And your Daddy just rolled his eyes

Dear Andrew and Abby,

Hello my dears! I have been very neglectful of our little journal, but I had a good excuse - we've been BUSY! Last week was Vacation Bible School and wow! did we have fun, but it was also very exhausting. Andrew also had Cub Scout Day Camp at Camp Belzer Monday through Thursday and a baseball game on Monday and Friday. And Abby had dance class on Thursday. And Daddy was out of town on Tuesday and Wednesday. Whew! We're still recovering from being so worn out!!

I have lots of pictures from VBS still to post online, but here are a couple...

Abby and Elijah:

Andrew in the photo spot:

With such a busy schedule, our house has been in a state of disaster most of the week. In fact, I'm pretty sure that if someone had tried to rob us last week, they would have taken one look around and figured that someone had already hit us and left the place ransacked. So I guess it was at least a good crime deterrent. But last night, because we had almost put the house back into its normal state of only mild disorder, we decided to add some more chaos.

Our friend Alyssa, who is almost 9, has grown too old and mature for her Barbie collection. She had decided to sell them, and when her mommy, your Fairy Godmother, Jody, told me that, I promptly made a deal to purchase them. The plan was to keep them for Christmas presents. Well, that didn't work out so well. A situation came up and Jody needed the extra space in her garage that was being taken by the Barbies, so they had to come to our house a little sooner than planned. And there was no hiding them to save them for another six months. So our living room currently has been turned into Barbie Central. Oh. My. Goodness. There are a lot of Barbies. An entire trash bag full of them. And a house. And a bus. And three jeeps. A horse-drawn carriage. A playground jungle gym. Plus some extra non-Barbie bonuses - a kids' table and chairs, a Madeline playset, a ceramic ballet-themed tea set...sigh. These would have been terrific - and cheap - Christmas gifts. Now I have to buy more. (hee hee).

But the best part about bringing in all the Barbie stuff yesterday? When they came in, it wasn't just Christmas in July for Abby. Immediately, both Abby AND Andrew were into the bag of dolls. Fighting over who got which one. Posing them in the Barbie RockStar Van (it turns into a stage). Dressing them. It was the cutest thing EVER. My inner feminist was doing some serious cartwheels watching Andrew play with the Barbies. I was careful not to comment at all about what was happening. I've learned not to draw attention to these things. I was worried that Daddy wouldn't let it go by without comment, but he didn't say a word. Luckily, you didn't notice his facial expressions.

Supporting your well-rounded development,

Mommy