More Crappy Football

We went to yet another crappy Terps game on Saturday. This time we got to sit outside in the cold and rain just to see them lose again. They had 5 turnovers and lost 34-13 to Rutgers. Great. At least I got to hang out with Jill!


And that's all I have to say about that.

Movin' On Up

On Monday, Peyton officially moved into the 2 year old classroom at daycare. Technically, he is now in a program called Discovery Preschool. They work on learning more things than they did in his old class. However, he is still already smarter than a lot of the children in his class (so his teacher has told me).

I have mixed emotions about the move. I'm sad because I can't believe Peyton is almost 2 already. It seems like just yesterday that he was born. I'm also sad because Peyton and I both loved his old teacher. I'm happy though because Peyton likes his new teachers too. One is the former director of the center so he knows her well and the other is very into her job. I'm also excited that he's learning new things.

(And, I'm not going to lie - I'm estatic because tuition is much cheaper!)

Peyton barely gives me hugs goodbye in the morning now and I have to drag him out of the room to go home. I think that means he likes it, which makes me feel at ease.

Peyton's First Terps Game

On Saturday, we took Peyton to his first Terps game. Here he is before we left for the game. Isn't he just the cutest thing ever?

My dad and Jeremy came down to our house and we left for College Park around noon. Maryland played Middle Tennessee State and the game was scheduled to begin at 3:30. We wanted to get to College Park early to tailgate though.

Us before the game

It was National Pirate Day, so Jeremy was decked out in his pirate finest. You can't really see it in the picture, but he's even wearing a hoop earring. He said many "Arrr's" throughout the day. We also heard lots of pirate jokes.

Peyton liked tailgating because he got to eat lots of food. He ate so many Doritos that he was covered in bright orange cheese. He also ate two hot dogs, some macaroni salad, and a brownie.

After he filled his belly, Peyton tried to play some tailgate golf. It was quite unsuccessful though, because he couldn't figure out how to throw the balls straight ahead. They kept going sideways. He even hit Jeremy in the head and a car parked next to us (oops!). Thankfully, they didn't notice!

We decided that tailgate golf was not a good idea, so we played catch with a football instead.

Around 3:00, we packed everything back up and headed over to the stadium. There are several of these turtles, each painted differently, scattered around the campus. This one is outside of the Comcast Center where the basketball team plays.

At the stadium, Peyton was ready for the game with his foam finger. He couldn't quite figure out how to wear it properly though. But, he tried!

We enjoyed the pregame show by the band. Peyton was cheering "Go Terps!" and clapping as the game began. I tried to teach him the motions to the fight song. We'll keep practicing that.

With 8 minutes left in the first quarter, Peyton passed out. He woke up early and didn't get a nap in before we left for the game. I guess all that tailgating wore him out! He slept through the first Terps touchdown, which included lots of cheering and two cannon blasts. It was only 73 degrees, but there were zero clouds in the sky, so it was quite hot. Peyton and I were both soaking wet when he finally woke up, about an hour later.

Three generations of Terps fans!

Unfortunately the Terps suck and lost the game. Middle Tennessee kicked the winning field goal with 2 seconds left. I could point to lots of reasons for the loss, like the Terps inability to tackle, a missed field goal with less than a minute left in the game, and four turnovers. You're not going to win when you play like that, guys.

I think Peyton had a good time at the game after he got his power nap in. He cheered, danced, and clapped. Next week's game is at 3:30 too, so depending on the weather, we may take him again. Hopefully Maryland can win one with him there.

Random Pictures

I have these cute pictures of Peyton that just didn't fit into any other posts, so I thought I'd add them here to share with everyone.

Peyton and his BFFs Mickey and Minnie

Basketball

Baseball
"Hammerburgers"

Mr. Cheeser

At the mall

Peyton in his winter hat

(which he found and now wears constantly!)

Terps game

As if Saturday wasn't busy enough, we headed to the Terps game in the afternoon. This is our 6th year of having season tickets. I can't believe we've been going that long. We unfortunately had to miss Austin's birthday party yet again this year because of the game (so sorry, Austin!)

