In Search of Three Costumes

I am pretty exhausted.

It has been a long week ... David has been busy with the kick-off of our learning center and I have had all 3 girls home from school this week due to a lice outbreak at both of their schools. (None of us have it yet but I wanted to keep them home since new cases continued to spring up all week long.)

Thankfully, the week ended on a fun note ... with Verity's school's Annual Harvest Party. While most of you are probably just now shopping around for costumes for your own fall festivals ... our girls wore theirs last night to the party.

But finding a set of costumes for our girls was an adventure in and of itself. The girls first had their hearts set on being Snow White (Verity) and Cinderella (Annalise). They were good sports about it when I told them that we wouldn't be able to order them from the States in time for the party.

So began our costume-hunt ...

Round 1

We looked through their drawers and found these costumes. We convinced them to go as "Tennessee sports fans" - Verity as a Vanderbilt football fan and Annalise & Moriah as University of Memphis cheerleaders.

Round 2

A few days after trying on the sports outfits, a team from the States flew into this city and one of our friends, Kim Lomakin, sent a sweet care package with her father (who was part of this team). She spoiled us with lots of fun treats for every member of the family ... and I could not believe my eyes when I pulled out a bag that was intended for the girls. One by one, I pulled out new dress-up outfits for the girls ... Snow White (remember Verity's request?) and Cinderella (Annalise's request!) and a pink ballerina outfit (which Moriah proudly modeled for us). Kim had no idea about the girls' original requests but of course, I quickly explained to the girls that God knew and He used Kim to bless them with these costumes!

Round 3

Here is the final result of our costume hunt. Since it has been chilly in the evenings here, I decided last-minute to dress Moriah in a warmer tiger costume, Annalise stuck with her beloved "Princess Cind-a-wella" costume and Verity donned the pink ballerina outfit. We had a great time with the school family. The girls ran around with their friends, I manned the face-painting booth (Jill Bergman, please come do it for us next year!) and of course, we enjoyed a very delicious, international potluck dinner. Oh, and what is a Harvest Party without a pinata shaped like a lice egg? The kids had fun taking out this week's frustration with lice on this pinata. Check out our photo albums for a visual.


By the way, here is a shot of the costume courier (John, Kim's father - back row, far left, holding Moriah) and his friends. It was a blessing to have them in our city last week. David and I were both very encouraged by hearing their stories ... most of them knew each other back when (before? during?) they were competing as wrestlers in the 1976 Olympics (the year I was born!) and they are still friends, loving and serving God to this day. Their commitment was very inspiring to us.

Well, the next time we post, it will be October ... or as we call it in our family, Rocktober. It will be a special month as David will be turning 40 in a few weeks. Stay tuned for fun birthday posts!