Graduation Party 2020

The day after Karis' birthday, the country was put on a mandatory 72-hour lockdown, and Kylie's graduation party was 6 days away. After 72-hours, I guess the government decided that was enough for a little while, because after that, there wasn't another lockdown for six whole days!

So, on May 28, 2020, we celebrated Kylie.

 We printed some of her artwork and hung it on the wall, and after the party, people started asking if they could buy some of it, so she actually made quite a few sales that night and took orders for future projects.

My one snafu was the cake/cakes.  I knew which cake in town Kylie liked best, and I THOUGHT I knew where it was made, but I should have known better when I had to explain a L.O.N.G. time to get what I thought was the right one (and of course, they spelled "congratulations" wrong).

I called someone who had ordered it before and asked where to get the cake (which is what I should have done in the first place because cakes aren't cheap!), and she told me.

So, now I had two cakes on order for the party, which I guess wasn't too bad, since 34 people ended up coming.

This is the right one!

So many of our friends brought food, and Kylie and I made dishes, too.  It was quite a nice spread!

Look at the beautiful fruit tray one of our friends made!  Thanks, Jessica!

Doug welcomed everyone and said the blessing.

Then, after eating, Doug shared some memories of Kylie and read scripture verses over her.

This shoe picture is one you rarely see in America, so I always think of you and strange things you might want to see.  I also see someone getting a drink out of the bathtub we set on the porch, which ended up being quite a source of entertainment for all the kids who attended.

One of Kylie's dear friends was able to make it. She helped steer Kylie into graphic design, tutored her in French, and also danced ballet with her. 

And finally, at the end, we got a picture together.

Congratulations, Kylie!

From a Hobby to a Business

We met Noor last year because she runs a non-profit for refugee women, and they were sewing costumes for the "Lion King" performance.  We also love to shop at the store where the ladies sell all of the goods they are making.  I even had a chance to take some of their hand-made make-up bags home last summer to give to people we visited.

Noor had the idea to design 9 bags and give them each a name coordinating with a fruit of the Spirit.  She asked Kylie if she would design the tags for the bags.

Kylie loves typography, and spent a lot of time designing the tags.

This is one of the final meetings where Kylie is showing Noor what the products would look like. You can tell Noor is excited.

November 12, 2019

Here is one of the close-ups after being printed.  

There is a different scripture on each one.

Then Noor told Kylie if she designed some Christmas cards, she would sell them for Kylie in her store, so Kylie went to work.

We took her 10 designs and sold them not only at the refugee center store, but also at the dance studio, to friends, and at one of the local craft fairs.

Doug found some really cool shelves to display the cards on.

We covered the table with some cloth from Kenya, and voila!

First paying customer at the craft fair!

November 30, 2019

Keira is always trying to imitate her sisters and brother, and in this, there was no exception.

Keira started designing "cards" and hanging them on her wall.

I love her cute writing mistakes:

Rejoice! Jesus is Borm.

Nöel!!!!!?             (I don't know why there was cause for a question mark)

Happy Brthday Jesus.

Joy Tow The Wrda. Hay

Sé té Nöel. it is Crassmse.  (Same sentence in French and "English")

Arts in the Middle East

Since my girls can't go out in the street and play like boys can, I've encouraged them to try some new things.  They have been pretty creative.

Above, you can see that Kylie taped a trash bag to the floor of her room and created a painting center for herself.

After seeing someone else personalize some canvases for other people, both of my girls decided to give it a try.

Kylie had mixed the paint to make a light brown and written a person's name in the local language on the canvas.  Since it looked like it needed something else, her dad helped by creating a stencil for her.  It was a short stencil so she would paint a section and then wait a while for it to dry before painting the next section.  I think they turned out great (even though I forgot to get pictures of the final, final products).

She also painted some canvases to look like our country's flag, and then she painted individual names across the middle.

Karis painted some ballerinas and scriptures on canvases, and they turned out beautifully, too.

Reading, painting, coloring, journaling, and "Just Dance" aren't always the best replacements for getting to play outside, but my girls are handling their new life with grace, even if it isn't always fun.

They do, however, get to dance at a studio a couple of times a week, and their teacher wanted to let them have a mini-performance for us since they didn't get to participate in the Spring recital.

It was very thoughtful of her.

The teacher held a mock-practice/performance for us for about one hour while she explained what they were doing at the barre and in center.

It was good for me, because I don't know much about ballet.

The lady in the middle is from Japan, and she is also in their class.  The other 6 people from their class had already left for the summer.

After the practice part, all the dancers left and put on pink tutus and came back to perform a dance en pointe for us.

And look who danced in front of my chair the whole time, imitating her sisters.

Ta-da!