Perfect Harmony

to listen to these two practice together:

Mabry and Kenna have only been playing their instruments for a few weeks (thanks to some of our church's most talented musicians), and they are loving playing together.

This was even an unprompted practice session since they took the initiative to play together.

I always knew this day would come. They were born with some musical talent!

Botswana Bound

The dresses--not the girls (though we'd love to go to Botswana!).

Two years ago, Kenna decided that she was destined to live in Botswana after reading an article in a National Geographic. Since she has been very persistent in her Botswana pursuit, I learned as much as I could about the country.

Botswana is the country right above South Africa. Diamonds are actively mined there. If you're into safari photography, Botswana doesn't disappoint. Sadly, the average life expectancy is 35 years as AIDS takes many lives.

So, for our family, Botswana became more a prayer project than a fascinating place filled with exotic cheetahs and expensive stones.

Still we really didn't know what to do. Until 2 months ago, when a lady from our church gave my girls some black yarn and asked if they would like to make hair for rag dolls that are sent all over the world to missionaries working with children.

The coordinator of the doll project called me and humbly asked if they could make 50 pieces of hair for a missionary in Botswana.

Botswana? Seriously? I was totally surprised. Of all the countries she was sending dolls to, Botswana topped the list. I told her how we loved the country, though we have no ties to it.

So my girls have been busy making hair to go on the rag dolls that the ladies sew and clothe.

Then two weeks ago, the coordinator called me and asked if I had ever heard of a pillowcase dress. Honestly I'd known about them for a long time, but only recently did I make one. A group of women from our church had purposed making these dresses for the Botswana children, as the children there only have their ragged school uniforms to wear.

I'm all for sewing for kids, so yesterday I made these for my girls to wear to model for our church as the pastor talked about this new ministry at the church.

We'll be donating the dresses the girls wore and the matching doll dresses that Cayli sewed to the Botswana project.

We feel very blessed to be a part of this project. I'm in awe of how a young girl's fascination for a foreign country has brought about an incredible opportunity for my family!

Busy, busy, busy

Been preparing for the upcoming school year...even though we started 3 weeks ago.

This year:

• Cayli is in 5th grade
• Kenna and Mabry are in 4th grade
• Micah is into making messes

This year, however, we have no textbooks. Not even for math. *gasp*

Our library is filled with math books that teach concepts in such an engaging way. Math will no longer be a subject to "do," it will be a part of life to experience. This summer reading/doing around here:

Sure, we'll have a few worksheets here and there for drill, especially since all the girls can use some extra practice with multiplication and division. But we'll also use other books along the way:

We're 3 weeks into our new school year and every day one of the girls asked when we can do math. That's never happened before since math was a subject to be dreaded. But with a little extra planning and some creativity, my girls have come to love real-life math.

Planning for next year?

Just wanted to share with you...

holdthatthought.com notebooking pages are ideal for letting your kids write about history and Bible topics.

My girls don't mind writing on these pages because they have a set border so they don't feel like they will have to write forever. I like that I can hand them a page and now that the topic will be covered with a little research. It sure beats plain notebook paper any day!

After hearing about them for awhile, I've specifically ordered the Bible ones and I'll let you know how the kids like them.

First Baton Competition

My twirlie girlies went to their first baton competition this past weekend. They only participated in the marching portion of the contest, but enjoyed watching other girls perform in the other events. Honestly they were bored watching, so next year they plan to twirl in every event.

The only downside to having three twirlers in one family is that they will constantly compete against each other. But they all have talent, so they should do well individually. Besides, twirling is just good sisterly fun for them right now.

Caitie, the graduating feature twirler (talk about talent! She's amazing!) for the University of South Carolina, has coached them for the past 6 months. She also dressed them for this competition--she looked through her stash from her younger years and let the girls borrow them. We are so thankful for Caitie and her Christian influence in the girls' lives.

Never thought I'd be parenting three twirlers, but I find the sport fascinating and my girls make it look so easy! :D