birthday girl

my oldest daughter, camille, is having a special birthday party today. i thought she looked so sweet preparing her cards. these invites were sent out last week and all of her friends are really excited about it.

it is hard to believe she only has one more year being a single digit number.

i have been busy scrambling to make everything just right before then.

the party is at our favorite nail salon where all the girls will get their fingernails painted.
afterward, we plan on having cupcakes and watching the birthday girl open her gifts.

(carefully of course - not to damage the paint job)

i am hoping everything goes as planned.

"god's girls"

since kindergarten, my children have attended a small private school that they just love.

in our search for the "right" school, it became pretty clear that there are no perfect schools.

we did, however, find the right school for our children and family for now.

there are things i would like to change about the school, but there are also many things we love.

one of those things we love is a high percentage of parent involvement. i know all the teachers and faculty pretty well and they know my children. it is a christian school and values and character are held high. if my child is having a rough day, their teacher will pray for them. i can always get a personal explanation of anything that happened that day, whether it is good news or bad. our school experience ends up feeling like we are all apart of a big family. the smaller classrooms allow for those personal touches.

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my oldest daughter, cami, entered the 3rd/4th grade classroom this year. before the start of the school year, i felt god put those girls in that class on my heart. i have watched cami and her friends become a little more ruthless to one another over the years and i didn't like what i was seeing.

cami's new teacher won the "teacher of the year award" last year. she is wonderful in every way! she was open to the idea of me starting a girl's club and maybe meeting with the girls every quarter to encourage them and teach them things about friendship.

in september, we met for the first time. i learned all 12 of their names and they got to learn a little bit about me as well. i brought them little treats and gave each one a special friendship bracelet to wear. they promised to value each other and treat everyone with respect. i taught a quick lesson and we discussed some things about respect. we even came up with a name for our club.

since then, the girls have been really excited to meet again. so much so, that the teacher has suggested that we meet each month now. there seems to be a unity between them and their excitement has run off on me. i think something like this is very important. girls need to learn early on to encourage and uplift one another. friendships should be valued and we all need tips on working things out.

i can't wait to meet with them next week! maybe i will start to share with you our lessons :)