Not Quite Cinderella, But Close

Now that I had the kids clothes all sorted and in order, it was time to deal with shoes. Kids feet grow! Did you know that?? Yeah. Especially when you feed them well. And then new kids start walking and they need shoes. It's never ending.

And I love it!

Tom, Jasmine and Troy left for Lusaka yesterday, so it was the perfect time to pull out all the shoes and get organized. First up I carried a trunk of shoes from the storage room, and added a bag of shoes just donated by a lovely German family, and a box of Crocs sent over from Tennessee. Some of the shoes were adorable. There were even two pairs of Spiderman shoes. You know those were going to be popular.


First thing I did was to pull up a handy dandy chart that would help me in determining the shoe size each child needed. I wasn't looking forward to trying multiple shoes on 20+ kids was not my idea of fun, so I used a tape measure to get an idea where to start.

After lining up the shoes by size and gender to make it easy to find what I was looking for, I called the kids in one by one. I started with the oldest children so that in case they had outgrown an otherwise good pair of shoes, they could be passed down to another smaller child.

Some of the kids really needed shoes. Their toes were poking through the sole. Crocs have been amazing for us--durable and water- & weatherproof. However, even they eventually wear out.

Here I asked Peter to show me how he felt about his broken shoes, but he is too used to hamming it up for the camera. He couldn't stop smiling to show me his pouty face.


I measured each child's foot and then compared it with the chart to decide where to start my search for a suitable shoe. Some of the kids had very wide feet better suited to Crocs, and others had more narrow feet and did better in a sandal.

Of course every boy that walked in zoomed right in on the Spiderman shoes. Even those that are usually very quiet, perked right up and told me how much they wanted those shoes. They each took it pretty well when they turned out not to fit.

I got Nathan excited about camouflage shoes and told him he could be a soldier!

Please ignore the dirty leg--we play hard around these parts.

I convinced Peter that Dallas Cowboy shoes were even better than Spiderman--and because he's three, he believed me! (I do love the Cowboys, BTW.--They're my team.)

See, new shoes make a boy happy.

Even Maggie got shoes. I want her to feel a part of the big kids even though she's still not walking. She is even smaller than our year-old babies, but I want her to strive to be more grown up. That's why I had her get new shoes too. It was hard though because her feet are TINY! I finally found some baby sandals that fit. I instructed the nannies to not let her use them when practicing walking, because she needs to feel the ground beneath her feet, and the sandals are not very supportive. However, she can wear them when coming up for meals. It will be just something more to help her grown.

In case you're wondering who finally ended up with Spiderman shoes, it was Jack. They fit him perfectly!


And in case you're further wondering, this is his happy face. Ha ha.



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