Color Run = Color FUN!

One of the super fun things we did to kick off Gary's Sabbatical was to run our first family 5K!  

And by first family 5K, I mean the first one for every single one of us.  Need I remind you I'm not a runner?  Miraculously, my legs did not break by the end of the run.

Before you read another word, go to the Color Run website NOW and register for the 5K near you.  They are selling out like crazy, so seriously, don't waste another second.  We ran the SoCal (Irvine) race last month.  I'm sorry to report that the Denver race for next weekend sold out long ago, but I assure you that we will be among the first to register when it comes back around next year.  This is easily one of the funnest things our family has done together!

It works like this: every runner is encouraged to start wearing white t-shirts.  Here is Team Osborne all in white and ready to run:

The starting line is a sea of white t-shirts, just ready for a color explosion.  Here's Chloe, gearing up for the race with her white t-shirt, Color Run tattoo and headband.  Check out that game face.

Along the race route, volunteers are stationed at every kilometer marker with buckets of colored powder which they toss at you when you pass.

(Image taken from http://thecolorrun.com/about/)

Seeing the "poofs" of color in the distance was exciting, knowing you were nearing the next marker.

And here's Chloe again after the 2nd kilometer, with the yellow and green color on her.  As you can see, she was having the time of her life.

But Brody, who was in and out of the stroller along with Addie, really was having fun.  Do you see Aunt Heidi and Emma over there on the right?  Emma ran the WHOLE TIME.  So proud of that girl!

Just before the last kilometer marker where pink powder awaited us, Addie hopped out of the stroller and BOLTED.  We actually weren't sure where she was for awhile, but it turns out she finished before any of us!  Who knew a little pink powder would motivate her to full-on sprint to the end?  Here are Heidi, Emma and I crossing the finish line - look, I'm even smiling!  Running didn't kill me!

And here is our happy, colorful family at the end of the race.  

 

Ohhh, Chloe. All that running wears a girl out, huh?  Somewhere between the 3rd and 4th kilometer, Chloe succumbed to the color coma and fell asleep.  Adorned in her technicolor dreamcoat, we think she was very likely the most photographed little person at the Color Run.  After the race, we couldn't walk a few feet without someone jumping in front of our jogging stroller to take a picture of her, or asking permission to pose with her:

After the race, it was party time.  Loud music, tons of happy, free Slurpies and more.  

 

 Everyone was given a color packet like this (with the option of purchasing more):

 They're filled with the fine powder that is responsible for colorfying the entire race.  At the finish line, it's a color explosion and an absolute free-for-all including every color of the rainbow.  Everyone gathers together and tosses powder in unison.  SO FUN!

 

Emma and Addie became the life of the party when they got to go dance for the crowd up on stage and throw out color packets.  They loved every second!!!

A lot of people have asked if all that color came out of our clothes, our hair, the stroller... the answer is mostly.   After the race, there are volunteers with blowers to blow a lot of the color off.  But once we got home, we used an air compressor to really blow the powder out of everything. Our jogging stroller is fairly clean, and any color left is faint, and a good reminder of the fun we had.  

My advice would be to maybe cover it in old towels or trash bags if you really want to protect it.  The white shirts are not a crisp, clean white anymore, but we're okay with that!  After a couple of showers, our hair and skin were back to normal.  A few items didn't get the powder blown out completely and have some faded color stains from going through the water/laundry.  But you know what?  It's all worth it. 

I've also been asked if the colored powder hurt our eyes. Nope!  We all tried to wear sunglasses (I was additionally concerned about my contacts), but even when a little powder got in it wasn't too bad.  It's easy to just close your eyes when you're running through the color stations.  

You'd never believe she's standing next to the sign proclaiming "The Happiest 5K on the Planet!"  But really, it WAS the happiest.  I love that our whole family could do this together.  The run isn't timed, it's all about FUN.  It's for every age, size, and athletic ability.  So great!

Oh, and eventually, Chloe perked up.  On our walk back to the car, she decided to strut her stuff and get into the groove.  She's ready for next year!

To see The Color Run in action, watch this short video.  AND!  Watch for Emma throwing yellow powder at the crowd at 1:32.  She's famous!!!

We can't wait for Color Run 2013!

Sabbatical

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh.  Do you hear that?  It's the sound of life being AWESOME.

