Happy Easter!  We hope you all had a peaceful holiday and Spring Break!  See if you can guess the four languages pictures above. 

 We had the privilege of seeing some newly-married Jerusalem Center students, Lawrence and Susie Stubbs, as well as many others students and the Muhlestein family, who were our "Jerusalem Cousins."

Amanda hugs Alexia, and below, Emily hangs out with Jacob and Sabrina.

We played with the Muhlesteins at Discovery Park later during spring break, during which we explored the aquarium, the BYU Islamic Art exhibit, and the backs of the girls' closets. 

 Easter Sunday was extra special because Sahar Qumsiyeh spoke at our ward.  You can read about Sahar's story at The Mormon Women Project .

We had a nice Easter dinner with Sahar, Grandpa Fillmore, Mark and Cadence, and Sahar's friend Besan Quffa and her fiance Rob McKell.  Mark and Rob talked about Iceland, and Sahar and Besan told us about the Greek Orthodox Easter celebration of light, where candles lit at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre are brought to the Christian churches in Bethlehem and Ramallah.  Parishoners light their own candles from this flame, which represents the light of Christ, and keep it burning in their homes as long as they can.


After Easter dinner, we celebrated Grandpa Bruce Fillmore's birthday. 

This looks threatening, but it's actually a tradition from Grandma Fillmore's family in which the gift is held over the head of the birthday person until he makes a wish for the giver.  When the gift is a pair of fruit picking poles, it's a little more dangerous!   

 Maybe this was inspired by the BYU museum of art?

P.S.  Jan and Evan correctly identified the Russian egg (think International space station). Thanks to Lisa for the Russian help, Carrie for the Hebrew, and the third non-English egg is Arabic.  All four words have the same meaning.





Emily Busy Learning

A student teacher at Emily's preschool made a portfolio of her learning experiences.  Here are some highlights:

This is a cage Emily built for the animals.

She made a top out of magnets.

She followed the teacher's rhythm with tapping sticks.

Emily made a rainbow with all the right colors.

She petted Miss Jenna's baby chick during "Show and Teach." 

The students worked on writing their first name until Christmas, then they learned their last names.  Sometimes it's good to have a short name! 

They acted out a thunderstorm with a parachute.

From the same unit, here is a drawing she made while listening to a thunderstorm.

Emily got an "A" in recess!

This is Emily's recipe for shish-kebabs.  She was really proud that she could copy the words, and then later remember and read them to me.

We love Emily!