Dressing Up

Spring began warming us gently this week, giving our winter wardrobes a welcome break and providing our skin with some welcome vitamin D. Our week was full of dressing up for at least five different reasons.

I. Dr. Seuss Week: An excuse to wear costumes to school. The elementary schools celebrated Dr. Seuss Week during the first week of March. Was that even a thing when I was a kid? I can't even remember. A quick internet search reveals the root of the week to be March 2nd, Read Across America Day, established on Dr. Seuss's birthday. I guess dressing up each day of the week around March 2nd is kind of like elementary schools' homecoming week-- a chance for faculty and students to have a little fun being silly. Rose and Amber enjoyed it. Each day, Rose and Amber selected their themed dress-up gear. I was impressed that they even dressed up for their Zoom meetings on the three days of online school. 

Hat day, version one. Amber ended up leaving the headbands home.

Hat day!

The kindergarten headgear continued with the Dr. Seuss theme.

Crazy sock and hair day: Rose did her own hair.

Amber accessorized her own hair on crazy hair day too.

II. Our first home cross country meet: Dress like a coach, which means layer on the stiff polyester school apparel. I have been in the coaching game just long enough to recognize how important it is to be easily recognized as a coach when we're at meets. So even though I generally avoid smelly ill-fitted polyester athletic apparel, I wore it all for our first meet of the season. It wasn't just any meet either. Jeff and I planned and hosted Sunnyside High School's first home cross country meet in over ten years on Wednesday! It was a dual meet, with just two schools. It was so nice to stay in town for a meet! Another school traveled to our campus to race us--such a novelty! I was worried it would be hard, stressful, and crazy to host our own meet with just our two person coaching staff made up of Jeff and myself, but with Jeff's meticulous planning and a small army of parent volunteers, the meet went impressively smoothly! 

I took zero pictures at the meet (busy busy busy), but I snuck this selfie in while Jeff and I were admiring the gorgeous list of PRs and places on the meet results later that night.

A friend took this picture during the meet: Jeff and I are in the background behind the runners, totally immersed in coaching.

Jeff is dressed in his coach's polo in this funny snuggle picture. Rose was trying to read and Amber was pestering her. Rose was getting annoyed at Amber and Jeff decided to mitigate the situation by joining Amber in Rose's bubble and doubling the pester-situation. Rose's face says it all. It makes me laugh.

III. First warm weather mountain bike ride of the year: I biked in shorts! It has been warm enough to run in shorts off and on for a while now, but biking is a different story. All of that breeze generated by pedaling requires more clothing than running. On Thursday, however, it was finally warm enough to bike in shorts! I was nervous about being too cold (few workouts are more miserable than freezing on a bike ride), so I wore knee high compression socks to give my legs a little heat, and a windbreaker to cut the breeze. It turned out to be the perfect combo, and I rode a handy 17 miles in comfort. I felt so streamlined, without my baggy wind pants flapping in the breeze as I pedaled along under the warm sun. It was a good ride.

Orchard roads: mountain biker's playground. Why don't these hard steep hills look like much in pictures?? I was huffing and puffing at the top of a climb, taking a short break when I snapped this picture.

SHORTS! And fingerless biking gloves instead of my massive warm thick winter riding gloves.

IV. New pants for Jay: During our last cold snap, I noticed that several of Jay's favorite pants had holes in them, so I ordered him a few new pairs. Right when the pants came in the mail, it got warm enough for Jay to go running outside in shorts. Of course it's still chilly enough for pants plenty of the time, but it is definitely less cold than it was, and Jay needs his new pants less than he did when I ordered them. Who knows if he'll still fit any of them by next fall. Oh the joys of sudden seasonal shifts! 

I didn't take any specific pictures of Jay's new sweatpants, but he's wearing them in this random breakfast picture, and probably also wearing them underneath the blanket in the couch picture.

V. Beginning a 100 day challenge: The company Wool&, source of my much-anticipated everyday lightweight merino dress, challenges its customers to wear the dress for 100 days in a row, for at least 8 hours per day. Participants who complete the challenge receive a $100 gift card to use as store credit. The challenge is simple; I just have to email the company to let them know I'm attempting the challenge, take a picture of myself wearing the dress every day, and upload the pictures to the Wool& drive at the end of the 100 days. Why do this? Well, why not? 

I like minimalism and the ease of not having to choose what to wear each day sounds grand. I love merino wool so much and enjoy exploring all of the quirky companies that have cropped up around that blessed fiber. But mostly, it goes back to decision fatigue. Decision fatigue is real! Why max out my decision making abilities all in the first ten minutes of my day while figuring out what to wear? I realize that I could wear the same thing every day if I wanted and it doesn't have to be this particular dress, but it is fun to participate in a challenge that so many have already completed rather than striking out on my own. I began the 100 day dress challenge on March 2nd. So far it's been a breeze, tossing on the flowy comfy dress with nary a thought each morning. It has been a bit of a challenge wearing the dress for all 8 hours each day when I have cross country meets to attend, but I have managed it in bits and pieces so far. Six days down, 94 to go! Haha.

The dress, swathed in my blanket scarf to cut the chill of a sunny spring morning. I propped my phone on the trampoline to take this picture, haha.

Hello, sweet little baby crocus!

Now, for a few miscellaneous pictures that don't fit the dress-up category that I contrived for this post:

iPad kindergarten continues... the activity was teaching the sound of the letter "O" and the instructions were to put the overalls with objects starting in "O" onto the scarecrows. Amber got all of the others just fine, but this one stumped both of us. Process of elimination told us it was the right answer, but what in the world is that creature, and what is it holding? A cat? A bear? A mouse? We were LOST. Then I saw the odd tail hanging down and realized it was holding a fish in its paws. It must be an otter! Seriously, what kindergartener even knows what a real-life otter is or looks like, much less a bad cartoon version! HA. (FYI, the other scarecrow visible in this picture has an Oval on his overalls.)

Springy weather had these artists move their studio outside onto the trampoline one afternoon. They drew pictures of invented superheroes and then pretended to be their superheroes.

Our crooked row of crocuses, with tulips coming in strong behind.