Gary is in week 2 of his 12-week Sabbatical.  Our church is generous in giving its pastors a Sabbatical every 6 years, and we are enjoying Gary's second Sabbatical this spring/summer.  We're so grateful for this gift.  And so are our kids; they are unbelievably glad to have Daddy around all the time for the next three months.

And I have a confession:  when he went on Sabbatical six years ago, I was nervous about having him around all. the. time.  But it turned out to be incredible, and I can't wait to see what God has in store for our family this time around.

The purpose of the Sabbatical is to offer rest and rejuvenation for pastors, and to get healthy in all areas of life while seeking the Lord.  During this time, he won't be going to work (although he will be planning and praying along the way), and so we won't be attending our church on a weekly basis.  Instead, we'll get to see how other churches do things and he'll get to learn from other leaders in his position.  Exciting!

What Sabbatical doesn't mean:  We are NOT in solitary confinement!  Are you reading this, friends and family?  We love our church family so much and it's actually difficult to think about not being intimately involved in your lives over the next few months!  We're still "allowed" to hang out with you, so don't be surprised when you see us and hear from us.  :)

We just got back from an amazing week-long kick off to Gary's Sabbatical in California.  Here's just a glimpse of some of the fun we had...

We celebrated Gary's Granny's 90th birthday.

We had a blast at Legoland...

Gary and I spent two days away (sans kids!) in Laguna Beach and Dana Point for silence and solitude, and during that time we saw WHALES just 40 yards from shore.  Amazing!

We had several days of fun family time at the beach, complete with sand burials and dolphins.

And a couple of other SUPER FUN things that I'll blog about later this week...

We don't intend to keep up this kind of pace for the next 11 weeks, but what a joy to launch into Sabbatical in this way.  Gary's posting a picture a day on his Facebook page to track his Sabbatical, and I told him that the pictures might start getting dull now that we're home.  A picture of him helping with the laundry... a picture of him taking the girls to school... but that sounds pretty awesome to me!

Our Most Expensive Toy

Any guesses how much this little yo-yo costs?  Maybe this will help you:  it's the first thing Emma ever bought with her very own money.

Here's another clue:

The plumber was here this afternoon, fixing the toilet that's been clogged since yesterday.  We immediately interrogated Brody, who denied that he or his toys had any part of the cloggeration.  We plunged that thing to death with no luck, so we had to call the big guns.  Brody waited by the door, so excited to see all his tools.

After draining it, he showed me on his magical plumber camera, that indeed, a toy was clogging the toilet.  I sort of thought that might be the case.  He put on some gloves and reached up there to try to get it.  After having no luck, I suggested that I could try, since my hands are smaller.  He looked at me incredulously and said that if I was serious he could give me gloves, but that it was up there pretty far.

Was I serious?  


Heck yes, I was serious!  Nothing grosses me out.  Little did he know I'd removed a floater from the toilet just minutes before his arrival.  Little does he know how many bottoms I wipe every day. Little does he know about those aquadumps that seem to happen every Sunday morning during bathtime.  He either thinks I'm totally disgusting or totally rad now.

But I decided that if he said it was up there pretty far, I probably couldn't get it either, no matter how petite and delicate my hands are.

A little more work later...

...and out came Emma's beloved yo-yo.  Brody said he didn't do it.  He said Chloe did it.... but admitted that he flushed it.  Hooray for teamwork.

As he pulled the yo-yo out, the plumber laughed and said, "I doubt you want this anymore..." but just as he was about to toss it, I lunged forward exclaiming, "ACTUALLY...!"

His wife must not be a blogger.

Anyway, that yo-yo?  $328.46.

To put that in perspective, that would buy about 90 pints of Ben & Jerry's.  And thus begins my diet.  *sigh*

What is... mortified?

Last June, I blogged about a little crush I had on a Jeopardy contestant back in high school:

Ahhh, Matt Morris.  Yep, there he is in all his Teen Tournament glory.  And there I am, in all my awkward high school glory.  I thought he was so cute, and it seemed totally normal that my mom would snap a picture of me posing next to him on TV.  Totally normal.

