First Purdue Game of the Season

Gooooooo Boilers! Tommy, Andrew, Pop, Aunt Erin, Uncle Doug and I went to the first Purdue game of the 2014 season.  Gaga stayed home with Charlotte. 

 We walked completely out of our way, following the direction of our fearless leader Andrew, to get to the ticket office.  Ah, it didn't matter.  We wanted the exercise, right? We wanted to sweat before the game even started. Ha!

 It didn't help that the ticket office was 100 degrees inside.  Tommy had to sit down and eat some snacks.  What are you looking at, swan?

 We picked out some sweet seats.  I always enjoy watching the cheerleaders.  We had long discussions trying to figure out which squad was which.  There were so many squads.  We had no idea what each one of them does. (Cheerleaders with dudes, cheerleaders without dudes, pom squad, dance team, baton girls? So confusing. I need a chart.) :) .  Might need some research to figure that out.

 The golden boys enjoyed some awesome bonding time. :)

 Here's Tommy sitting with two of his favorite things: skittles and Pop!

 Here's Andrew getting "left hanging" by Tommy.

 Tommy got a bit bored and decided everyone needed to see his belly.

Here's another Tommy-is-bored activity.

 After a righteous win (hopefully we see another win this season but no promises), we headed back to our cars.  Tommy loves riding on Dada's shoulders.

Charlotte was suited up for the game wearing Tommy's old jersey from way back when.  Must have given Purdue that extra bump for the win.  

I wanted to get a family Purdue pic but I didn't get that done. Next time hopefully! Here comes FALL! Yay football, cooler weather and changing leaves! 

Friday Night Lights

On Friday, we went to the West Side football game because my niece, Cec, is a varsity cheerleader.  We wanted to see her debut game.  

I don't have a paint app where I can draw an arrow to Cec on this picture so you'll just have to understand that she's in the center of this picture.  She was awesome! Fits right in on the squad as a freshman! 

Tommy had fun at the game but he did not want to sit still.  

 As you can see here.  He wanted to climb, climb, climb.

Andrew finally took him on a walk and he got to tour a firetruck.  SWEET!

Tommy ended up eating the cotton candy that I bought him even though he was a little suspicious.  (That's a good thing! We need him to be suspicious of new foods, just in case!)  The sugar definitely was a highlight though!
Happy First Football Game, Cec!

Spring Fest and Spring Game

Last weekend we took Tommy to Spring Fest at Purdue. Spring Fest is mostly known for The Bug Bowl.  

 EW BUGS! I never took an entomology class at Purdue but they were definitely famous.  The Bug Bowl has cricket spitting, insect petting zoo, honey tasting from real honeybees, insect fossils, and cockroach races.   This was a cockroach race at Roachhill Downs.  Tommy didn't know what to think of it.

 I did.  I thought the cockroaches were DISGUSTING.  I can't imagine finding something that huge without a sheet of glass in between us.  BLECH.

I had to get a picture of Tommy sitting in a chair in the classroom.  Maybe someday he'll actually be a student at Purdue, eh?

 We walked ran around the practice field before we went to the game.  WIDE OPEN SPACES!! MUST RUN!!

The game was super packed, as you can tell.  We could barely find a seat.

 We were able to sit close enough that when we yelled at Purdue Pete, he actually stopped and came up to say hi.  Can you see the pure joy in Tommy's face? Holy moly, he was excited.

 First the formal high five...

 Then it was time to freak out.  Aaahhh, he's too close to me!!!

 I love this family pic.  The look on Tommy's face cracks me up.  Picture with Pete: Do. Not. Want.

Before we left for the day, Tommy got a sweet workout at the athlete's workout center.

If you're wondering after all that if he took a good nap that day... well, nearly four hours ought to do it.

Football Saturday vs Wisconsin

On Saturday Purdue played Wisconsin. Andrew, Andrew's dad and I all went to the tailgate/game. 

Some friendly tailgaters offered us some drunken bears.  Genius idea.  Instead of using vodka, she used Malibu which made them taste even MORE like candy.  YUM-O.

The same tailgate also had a "passed out girl".  She was probably up too late the night before studying so hard.  She was obviously very tired.  When we came back from the game several hours later, she was STILL sleeping in the same place.  Impressive.

 When we went to the game, I tried to get a picture of someone sitting close to us but my husband is 13 year olds still.

 There! I got him.  This is the infamous Wendell Wolka.  If you are Purdue fan, I think you need to read this next little passage.

At first, people might not get the connection between Boilermakers and Pharaohs. Known as “The King,” Wendell Wolka wears a giant gold-and-black Egyptian Pharaoh hat to each contest to show his true colors.

After missing Purdue’s stunning 1974 upset of Notre Dame in South Bend because he didn’t think the Boilermakers had a chance, Wolka vowed to never miss another Purdue football game.