We left my parents' house around 2:00 and headed down to my dad's work which is just a few minutes from College Park to pick him up because he was stuck working earlier in the day. We ended up getting to campus around 3:30. We set up the tent, table, chairs, and grill. Then we played a few riveting rounds of tailgate golf (or so it was called on the box). Kyle beat all of us. Here's Jeremy getting his toss on.

Kyle and I in our brand spankin' new jerseys. Cute, huh? (We're reppin' the 810, haha)

My dad cooked us a delicious meal of hamburgers and hot dogs. We had Doritos on the side and Berger cookies for dessert (YUM!).

We lost track of time and were late getting over to the stadium. We missed the whole pregame, so we didn't get to see the band do their 8,000,000 beats per second drum line thingy. (I can't explain it on here...) Oh well, there are 6 more games this season, so I'm sure we'll catch it eventually.

Go Terps

The Terps played James Madison University. They're Division IAA and yet, the Terps almost lost the game. It went into overtime. In our 6 years, it was the first overtime game we've ever seen. There was also another first for us - there was a kickoff return for a touchdown. Exciting stuff. The Terps played like crap, but they ended up winning and we had a good time.

Next week, we're bringing Peyton to the game with us, so that should be fun!

Sesame Street Live

On Saturday, we went to see Sesame Street Live. Peyton is really into Sesame Street right now and was very excited to see all of his 'friends'.

He held on to his ticket so tightly!

Peyton, Kyle, my mom, Jeremy, and I went to the show. My dad was supposed to come, but he ended up having to work, so Jeremy came in his place. I took lots of pictures (91!) and videos, and I showed them to him, so he still felt like he was there. Ha. We had really good seats, just 7 rows from the stage.

Here's us before the show.

The theme of the show was "1-2-3 Imagine." Each of the characters got a postcard delivered to them by the mail lady, Sam. Then we all imagined that we went to the places that the postcards were sent from.


This is pretty much what Peyton looked like through the entire show. He sat with Kyle for the first half, and then he sat with Uncle Jer for the second. Peyton didn't blink for an hour and half! He also didn't move, except to wave at the characters. He did a little dancing as well.

Before each scene, we had to imagine that we were in the special location on the postcard. There were three steps: 1 - Close your eyes (demonstrated by Peyton below), 2 - Imagine, and 3 - You're there!

There were lots of scenes. First, we visited Rosita's grandmother in Mexico. It was her birthday, and we learned the Spanish words for things like 'house' and 'party'. Next, Ernie imagined that he was a captain on the high seas. Bert was his first mate. Then, Bert imagined that he was under the sea. It was Sam the mail carrier's turn to imagine next. She took us to a tropical island, where we learned the word 'aloha' and did the hula. We visited Elmo's World, where Elmo was thinking about dogs. And finally, we imagined that we went away to camp, where we met Baby Bear's aunt and uncle. Here are just a few pictures from the show.

After each song was finished, Peyton asked, "More, more?!" Each time a new character came out on stage (which happened about a hundred times as most of the characters were in every scene), Peyton yelled, "Hi Oscar! Hi Oscar! Hi Oscar!" while waving fanatically. He was quite disappointed when the show was over. We stopped for one quick picture with Elmo on the way out. I think we all enjoyed the show (even if Jeremy and Kyle won't admit it!).

Renaissance Festival

On Sunday, we went to the Maryland Renaissance Festival. It's located in Crownsville, right near Annapolis, but I had never been before. Some of Kyle's friends from work were going, so they convinced him to come along. There were so many people there though that we never even saw his friends.

This is what the grounds look like when you pull up. There is a castle right up front. Throughout the grounds, which are located in the woods, there are lots of old-timey looking buildings. There are vendors set up in the buildings selling all sorts of things from food and beer to period costumes and leather items.

I thought this would be a cute picture. Too bad Kyle was standing to the side, because now you can see me standing behind the tree as well. Oh well, I guess.

This stage was the first one closest to the main gate. When we arrived there was an act going on. We only caught the tail end of it, so I'm not sure what was really happening. But the guy was talking in a fake British accent and telling jokes, so it was sort of interesting.