Well, last weekend I received an email that caught me by surprise:

Wait... WHAT?  So let me get this straight:  Matt Morris read my blog?  He saw that awkward, stalkerish picture?  I didn't know whether to laugh or cry.  In the end, I decided to laugh, and I laughed HARD.  And then just when I didn't think it could get more ridiculous or embarrassing, I got a follow-up email from the girl who dated him:

Wait, wait, wait.  WHAT?!  Seriously?  I had to use my excellent stalker skills to find his Facebook profile.  Sure enough...

Need a closer look?

Lovely.  When I asked Gary what he thought about his wife's picture on some guy's Facebook page, he said, "What is... disturbing?!" Ha ha!  I think it's hilarious.  I can guarantee you that 18 years ago when that picture was taken, I never thought it would be on Facebook, I never thought I'd be blogging about it, but most of all, I never in a million years thought Matt Morris would ever see it.

Hey, Matt Morris:  What is... a restraining order?  :)  Just kidding!

The girl who gave me the inside scoop about my Jeopardy crush blogs at www.eminnyc.tumblr.com.  Check her out!

Last, last, last, last-minute Valentines

Happy Valentine's Day!

It's not like I didn't know WEEKS ago what our plan for class valentines was, but in typical Angie fashion, we were finishing them up in the car on our way to school this morning.

Yes, I could've taken the pictures WEEKS ago when we decided what this year's valentines would be.  But instead, the pictures were taken last night around 5:30.

Off I sent them to walgreens.com.  They'd be ready in an hour, but since I had a hot date last night, I thought it'd be no problem to pick them up on our way home.  And that would've been fine... if the store was open that late.  The darkened entrance was a dead give away that my lack of planning skills had once again done me no favors.

Walgreens opened at 8:00 this morning.  School starts at 8:30.  Uhh, no problem.  I scrambled to get four kids and myself ready this morning in order to be there when the doors opened, but we got there at 8:15 instead.  With the tape dispenser in the back seat and the girls' hands working furiously to finish their Valentines, we drove the one block to school and Emma dashed inside, just a few minutes late, but with adorable Valentines in hand.  Addie finished hers in the car on the way to school after MOPS while eating her lunch.  Some may call it rushed and bad planning, I call it teaching the the life skill of multi-tasking.

It looks like I don't need to worry about valentines for another 364 days!  Whew.

Last year their valentines looked like this:

In case you want to plan ahead and make similar ones for next year (you could start now!), they're a breeze to make.  I just hung up a sheet/blanket as a backdrop (optional). Then I took a picture of the girls with outstretched arms.

Next I uploaded the picture to picnik.com to add the text and hearts, uploaded it to walgreens.com to get them printed, attached the candy, and voila!  Adorable valentines that are cheap, super easy, and totally cute.
 

Yesterday I was ready to wimp out and do the traditional perforated valentines, but the girls insisted on these.  I'm glad!  The scramble and the effort are worth it.

Maybe I should start next year's valentines tonight.  Brody will be in school and I'll have three sets to worry about.  Oy.

I Am A Material Girl

Even though the Broncos aren't playing, if I think hard enough, I can probably name the two teams that are playing.  But I can tell you who's performing at halftime in a nanosecond.

Madonna is set to take the halftime stage at the Superbowl later today, and I admit, I'm excited to watch.  I feel a kinship of sorts with Madonna.  You might not know it, but I was in the Material Girl video.

Well, okay, it was a remake.

A long time ago when MTV was barely born, my 2nd grade music teacher, Mr. Dennis,  had us break into groups to create music videos.  There was a catchy new song out called, "Material Girl," and Jessica, Kristen and I were going to nail it.  

We had a couple of days to choreograph and plan our big video debut.  We'd lip synced our song a hundred times, our hair was perfectly crimped and teased, and our neon leg warmers were in place.

I'm absolutely certain we had no idea what the song was about.  Madonna's message of living an affluent, extravagant life was lost on us 7-year-olds.  I'd never seen the video and it was probably many years later when I finally saw it for the first time.  And maybe that's when it hit me:  our version of Material Girl was so... different.

For a solid four minutes, my innocent 2nd grade friends and I traipsed around our music room, bobbing our heads, dancing, and flinging brightly colored fabric strips.

Fabric strips.  You know, material.

It's a version you won't see Madonna perform at the Super Bowl show today.  But as I sit and watch her perform today with some like-minded crafty friends, it seems appropriate that a bunch of material girls would be cheering on the Material Girl.  

Happy Super Bowl Sunday!