August 9-16

I have trained Olivia well.  Whenever I get in the car, I automatically lock the doors.  Usually this isn't a problem as I am the last one in the car.  I have been known to accidentally lock Bryan out on occasion, though.  Although vaguely aware of this habit, I don't generally pay it much attention.  A few weeks ago, however, Olivia started shouting from the backseat: "Mom!  The doors!  You didn't do the thing on the doors!"  It took me a while to figure out what she meant.  Her panic escalated until I happened to notice that I hadn't locked the doors yet.  As soon as I pressed the button, all was well with the world.  She's done this a few more times since that first one, leading me to believe that it wasn't just a one-time coincidence.

Kaitlyn only naps in about 45 minute chunks.  This results in her taking about five naps a day, but I think I'd prefer 2-3 nice long naps to five short ones.  She often doesn't seem quite ready to be awake, so I'm wondering how much of her nap schedule is due to general noise in the house.  :/

Last weekend went well.  The wedding ceremony was Jewish, so the girls got to hear some Hebrew and watch the groom stomp on a cup.  We took them to Bubble Island in Ann Arbor afterwards so that they could experience the bubble smoothies from our college days.  We stayed in Michigan through Monday, hanging out with dad and Josef most of the time.  The girls enjoyed taking a couple of trips to a nearby park and Opa helped Olivia try out her new roller skates (purple ones that Aunt Jacque sent for her birthday!).

This week the girls had Vacation Bible School with some of the other kids from church.  Yes, Gretchen is only two, but if they excluded two-year-olds then the VBS population was cut in half.  :)  For two hours each on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, Presbytera and a volunteer mother corralled twelve 2-6 year olds while the other mothers took some time off.  It is my understanding that crafts, snacks, playground time, and Bible stories happened.  At the end of the final day, the girls each came home with a bag full of crafts they'd made.

Wednesday night we had the Hodges over to play games after kids went to bed and they mentioned a meteor shower that was happening, so we all went outside to stargaze on the front porch.  I was not dedicated enough to wake up at four in the morning for the peak of the show, but we did see several good sized blazes of light shoot across the sky, which was neat.

Pictures and Video:

Video (password BarhorstBrewed):

Barbies

I took some pictures of Kaitlyn being cute:

Poor Gretchen was exhausted:

Josef took pictures of Kaitlyn, too: