Sick Days and Football

McKay woke up with a sore throat and a little fever this morning.  I'm hoping we're not starting another round of strep.  He slept until 10 and then dragged himself out to the living room wrapped in a giant blanket.  While I showered and got ready for the day, he watched all of the NFL playoff games…yep, the ones from last month that he's already seen.  He is deeply entrenched in football these days.  He made me sit with him and watch the end of the Cincinnati game because he really loves the Bengals???  I really don't know what determines his loyalty.  

And then when we could endure no more TV, he went into his room and played with his Legos.  McKay has always been a Lego kid.  He can sit  for hours and work on some elaborate construction.  After a few minutes, he came out looking for the iPad.  He said he needed it for the details.  

The afternoon went on while he continued working on his Lego project.  He kept the doors closed until it was completely finished and a proper unveiling could take place.  I cleaned a closet, filed some stuff, worked on a RS talk, made dinner, picked up two different girls from two different schools, and still he worked…

Finally, late into the night, after I came home from Enrichment, he was ready to show us his masterpiece…

Do you recognize it?  Maybe this will help...

It's MetLife Stadium (where the Super Bowl is being played this weekend)

Let me give you a closer tour of McKay's replica…

the Press Box 

 that's Peyton Manning in the helmet

 and Pete Carroll in the blue and black 

this is a retractable net behind the goal post that actually works!

 and that thing suspended in the air is an aerial camera…of course it is.  

Let me just mention that I didn't know who any of those people were last night during McKay's tour of the field, and he named ALL the players!  I thought Peyton Manning still played for Indianapolis!  But after listening to all the stats and McKay's predictions for the game on Sunday, I definitely feel much more prepared to watch.  Did you know that if the Broncos win, Peyton Manning will be the second oldest quarterback to win a Super Bowl?  Well, I didn't.  And I don't know who the first oldest quarterback was but I'm sure McKay does.  He talked himself to sleep giving me the stats about all the past Super Bowls.  He was shocked at how much I don't know.

I'll leave you with an aerial shot of McKay's MetLife Stadium…

It's amazing to me that THAT stadium up there came from this pile of bricks…and one very creative little mind.

And one more funny thing…

Just before I went to sleep, I woke McKay up to make sure he went to the bathroom, and in his half asleep state he said, "It's not halftime yet."  

Yep, we're eating, breathing, and sleeping football around here these days.  

State Champions!

Football playoff games at Cowboy Stadium are one of the amazing perks of living in Dallas.  I LOVE this place.  And since I would NEVER in my life be caught dead at an actual Cowboys game, this is the best of both worlds...high school football and an amazing stadium  to watch it in!  

The game didn't start until 8:00pm, but we decided to leave at 4:00pm so that we could stop for dinner on the way and still be there in time to get good seats.  

Everyone felt like hamburgers and since the final days of my way-too-carnivorous year are rapidly coming to an end, I agreed.  This place is a total DIVE, but holy cow! the hamburgers were amazing.  If you have to have a last hamburger of the year, this is the place to have it!

When we got to the stadium, we realized that about 20,000 other people also had the same idea to get to the stadium early, so we texted the Rods (who are always our backup when we don't have good seats) and we made our way up to Section 313 where they had already been for an hour before we arrived.  

Cowboy Stadium is a little like a maze, though, and we ended up snaking through the hallways on the upper levels of the stadium.  Flowering Buttercup found a soul mate, though, so we stopped to take a picture.  (I have no idea which Cowboy this is.  I wonder if he knows he has ice on his head??) 

 

I tried out the panorama feature on my phone because you can't really capture Cowboy Stadium without it.  

We sat in Section 313 at about the 30 yard line with 15 of our favorite Allen Eagles fans.

I'm not sure that I really even watched the game on the field, though, because this giant Jumbo Tron (which is as big as my whole house, I think) was so beautifully distracting.  There were almost 50,000 people in attendance at this game!

Here's the band on the Jumbo...

The game was amazing and exciting and I had to jump to my feet more than once to cheer my head off!  And after a pretty intense 4th Quarter, we all celebrated our State Champion Allen Eagles.  Love this team!  Love this high school!  And LOVE LOVE LOVE Cowboy Stadium.  What an amazing way to end a great season.  

High Five for Football

It's been an ALL-football month in Allen.  

1.  Mass transit is the only way to go to SMU.  

2.  We ventured onto the train with three of our neighbors and their kids.

3.  When we got to the stadium, we met a few other families and all sat in the same section...right next to the band!!  SO much fun to watch a great game with people you love. 

4.  Halftime was amazing.  But it's always amazing, right?

5.  And, by the way, we happened to WIN this game, 51-36.  In fact, we were ahead the whole game!  So much for those intimidating other Eagles.  

I wrote a H54Football post because now that we've won all the playoff games, guess where the Allen Eagles will be tomorrow night!!  At Cowboy Stadium for the State Championship Game!  We can't wait.  Stay tuned for one more football post before the month is over.

High Five for Friday

 

 1.  Good friends make a crappy day SO much better.

2.  Allen 37, Skyline 17  (Region Champs!)

3.  Lunch with Amy on Tuesday at Jason's Deli

4.  My new favorite store/website.  Super cute stuff!  www.worldmarket.com

5.  Brothers who are pilots and can fly into Dallas just to have a late dinner.

The Last Home Game

Last night was the last home game of the season.  It was also Senior Night.  This is always a sad night for me.  Even though we'll play another handful of play-off games and even though the seniors will still be hanging around for another 6 months or so, I always get a little glum at the end of this game.  It means the end of another season of football games, spirit wear, socializing with Allen Eagle fans, and watching that amazing halftime show.  It will be way too long before next fall rolls around and we get to do this all over again.

Look how gorgeous the stadium looks at night!  I LOVE this place!!

It was an absolutely perfect night for football...70 degrees and breezy.

Tuffy the Eagle

It took awhile to make that first touchdown, but we finally did it just before halftime.  Phew!

The stadium was completely packed last night with Allen and Plano fans. 

Tonight's was the first home game that we've had in a month, so this was the first opportunity the band had to dress up for their traditional Boo Bowl.  It's pretty hilarious to see the costumes they come up with.

This is our favorite Tallenette and Flowering Buttercup's BFF! 

Here's what happened after halftime that I didn't take any pictures of because I was too busy biting my nails.  The score was close through the whole game.  In fact, they were leading for a good chunk of the first half.  By the last minute of the 4th quarter we were up 35-28.  With 35 seconds left they scored a TD...eek!!  And then they went for the 2 point conversion...eek!!  But thankfully their receiver dropped the ball and the game ended with Allen 35 Plano 34...Phew!!  We were already the district champs, but holy cow! that was way too close.  Super fun game though...the kind where no one leaves the stadium until about 10 minutes after the game ends because they're all trying to remember how to breathe.    

Football players shaking hands with their adoring fans...and tons of security to keep us all from rushing the field.  :)

This was the first game that we've been able to talk Spell Girl into coming to.  She's strongly opposed to hanging out with us at football games.  But since Flowering Buttercup was babysitting and June was at a birthday party, we convinced her that she would have so much more fun with us than just sitting at home alone.  Hooray for Spell Girl!  I think she even liked it a little.

We have had so much fun in this new stadium with this awesome football team.  Unfortunately there haven't been enough Rodriguez moments for us this season, but hopefully next year we can coordinate our tickets and sit near them.

Congratulations Allen Eagles on winning the District Championship!!  <3