Dirty Girl Mud Run and More

I have wanted to do a mud run ever since I first heard of them, which is weird, since a) I don't like to run, b) I have no strength at all do the the obstacles, and c) I don't like to get dirty.

When the opportunity to do the Dirty Girl mud run came, I jumped at the chance.  Luckily, there were some other girls in my group who didn't run so I had someone to walk with me.

Here we are pre race, all squeaky clean.

This was the last mud pit ...and the one where I got crazy muddy from someone (Hunter) throwing mud all over me.

They had a station where you could donate your muddy shoes, and some of us gladly threw ours in the pile.

Here I am, after the race, in all my muddy glory.  It was fun, but next time I think I would rather do a mud run with Derek.  He motivates me like no one can and I think I could have made it over the walls and cargo nets better with him cheering me on (and pushing my big butt over).

I made it home to see my older two off to a dance/awards night for band and chorus at the school.  Can you believe it's the end of the school year already?

Above is my 7th grader who plays trumpet, and who tucked in his shirt long enough for a picture.  Below is the 8th grader who plays trombone, and who also won an award tonight for best trombone; and who also can, surprisingly, pull off a bow tie.

Against their wishes, my man and I chaperoned the event.  It only took washing my hair 5 times to get the mud out and make myself halfway presentable.

Another Jazz Band

This post is mainly for my folks who missed the band concert earlier this week. 

Some kids in the jazz band approached their teacher a few months back and wanted to try Sing, Sing, Sing for the concert.  Well, they don't make music for Sing, Sing, Sing for middle schoolers ....not even high schoolers.  These kids tackled the full blown way Benny Goodman wrote it version.  They did pretty darn good, if I do say so myself.  Keep in mind, these are 7th and 8th grade students - and they only had 4 weeks to learn it:



The clarinot soloist is an amazing young man; not only did he kill this solo, he also plays sax, violin, and piano!

Jazz Band

The end of the year school festivities have begun.  Tonight's activity was the Jr. High band, in which my oldest boy plays trombone with the 8th grade and my second oldest plays trumpet with the 7th grade band. In addition to that, they are both in an extracurricular jazz band.  These kids sounded so good.  They talked the director into letting them play Sing, Sing, Sing - and it was AMAZING!

Here they are playing God Bless the Child, with my son playing the trombone solo.  My Bloggie was out of battery, so this is recorded with the phone.  You can't make out any of the kids, but at least you can hear them.

Best Daddy ever!

Square Skirt How To (Kind of), Otherwise Knows as a Handkerchief Skirt Semi Tutorial

My daughter had a hand-me-down knit skirt that she loved, but I messed up with some laundry and it ended up with holes in it.  When I lay the skirt flat, it was a square; so I thought it would be simple enough to recreate.   I thought I'd share with you how I made my version; I'm calling it a semi tutorial as my instructions are probably not very clear.  Also, because the skirt didn't really turn out quite right; so I guess this is more a documentation of how I made my version of a square of handkerchief skirt.

My daughter is 7 and is wearing size 7s, and these measurements were for her. 
I started by cutting two rectangles out of some scrap knit, my short ends are 13 inches and the longer is 26.  My next one will be bigger - you'll see at the bottom of this post how it looks on my daughter, and I think I would have liked it longer.

I folded the rectangle in half to make a square, and then I cut a quarter circle out of the corner, so that when you open up the rectangle, it will be a semi circle in the middle of the fabric, as seen below two photos below.  I just eye-balled it and went in 3 inches on each side.

I then sewed my two rectangles together.

Now came the waistband.  I decided I wanted to try a yoga type waistband so I wouldn't have to use elastic.  I cut another rectangle 24 inches by 14 inches.  I came up with this measurement by wrapping the fabric around my daughter for the length.  The height was 14" because that's all of the material I had left :)   I sewed a seam along the short ends making a tube.

I then folded the tube wrong sides together like so:

Considering I didn't really measure anything, I was just cutting if it looked right.  Can you believe that the waist band fit the hole exactly?  I couldn't!  I fully expected to have to gather or stretch the skirt to fit the waist band.  In fact, as I was pinning and saw it was perfect I started singing out loud, "Wonder of wonders, miracle of miracles ...."

Anyway, I sewed the band to the skirt, right sides together.  Since I doubled the tube over, it finished the top

We tried it on and you can tell straight from the redhead's face .... she didn't like it at all!  I told you above that I figured out the waist by wrapping the material around her middle.  I really thought that with the seam allowance that it would be okay.  Now I know that I should have taken an inch off so it would be snug.  As they say, hindsight's 20/20; or as my dear sweet mother would say, hindsight's titty titty.  To this day, I don't know what that means, I'm pretty sure it was a joke she heard.

Above is with the waist band folded down.  Below is with it unfolded and she's showing how big I made it.  I do believe she is sucking in her belly just to prove a point that I messed up.

I never did finish the hem, since it's a knit I really don't have to.  But really, what's the point if the kid isn't going to wear it, right?

The Color Run, Atlanta

I signed my man and I up for The Color Run along with our two oldest.  Everyone wanted to go, but with all our kids, we just couldn't afford it.  Friday night I realized that I didn't really prepare for the run; not only do I never exercise, but I also forgot to find someone to keep the other kids.  So I sent child #4 in my place (who really wanted to go more than any of us).

If you don't know what The Color Run is, it's the happiest 5k on the planet - where they throw colored powder at you during the race.  The only thing they ask is that you wear a white shirt.

Derek was sweet enough to take plenty of pictures since I couldn't be there myself.  Well, in reality, we all could have gone and the rest of us could have been spectators - but honestly, I love my bed at 7:00 in the morning, which is when they left for Atlanta.

The below picture shows how good this color is .... these two guy's shoes are black!

I think we'll have to save up money and hope that The Color Run comes back to Atlanta next year so we can all have fun!