Clemson Dresses + A Trip to Tiger Town

We are HUGE Clemson Tiger fans and were overjoyed with their recent 2016 College Football National Championship win, defeating the Alabama Crimson Tide 34 to 31. It was an intense game, with Clemson quarterback Deshaun Watson throwing the game-winning touchdown pass to Wide Receiver Hunter Renfrow with just one second left to play in the game!

This was the Tiger’s first National Championship win since 1981! We wanted to be part of the celebration which included a parade and trophy presentation the following weekend. This was Sophie and Audrey’s first trip to Clemson, a momentous occasion that called for custom Clemson dresses!

I used McCalls M6022 pattern to make these Clemson dresses. Purple is Audrey’s favorite color, so I made her dress with purple chevron fabric. I used an orange fabric with tiny white polka dots for the hem and neckline. Sophie dress has the reverse colors with orange chevron trimmed in purple polka dot fabric. I monogrammed a tiger paw on the bottom left of each dress.

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To keep warm, they wore their Clemson dresses with long sleeved shirts and leggings. I hope they can get some more use out of them this summer as sundresses. Here they are celebrating the Clemson win with their Dad:

We took Friday off from work and traveled to Greenville, SC which is about 30 minutes from Clemson. We took the girls to the Children’s Museum of the Upstate which they thoroughly enjoyed. It’s one of the largest children’s museums in the country with over 80,000 square feet of exhibits spanning 3 stories. There’s a giant monkey bar type structure in the lobby that spans all three stories of the building. We literally could not get them off of it! They would’ve been content to climb this thing for hours!

The Children’s Museum also has a water room, a giant outdoor play area, a market, a farm, a place to build with blocks, explore weather, do arts and crafts, film a movie and make all kinds of things. You could spend a whole day there and never run out of things to do! It’s definitely worth the trip if you’re ever in upstate SC.

Eventually we were able to round them up and head out to Brixx Pizza for dinner. Dinner with kids required reinforcements….

We were up bright and early the next morning to grab some breakfast and head to Clemson. The hotel had a breakfast buffet and Audrey wanted to try “some of that yellow stuff” (aka scrambled eggs). Sophie had a severe allergic reaction after eating scrambled eggs at 9 months old. After that experience, we’d never tried to give Audrey eggs. Although we definitely didn’t want to spend the day of the National Championship parade at the emergency room, we somehow agreed to let Audrey try the “yellow stuff.” Thankfully, she was totally fine! In fact, she loved it and ate two helpings!

After breakfast, we headed to Clemson and I swear had to park more than a mile from the stadium. There were soooo many people! We brought a stroller for Audrey, but Sophie had to walk most of the way and complained the whole time! Eventually, Robbie carried Audrey for awhile so I could push Sophie in the stroller. With all the hills in Clemson, we were worn out by the time we reached the stadium.

Although I’d planned for them to wear their Clemson dresses, they insisted on wearing their cheerleading outfits! We got a great spot right in front of the entrance on the hill. Clemson’s stadium, known as Death Valley, has a grassy hill that the team runs down before each game. Coach Dabo Sweeny and team planned to enter down the hill for the trophy ceremony.

Since we were at the end of the parade route we had to wait quite awhile, but there was a cute little monkey wearing a Clemson shirt that kept them entertained.

Finally the team arrived, lead by Deshaun Watson and Ben Boulware who were riding on an orange Jeep.

Somehow I missed getting a photo of Dabo Sweeny but he was riding with his family in a convertible and Robbie got to shake his hand. After the parade we made our way into the stadium for the trophy ceremony. Sophie and Audrey were super excited to see the place where the tigers play and wanted to go all the way to the top of the stands.

Sophie and Audrey weren’t very interested in the award ceremony, and just wanted to climb all over the bleachers. I kept taking Audrey to the bathroom so I missed half of it. She’s very recently potty trained and had not gone to the bathroom since we left the hotel. With the drive, walk and the parade it has been a loooooong time and I was so afraid she was going to have an accident. But when she finally needed to go, she told me and we made it in time! Yay Audrey!

After the ceremony we wandered around downtown Clemson for awhile and Sophie and Audrey took photos with the tiger statues.