This is for my Sarah Beth. An account of her daily adventures and discoveries.

Took Sarah and Alex to Mighty Mud Mania today.  "What is Mighty Mud Mania?", you ask, it is a park, trucked in sifted, dirt and lots of water.  Apparently this is the 30th year or something like that.  A girlfriend suggested we go and I made the mistake of thinking it might be fun.  She backed out at the last minute and against my better judgement I decided to still go.  I had made the fatal mistake of telling Sarah that she would get to play in mud, so I felt bad about reneging on my promise.  I slathered the sunscreen on the kids, put on the grungiest clothes I could find, grabbed a bunch of old towels and we were off.  I think the highlight of the trip was taking the school bus shuttle to the event.  I'm sure the kids peed their pants when they saw the bus.  So, we arrived along with 1,000 other insane parents and their kids.  We made our way over to the toddler section and I walked the kids over to a mud hole and I said, "Ok, go play."  Sarah gave me a quizzical look and Alex just grunted, "No."  After assuring Sarah that it was ok to get dirty and jump in the mud she got right into it.  Alex on the other hand was a right old party pooper.  He didn't even try to touch a fingertip to the mud the entire time we were there.  Sarah on the other hand would have surely been swinging from the trees had I let her.  The event was very well organized and they had lots of things for the kids to play with.  They had water hose stations every where to keep the mud, well muddy and to "clean off" when needed (not to mention cool off since it was about 110 today).  They had water slides set up.  Big plastic tarps hosed down with water and soap spread over a sloping hill.  Sarah loved it, Alex didn't.  After a couple of hours I couldn't stand the heat and Alex was plain miserable, so I had to drag poor Sarah away from the mud.  There's always next year.  I already have it planned; go earlier, take less stuff and try to get Daddy to come to traipse around with Sarah.  I have this sidenote to convey.  I don't suffer from agoraphobia but, I really don't like mingling with the masses.  I am finding , in my old age, that my tolerance level for stupidity is quickly bottoming out.  As I stated earlier this event is called Mighty Mud Mania and anything you read advises to wear old, worn out clothes because everything but everything gets covered in mud.  Having said all this, I will award the Dunce Cap of the Day award to the mother I saw wearing a silk top, flouncey mini skirt, designer handbag and loads of jewelry.  To top it off I overheard her tell her daughter to ask the other kids not to throw mud.  HELLO!  That's like telling monkeys not to eat their shit.  Come on!  Anyhoo, my rant it over.  The other funny from today's event was overhearing the chant, "It's ok, go ahead you can get dirty."