August 16-23

The kids are winning the music war.  We got Olivia the Frozen soundtrack for her birthday, so that's been playing pretty much constantly in the car.  Whenever I'm driving alone, I try to make a conscious decision to listen to a not-kid CD.  Note the use of the word try.  Early this week, I made a solo trip to JoAnn.  On the way out of the store, I was humming "Let It Go" to myself since it's so ridiculously catchy.  If you know the song then you're probably humming it now, too.  I'm not sorry.  Anyway, I got to the car, and chose the Frozen soundtrack so that I could listen to the song.  I was immediately ashamed of my choice in music and (after the song finished, of course) switched the CD to... Sandra Boynton so that I could hear "Singing in the Shower."  By the time that song finished, I was home.  When I confessed my failures to Bryan, he told me that he does the same thing all the time.  Goodbye, grown-up music.  We'll miss you.

In our house, we have cookers.  Both of the older girls talk about how they are cookers, wearing cooker hats.  I've tried telling them that the word is "chef," but this is not allowed.  Neither do they accept "baker."  The word is cooker, and apparently always shall be.

Time to place your wagers: Which will appear first -- Kaitlyn's tooth, or her newest cousin?

And speaking of teeth, Gretchen has all of her baby teeth now.  Steph checked, since I haven't bothered to count since she got number eight.  I did notice that her fists had permanent residence in her mouth for a few months there, so I guess I subconsciously assumed that everything came in the way it was supposed to.

Bryan has been introducing Olivia to some of the video games he played as a kid.  Apparently she's now at least as good as me in several of them.  :/  I'm accepting of that, though, because Olivia is clearly better than Bryan at memory/matching games.

Last Saturday we went to the zoo.  We were in Fort Wayne for church and decided to make a day of it.  There was no service at our local parish because the priest went to Dormition monastery for the feast.  We thought we'd visit dad's parish, but he went to the monastery, too.  That left, Toledo, Dayton, or Fort Wayne.  I never consider Fort Wayne because it's so far away (you know, being in another state and all), but it turns out that it's closer than both of the Ohio options.  Related, we now have a membership to the Fort Wayne Zoo.  :)

Pictures and Videos:
Vimeo Videos -- some are older ones that I found on Bryan's phone (password BarhorstBrewed):
Olivia and Gretchen Play
More Monsters
Kaitlyn's Morning Dance
Breakfast
Mom and Kaitlyn 1
Mom and Kaitlyn 2

Kaitlyn was happier than she seems in this picture:

I put Olivia and Gretchen to work shelling pinto beans.  They had a blast, and now Gretchen wants to shell the green beans she finds, too:

Kaitlyn in the johnny jump-up:

All three girls with daddy on the couch:

Gretchen plays a solo game of Candyland:

At the zoo:

On the way home from the zoo:

Olivia after eating an ice cream sandwich on the way home from the zoo:

Note -- This is not typical.  I opened the car door and she held up her hands and said, "my hands are sticky."  I stared, dumbfounded for about fifteen seconds and then told her to hold still while I got the camera.  Then Bryan came over after opening the door, took one look at her, made the same face I'd made (again, for several seconds), and told me to get the camera.