Heartbreak!

I decided to compromise with the family during Saturday's big game. My in-laws came into town so I left the almost-three year old at home while taking my six-year-old son to the game. He was very, very excited:



That was until things started getting ugly. I started convincing my son to cheer louder by telling him we wouldn't get another snack until after the team scored again. That was a heck of a motivator. He's never really had to watch a game like Saturday, so it was a learning experience about heartbreak. He seemed to be okay with it, probably because he was high on sugar from tailgate cookies and Sprite.

The emotions on the hill were incredible. For one thing, I don't think I've ever seen so many people crowd onto the grass like they did for Saturday's game. My husband and I were lucky to have my father in-law in town so he could take our son out to the hill long before we wrapped up our tailgating fun. My father-in-law also built little wooden seats that make it MUCH more comfortable to sit on the hill. It also gave me a little more leverage when I stood and cheered for the Tigers during the game. My husband spray painted the seats yellow to keep in the theme of Black and Gold. The kids' wooden seats even have "M" painted on them. We only do things classy up in the grassy "cheap seats."

The Family Season Ticket Challenge

I have two kids. They LOVE going to the Tigers football games. Each game we pile them into the car, park in our super secret parking spot (not that secret but we don't want anyone else going there) and we sit on the hill with the kids on a blanket. We bought the cheapest possible season tickets since we planned to hill sit the whole time -- A two year old and a six year old aren't that great at sitting in the stand without kicking the people sitting in front and wanting to get up and down and up and down.

We love the hill. The view is great. The freedom to move is so much better. But there are challenges:
1. My daughter has almost tumbled down a number of times. I have to use all of my super mommy strength to snag her before she rolls into another group of people - or worse - into someone's food.
2. Bad weather isn't as pleasant on the hill. We lucked out during the last rainy day when someone gave us better seats than our cheap seats that day -- but that won't always work out as well. We'll have to decide if we want to just mud up life or try out the cheap seats.

But I'm facing a real challenge with next weekend's game. It's a night game and I'm pondering over whether I should take the kids or not to the game. The six year old could handle it... but it's the little one I worry about. She loves to tough things out when it comes to football. She LOVED attending the rainy football game last month. But she is two going on three and when she misses too many hours past bedtime, things get kind of ugly. I have a great example from last Friday when we stayed at the Roots 'N Blues BBQ fest too long. But it's so hard for me to hunt for a babysitter when our whole family can be there together. I'd love some thoughts. It's not like my kids will be able to say they got to go to all the home games from the 2008 season again!!