August 31-September 7

Monday was the Second Annual Barhorst Fun Run.  Most of my family was able to make it, and the Kleins showed up just in time for Scott to succumb to peer pressure and run a half mile.  Jillian, being on the cross country team and all, ran 3 miles.  The rest of us tagged in and out for between half a mile and a full mile each.  :)  Easily the best part of the fun run was watching all the little kids play "the race game."  Olivia won the first race handily by virtue of the fact that she was the only person to follow the directions.  Then Olivia, Eva, William, Eli, and Gretchen ran back and forth between the driveway and the corner as many times as we would let them.  After the fun run was lunch, and Steve and Murry showed up for that (also Tyler and his friend, Thomas).  It was nice to hang out and chat with people.  Bryan even managed to get a game of soccer organized before everyone went home.

While my family was in town, we gave a gift to mom.  Raise your hand if you know what it means!

We moved our very last "Lima day" up a week so that we'd be more conveniently located (in Sidney) for closing on Friday.  That all went smoothly and we are now the proud holders of two mortgages!  ...We hope to sell our Springfield house soon so that we're back down to just one mortgage.  :)  We get the keys this coming Friday, but estimated move-in date is second weekend of October unless we can somehow make it work this coming weekend.

I've decided to make the points section of my blog slightly more interesting.  Therefore, points will reset at the end of each year.  The winner for the year will get a small, yet-to-be-determined prize.

Pictures:

Gretchen and Olivia doing puzzles with Grandma:

Olivia, Eva, and Gretchen dancing (the vertical pictures are from Steph):

Steph also got some good ones of Gretchen making Bryan proud:

This is how the girls watch movies:

Gretchen in a princess crown and then eating her toes (second picture from Josef):

Olivia lines up dominoes, plays peek-a-boo in her tent, and shows Uncle Josef her Jedi-princess skills:

Olivia recently figured out how to turn the lamp on and off.  Gretchen is amazed by her mad skills: