More Things to do at Stone Mountain

Our most recent Stone Mountain excursion was very dangerous...

The kids were eaten by this huge horse!

Just kidding...

We explored the Museum and learned a great deal about the actual carving of the mountain. This photo just shows you how large the horse is on the mountain.

We also explored the Plantation. Here's Morgan by the Medicine House.
How fitting that this picture is taken of me in the kitchen building. This is definitely where I would have spent the majority of my days if I lived back then since I spend a good part of my day in the kitchen now!
Morgan the Gatherer of Cotton...just to be politically correct ;)

Luke and Miriam trying to be as scary as this scarecrow...fearsome I know!

We really enjoyed walking the grounds on the plantation. We got great ideas for our future garden and loved seeing the antiques in the homes.

Schoolmaster Kristin and Fife children as students in front of the School House.

Our Visit to Grandma & Grandpa Aldridge's

Since Morgan has been studying for the STEP 2 exams, the kids and I decided to give him some peace and quiet. We loaded up the van and headed to NC for a few days. We were able to play with our Lewis cousins and spend time with my grandparents. Here are a few pictures from our mini vacation:

Grandma Leona Aldridge and Eve Leona Fife

I am so cheap. I made Luke and Miriam share their lemonade at Qdoba. They didn't seem to mind!

One afternoon we went to Grandma Aldridge's and picked blueberries. The children really enjoyed getting to pick them and I am now loving the blueberries in our smoothies!

Miriam and Eve cooling off after blueberry picking.

Maw Maw and Eve

Grandma Aldridge spoiled the children. She gave them not just a few Oreo cookies to take home, she split the entire bag between them! My children were in awe! We also got a lot of fresh apples from their orchard too.

Grandma Aldridge bought Grandpa Aldridge a golf cart for Father's Day to help with hauling water to the garden. So we got to go on a little outdoor excursion while there.

Grandma is a brave soul. She let Luke drive...

and Miriam too! They nearly crashed into the cars but Grandma quickly saved them.

The kids talked about how fun it was at Grandma Aldridge's for a while that evening. She even surprised us the next day at lunch with an ice-cream party with more Oreoes!

We had a great mini vacation and are now ready for Kindergarten to start for Luke in just 2 1/2 weeks!

Look at Me Go!

Eve is now 8 months old! I love how her hair is starting to curl out at her ears and those BIG blue eyes!

Miriam my little dancer
Here is a short clip of Eve crawling. She crawls all over the house now and is quite fast too! She has even started to pull herself up to standing and then stand without holding on to anything for several seconds.

Watch Eve Go!

Eve's Busy Week

Eve has learned to crawl! I took this video of her on Sunday and as you will see, she was just on the brink of crawling.

On Monday, she was really doing it! I will post a video of it soon! The kids were so proud of her when she started crawling in their room. I don't think that they quite understand that this means Eve will be getting into their things from now on.

Eve also has her bottom 2 teeth and says "Da-da" all the time. Why not "Ma-ma?" Oh well. She does have a pretty great Da-da.

She just learned to pull herself up to standing too. She has been quite busy this week!

Eve is also a great eater. This has changed drastically in the past month. She loves to eat pears, applesauce, bananas, carrots, sweet potatoes, peas and squash. Keep your fingers crossed that these tastes stay with her. Maybe there is hope for one Fife kid when it comes to eating a variety of fruits and vegetables!

Summertime Fun

We have been spending some time playing in the basement. I never realized how much fun a basement could be until we moved here.

Top 4 reasons why I love the basement:

#4- Place to store junk

#3- Great place for food storage

#2- So much cooler than the rest of the sweltering house

AND THE #1 reason why the basement rocks:

IT IS AN INDOOR PARK! We ride scooters, play soccer and even basketball in the cool basement. So much nicer inside than in the very humid 95 degree weather outside!

I love Miriam's expression! It is soooo Miriam!

On Sunday afternoons, we like to play legos. These are special legos. They were actually Morgan's when he was a kid.

Luke took this picture of his lego men sitting down. He thought they looked pretty silly and wanted to share it with you all.

We also went to Stone Mountain again on Tuesday with our friends Landon and Tamme. Check out how many bubbles are in the foam zone.

While Luke was completely covered in the bubbles, Miriam steered clear of the really tall mounds and just put her hands in the smaller piles. After the bubbles blew around for a while, the sprinklers rained on everyone and washed the bubbles off the kids. Tamme and I

couldn't resist and had to get rained on too! It felt marvelous! Luke, Miriam and Landon on the Stone Mountain train ride

Grandma Fife was so thoughtful and sent us the pool we had at their home last year. Luke and Miriam enjoyed filling the pool up today and splashing! Eve would not let me put her down in the water because it was very cold. I think she will like it more when the sun has time to warm the water up.

Now just 9 more days until Morgan is home from Baltimore for good....

Georgia Aquarium & Children's Museum

Target sponsors free entrance to the Children's Museum once a month in Atlanta. My friend Tamme and I decided to make a play date and head to the big city. We started with lunch at Chick-fil-a and then went to the museum. However, everyone else in Atlanta wanted in on the free action, and the line was a city block long to get in. The museum employee told me it would be a 2-3 hour wait in the hot sun. NO THANK YOU! The Georgia Aquarium is just up the street so we decided to go there instead. Tamme has a membership and was able to get me in for free and the kids in for a reduced fare. I love the deals! The Georgia Aquarium is the largest in the WORLD! I am sorry that my photos do not do it justice, but it really was amazing. Here are some things we saw and did:

Miriam, Luke and Landon watching the fish up close Only Landon was brave enough to try to touch a sting ray but Luke and Miriam enjoyed watching them splash in the water.

The Whale Slide (Of course this was Luke's favorite thing and he kept asking to go back!)
The slide was super fast!

More tanks to watch large rays, sharks and fish.

The Dragon fish...these guys reminded me of the recent movie "How to Train Your Dragon"

The Penguin tanks had a tunnel that the kids could crawl through to get a closer look at them swimming. They loved running through it over and over again.

The Aquarium was also having an Ocean Craft Day. Home Depot sponsored the dolphin shelves that the kids made. Luke was very good at hammering the nails in!

They also got to sift through the sand to find their own shark teeth to take home.

Luke and Miriam with their finished dolphin shelves and shark hats.

This tank had some of the fish that was in "Finding Nemo."

After the Aquarium, we stopped at the playground across the street to nurse babies and play. Here are two happy babies, Eve and Carter! (A tummy full always makes for a happy baby!)

As we walked towards our cars, we realized that the Children's Museum no longer had a line. So with much begging from Luke, we decided to try it out too. It was complete chaos inside and I lost Miriam for a few minutes. After finding her, we found a show for the kids to watch so that they could at least all be in the same area for more than 2 seconds! Mr. Greg was a music man and had the kids up on their feet dancing and singing. Eve just enjoyed being able to play on the floor for a while.

Luke and Landon dancing with Mr. Greg

We stayed at the Children's Museum until 7:00 and then made the trek back to the van. What a long day but so fun! The kids ate all their dinner when they got home without any threats from me. (I guess starving children will eat whatever you give them!) Then there were no arguments about bedtime or even the slightest peep from their room when the lights were out. How I love to wear them out!

1st Garden Produce

Look at these peas from our garden! What yummy stir fry dish could I put these in?