sorting shoes

(I don't know why I hadn't posted this yet, probably because I wanted to add a photo of the children in their Crocs or Elisabeth in her new sandals, but I'm just going to go ahead and post this like it is...)

I took these photos back at the beginning of May. Various children were outgrowing their shoes, but before heading to the shoestore, I checked out our own supply and ended up not needing to buy any at all. So here is yet another fascinating photo-documentary of life with six children...

First things first: dump all the shoes from the too-big closet in one big pile.

I don't like flip-flops, but my children love them, so Lukas and Katie were thrilled to find some that fit them. There were two pair that fit Lukas and three that fit Katie, these being their favorites:

 Lukas, Katie, and Helen excited about their "new" summer footwear:

The flip-flops are all hand-me-downs from I've-no-idea-whom (everyone seems to assume that because we have lots of children, we must love lots of hand-me-downs. And they're right, because I first of all utterly detest shopping, and second prefer to save up for books and for flights to the U.S., Germany, and Costa Rica than to buy clothes.)

These shoes, however, I actually bought for Jacob and Marie, when they were two and four, because they had complained about sand at the playground getting in their sandals. BOTH pairs fit Helen now, which I can't quite figure out.

Once everything was sorted, these shoes/sandals went into a bag labled "too big for Lukas." I actually bought all of these shoes, for either Marie or Jacob. The sandals I bought new, too big for Jacob, because they were on sale at the Birkenstock outlet in Germany...and then forgot about them when they would have fit him, so they've never been worn. The top left ones have been worn about three times, the white tennis shoes probably not much more. The black ones were worn quite a bit by Jacob while working on King Malu and are spattered by paint, but that was the only pair that Lukas thought was "cool" and he was disappointed that they're still way too big.

And these were the too-big-for Helen shoes. Katie was in tears about the pink sandals (hand-me-downs) and glittery white shoes (bought for my brother's wedding a year and a half ago) that no longer fit her, and Helen was in tears that neither of them fit her yet. Helen was extremely unimpressed with the two pairs of buckle sandals (more Birkenstocks from the outlet in Germany, and hand-me-downs from Marie and Jacob), as well as with the nice close-toed shoes that had also been Marie's and Jacob's, respectively.

Katie wasn't thrilled with any of the too-big-for-Katie shoes/sandals. Even the one "pretty" pair (and the only pair I actually bought, for Marie) were disappointing because they have buckles (yet more Birkenstocks from the outlet), not velcro. However, she did make out with three pairs of flip-flops, two pairs of sandals, one pair of dressy shoes, and one pair of tennis shoes.

While I was in the middle of this, Jörn got home, having bought himself a new pair of sandals on the way home from work, so I of course had to take a photo of them, as well:

And these are the too-big-for-Elisabeth shoes. :-) Actually, now that she's started walking and I've tried them on her, I've discovered that the pink sandals on the bottom right are too small for her (they're hand-me-downs from no-idea), and three pairs of the sandals fit her, but she won't walk in them, preferring a pair of hand-me-down imitation-crocs that I didn't photograph!

These are, in order, Marie's first shoes (winter in Germany!), Jacob's (bought in Karstadt in Thüringen), Lukas's (hand-me-downs from our friend Jakey in Germany), Katie's (hand-me-downs from our friend Charlotte in Germany), Helen's (bought around the corner here in Cyprus), and the ones that I thought would become Elisabeth's. (They were too big for her in May, and are too small for her now in June!)

These used to be my shoes. :-) They were my little sister's when our house burned down when I was ten years old, and were in the car at the time. After she outgrew them, I claimed them back, but they aren't in very good shape and Marie, Katie, and Helen each only wore them once or twice, pretty much just to be able to say that they had worn Mommy's old shoes.

One last photo: Katie's new-to-her pink sandals.

Later on I found another bag with a pair of rain boots (they could fit Helen, but we're rather lacking in rain here) and the tiny crocs that Elisabeth likes, but didn't take a photo at the time.

Ironically, the preferred shoes of all SIX children are crocs (mostly imitation, mostly hand-me-down), and I don't have photos of ANY of them!