Wolka has kept that promise, now 415 games later. The streak almost came to a halt in the 1990s when he was required to show up in Texas on Saturday for a business conference. So what did Wolka do? Naturally, he drove from Milwaukee to West Lafayette for one play, got back in his car to drive to Indianapolis and then caught a flightto Houston.

Before he got married to his wife in 2007, Wolka made sure to ask her if she was prepared for 12 football games a year. Was she ever. The two rented the Boilermaker Special train mascot as their limo for the big day and now when Wolka attends each game in his Pharaoh style hat, she is at his side donning Cleopatra headgear.

Here's the pic from the article.  He was voted number 9 in the top 20 college football super fans based on their passion, loyalty, flair and celebrity status on campus.  I've seen him at every basketball game too.  He's truly a super fan.  

We were having trouble being fans at all that day.  It started raining. I was the only one smart enough to bring a raincoat.  The Thornburg Men look none too pleased. 

 Then we raced around at halftime to buy these super awesome ponchos.  Yes I bought one too.  My lap was getting soaked so I guess the raincoat wasn't THAT smart.

 After the game, we went visited the tailgate where my brother was chillin'.  Look at that tasty looking Purdue P cake. It was only in the rain for a little bit.  Yikes.

 I'm in to taking self-group portraits (is that a thing?).  So here's Adam, my fat face, the other Adam and Drewfus.

We came back home to Thomasaurus and Gaga.  They had a grande ol' time.  

Oh, my sweet little bucket head.

  

Then it was time to chillax and watch the evening foozball games.  Tommy takes this position on the couch now every single time.  It's hilarious.  He's so comfortable.  I wonder who he's imitating. ;-)

First Tailgate of the Year

This weekend we tailgated for the first time this season. We had a great time! 

We tailgated in the "Triangle".  This is a tree-filled grassy area in the Acres.  Our friend's parents bring their RV (so we don't have to use the portopots! Sweet!).  We bring food now unlike when we were in college... annnndddd bottles of water! WHAT? We care about how we feel the next day now? I don't understand. 

Also when you tailgate with people who are not on a college kids income (nor in their 20s), you get to hear live music.  Hey all you college students from the late 90s/early 00's, recognize this guy?????
It's Rich Hardesty!! Our neighboring tailgaters hired him to play at their tailgate.  Are you kidding me?
If you went to college in Indiana during that time, you might remember him from such drunk crowd ballads as "I Never Wanna ******' See You Again" and "Doobie Song".  Oh the memories.

We argued with Travis's dad that our tailgate was waaayyyy cooler than theirs.  We obviously won (being that we got to watch a Rich Hardesty concert AND had a flushing toilet).  But Travis's parents tailgate won major bonus points when Travis's dad marched along with the band.

We visited several tailgates that day.  I visited my cousin Christina's tailgate.  She made some amazing caramel chocolate rice krispie treats.  Yum!

 It was fun to see all the people from the wedding again.   Obligatory girl group pic!

 On that note, how about an obligatory boy group pic? This weekend was basically a big party for all the boys and they all stayed at our house.  All the boys except the ones on the ends.  The left end is Nate, a 6 week old baby, and the right end is his father, Jacob.  Neither of those boys stayed.  All the boys in the middle, AJ, Casey, Jake, Andrew, and Lower all stayed at our house.  Oy vey.

 AJ and Nate did a little manly bro bonding. Awww.

Not only was there a 6 week old at our tailgate but several other kiddies.  Here's Wyatt.  For some reason I love this picture.  He's snacking on some cheetos and saying to himself, "These boys are ridiculous."

 Wyatt's sister, Harper, was also in attendance.  Check her out in her Uncle Jake's shades!! She's so fab!

Here's Casey in those same shades of Jake's.  Notice the difference in head size.  Just kidding ya, Casey!

I came back early from the tailgate because my mom could only babysit until 5.  Katie, Laura, Wyatt and Harper came along too.  We had our own little at-home tailgate. Tommy and Harper played with fridge magnets.

The boys (as in Andrew and his friends) needed a ride home later than night so we sent Katie to pick them up while Laura and I babysat the kiddos. We put on Cars the movie and then tried to take a picture of all three of them.  Not a good plan.  Wyatt was pretty into the movie in this shot.

This is the best one I took.  Laura got a better one.  Still super cute though.  Awww.  Such sweeties. 

The boys LOVED the movie..... for about 5 minutes.  Then it was time to go off and play. 

 So it was just Laura, Harper and I watching the movie.  Harper got really into it for a couple minutes too!

 Then she was like, "Seriously? Don't you have Beauty and the Beast or Little Mermaid or something? Pah-lease!"

The kids had so much fun playing together.  Though after tailgating all day, it was still exhausting.... for them and us.

On Sunday once the weekend was nearly over, Tommy was so tired that even after his 2 hour nap, he decided to continue to nap on me for 20 more minutes.  He hasn't done that since he was a wee one.

Great weekend had by all.  Boy, is it different tailgating in your 30s.  A good different. ;-)