Because apparently taking your children to a college football game is abuse. Well, at least to my two kids. We never do anything that my husband wants to do. This is what he tells me anyway. I won't mention the 7 days we spent in Wisconsin this summer or the RV open house that I thoroughly enjoyed last summer. That's all beside the point. Last weekend we had the chance to get 4 tickets to a college football game. Knowing this would make my husband happy and being the fantabulous wife that I am, I bought them. I figured it would be cheaper to spend $30 for two tickets for the kids than paying a babysitter for all afternoon/evening.
That night at dinner we told the kids that we were going to do something super fun on Saturday afternoon. Maybe I built it up too much but they should know by now that I totally exaggerate. We told them that we would be going to the game and the complaints started. Why would we torture them so? Why did they have to go? My daughter had NOTHING to wear to the game! My son just said he wasn't going which I thought I could at least count on him for excitement. Guess not. I promised my daughter that I would get her a new shirt before the game. With the team being blue/orange, I had strict instructions to get nothing with orange because it was not flattering with her hair. I figured if I could pass that test, we may have a chance of having a good time.
Friday comes along and I'm off to the mall to get shirts for myself and the two kids. The mall even had a special - buy one, get two free. It was like sporting wear destiny. I remember the "rules" and only get a navy/white one for my daughter. That afternoon, she declares it's hideous and can't wear it to the game. She wanted something girly and glittery - not what I got. Now typically, I would just say tough BUT it was too small on her and my sons was too big so we head back to the mall. She finds the "perfect" shirt which is grey, hot pink and silver. Totally team spirit there.
Game day rolls around. I'm already $80 into this adventure from the tickets and new shirts so I'm determined this day is going to be great! We head to a quick soccer game and then home to quickly eat and go to the game. Hysteria breaks out as we are leaving because Dad informs daughter that she isn't wearing flip flops. Daddysaidwhat? That news did not go over well. Why wouldn't we let our extremely graceful daughter wear flip flops held together with a paper clip? We'd only be walking two miles to the stadium. (Dad's way too cheap to pay for parking.) Tears and drama and ten minutes later, we have shoes on.
We get there and walk (2 miles) with our emergency rain ponchos in our pockets because it may rain. We are ready for a good time. I'm walking by myself because my husband has pointed out some players parents and I ask who that is and he's completely appalled that I don't know and is now 17 paces ahead of me. Either that or it's because I have a rain poncho in each back pocket and it looks like I'm wearing an adult diaper.
We find our seats and the game starts. About 10 minutes into it my daughter asks when it's going to be kick-off. She's as sporty as her mama. Luckily, we are winning so the fireworks are making my son happy. 12 minutes into the game my son is so hungry he can't possibly survive another minute. He may pass out. Did I mention we ate lunch right before we left the house? I tell him that as soon as the kettle corn guy comes by, I'll get him some. He makes it his personal mission to flag this guy down. The jumbo tron camera keeps zooming the crowd and I can just see it now - my son waving like a maniac but at least people will think he's just cheering.
We make it until halftime with out too many issues. The grandma behind us gave the kids suckers, she must have been worried he was really gonna pass out. His was gone in 2.7 seconds while my daughter had to scope out the grandma and witness her own grandkids eating them to make sure they weren't poison before she ate her's. Maybe she was making sure her brother didn't pass out from it first?
Halftime leads to a walk, snacks and drinks. Can I just say that next time, I'm smuggling in food instead of ponchos. We come back to our seats to see it had rained a few drops. My son is so disappointed he didn't get to put on his poncho. One drop hits his arm and he declares that he's soaked and wants to get the poncho on. The man in front of us thinks this is hilarious. I don't because I know we'll never be able to fold it up again and there is no way my husband is throwing away a poncho that cost 99 cents if it didn't even get used a sufficient amount of time.
More complaining, a few touchdowns, snacks eaten and we are finally to the last quarter. There was a time in there that it was tied and I started to panic that it was going to go into overtime. I've showed the kids the giant clock so they can't ask me "how much longer?" anymore. They don't understand why the blessed clock keeps stopping though and their dad has already explained 1st down to all of us at least 3 times and isn't about to explain anything else. I was thinking we'd be home around 5:00 and it's already 7:15 so obviously I'm clueless! We are just about home free with only 6 minutes left and then it takes a turn for the worse.
My daughter had gotten a new slap bracelet the day before at the book fair. It was the last day of the book fair and it was the last zebra striped bracelet and it was her last $2 - so basically it was fate that she was wearing it. She had continuously slapped it on her wrist throughout the game with me saying "please stop doing that" but apparently I don't know anything. She was in the process of slapping it on again and I gave her "the look" and she did it "just one more time" to be a brat and oops....God don't like ugly...and it went bouncing down the bleachers. It's rubber so it bounced quickly out of sight. Of course not as quickly as the drama unfolded. The bleachers are packed so we can't really see where it went. We ask the people in front of us that have had to listen to the complaining the entire time. They quickly look because they don't want it to get worse. Nope, it can't be found. I assure her that we will look after the game. As she watches the giant timer get closer to zero she's panicking because she knows with everyone moving, it's going to get kicked even further out of reach. How will she finish 5th grade without this zebra bracelet that's she's only had for one day and only gotten to slap 778 times? Luckily, as people start to leave, she has the chance to go down a few aisles and someone in front of us actually sees it and gets it for her. We thank him profusely for saving us a huge amount of drama and start the long journey back to the car with the bracelet firmly in place. (no more slapping, just wearing, because mom is always right.)
All in all, it was a nice day. The weather was beautiful. I think we ended up spending way more and didn't save any money by not getting a babysitter but we have our memories, right? My son's dreams were crushed that he didn't get on the big screen but he got kettle corn so that made up for it. And most importantly, we got to do something that my husband enjoyed.
He actually just asked what I was blogging about and I said the game. His reply was "Are you telling them how awesome it was?" Apparently we were at two different games.
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