The next show was a juggler, so we decided to stick around. Peyton loves when Kyle juggles, so we thought he'd like the show. We went up to the front of the area and got second row seats so that Peyton would be able to see. The juggler was kind of crappy, because he kept messing up. He juggled three balls and then some clubs. He could only juggle five clubs for about three seconds. Lame!

He did do some cool tricks with these cigar boxes. He was very skilled at balancing stuff on his head.

For the grand finale, he had some audience members come up on stage to hold this rope. Kyle got to participate! Look how thrilled he is...

The juggler got up on the rope and walked across it a little bit until he was standing over a man that was laying on the ground under the rope. Then he juggled three knives. The guy laying on the ground looked terrified, and frankly I don't blame him because that juggler messed up so many times earlier in the show. But everything worked out in the end.

Next, we wandered around a little more. Peyton was hungry so we bought some food. Then we happened upon a playground area for the kids. Peyton saw it, so you know he had to play. There were slides, swings, and a big wooden pirate ship.

We had to drag Peyton out of there. There were just so many kids that it was nuts and he was littler than most of them, so I was a little nervous that he was going to get hurt. He didn't want to leave, but we won.

We watched some people playing different games like throwing battle axes and trying to 'Drench the Wench'. No one was even getting close to hitting the target to drop the girl into the dunk tank, so Kyle had to try. He wasn't anywhere close either!

There were free pony rides and free elephant rides. We didn't participate in either though because the lines were long and we weren't confident that Peyton wouldn't freak out.

There was a jousting arena set up, but we just missed one show and the next wasn't starting for two more hours. We walked around a little more but then it began to rain. So we, and everyone else, headed for the exits.

It was a decent day, but not something I'm sure we'll ever do again. It is probably fun to go there with your friends and sit around and drink all day. But Peyton was just too young to enjoy most of the shows. He was antsy sitting through one show, and that one was probably the most appropriate for his age. There were tons of inappropriately dressed women there. There should be an age and weight limit for some of those costumes. I saw way too much cleavage for one day. It is sort of comedic though, because some of the people were really into it.

We stopped at Chevy's for dinner on the way home. Peyton experienced cantaloupe for the first time and loved it. After dinner, we headed home and relaxed for the rest of the evening.

Maryland State Fair

On Tuesday, we went to the fair. My mom picked Peyton up from daycare a little early and took him up first. They bought some wrist bands so that they could ride the rides for cheap. Kyle and I met at home and then we drove up to the fair too. The traffic was just horrific on the way there, so it took us over an hour to reach the fairgrounds. Shortly after we got there, my dad met us too.


It was dinner time when we got there, so we grabbed some food and settled in to eat. We found a table that was close to where the pig races were going on. There were three or four races with four pigs in each race. It was pretty lame, except that the pigs had funny names like Hillary RodHAM Clinton and Brad PORK (like Pitt, get it?)

Peyton visited with the firemen before Kyle and I got there. He got this cool hat.

After we ate dinner, Peyton and Grandmom rode some rides. First, they got on the merry-go-round. Peyton loves these now.

Next up was this flying elephant ride.

Then we headed over to this caterpillar ride. They enjoyed it so much (especially my mom, haha) that they rode it two times in a row.

Finally, Peyton rode the motorcycles. He really liked this ride, and rode it two times in a row as well.

It was starting to get late, so we thought we should head over and see the animals. There was an area where we saw lots of animals including a miniature pony, goats, sheep, a llama, bunnies, chickens, geese, turkeys, and ducks. Peyton even got to pet one of the little baby ducks. He said it was very soft.

We went to check out the cows next. They are stinky. But Peyton moo'ed at them and one even answered. They had quite the conversation.

Finally, we went into the stables to see the horses. Last year, Peyton was terrified of the horses. This year, he was a little more calm around them. But he still didn't want to pet this one, even though my dad did.

We took a quick trip through the exhibition hall. We collected some free swag. Peyton got a football and baseball. I got a slap bracelet. And Kyle got a coozie, thermometer, and chip clip. Random, but exciting!

We left the fair around 8:15, which is right around Peyton's bedtime. Kyle kept him awake the whole way home, which was surprising. He was singing songs and making animal noises. I think he slept well that night.