Hawkeye Basketball

To break up our drive back from Moline, IL to Des Moines on Sunday, we took the kids to their first ever Hawkeye Basketball game at Carver Arena.  The game was at 1pm, which is usually melt down hour before nap time, but the kids did surprisingly ok.  Henry LOVES sports, and liked sitting and watching the game with his dad.  Hannah on the other hand was a little more antsy.  We walked around and got hot dogs, ice cream, and went to the bathroom a few times to occupy our time.  She loved seeing Herky.  They made it through the first half, and then got into a fight over the iPad, so we made our exit with two screaming kiddos.  The awesome part was, the slept the entire.drive.home = awesome ride for mommy and daddy. 

Watching all of the excitement while Daddy parked the car. 

Loving the awesome, huge, ice cream cones at Carver!  Check out Hannah's new adorb Hawkeye bow. 

Iowa's Superbowl

The week of the Iowa vs Iowa State game is one of my favorite weeks of the year.  It is fun to look back over the past years to see how much these kids have grown.  Here the kids are just a year ago HERE.  And check out two years ago HERE when Hannah and Georgia were just a few months old! 

The rivalry between the two schools is so serious, yet so much fun!  I wear black and gold all week long, and also dress the kids in Hawkeye gear all week long.  On game day, we hosted and had some of our favorite friends over.  Even though one of our, not to be named in this post -Kelly Eagle - is a fan of the Cardinal and Gold team, we still allow her to come over on game day:) 

With game time at 2:30pm, we knew we were going to have to be very creative about tackling nap time.  Andy and I took our kids up and got them both sleeping, then Erin got Peyton asleep in Henry's bed (Henry was not in his bed, he was in our bed), and then Kelly got Georgia asleep in our guest bedroom.  All four kids slept through the first half!!  It was awesome and couldn't have worked out better.  The kids woke up ready to play through the second half and into the evening. 

How cute are these friends??!!

Henry refused to get in the picture with the girls - he wanted to be in a picture "All By Myself"!

Young love??!!

Family pic.  Still somewhat happy after the Hawkeye loss.  Love football season!!

Hawkeyes at the Well

This past Sunday we took the kids out for their very first basketball game.  The Iowa Hawkeyes played in town at Des Moines Wells Fargo Arena.  It was a family event.  Brianna, Brian, Danielle and Brian all in attendance.  Henry was very anxious all day to attend.  He kept saying 'I am going to my very first basketball game today!'.  As you can see in the picture below - he loved it! 

Hannah wouldn't leave Brian's side.  I love the picture above.  You can see that Brian is watching the game while helping Hannah at the same time!

Henry sitting on Aunt Danielle's lap watching the Hawkeyes poor performance...

Hannah enjoying some crackers on Aunt Brianna's lap.

The kids were angels the first half of the game.  They sat still, listened, behaved themselves.  I was so impressed!  At half time we got up to stretch our legs, and it was over after that.  Once they knew there were places they could run around they wouldn't sit still.  So we had to leave a few minutes into the second half.  It is a fair statement to say the people below and next to us were a little (lot) annoyed.  Especially after Hannah threw a water bottle on one of them (lid closed thank goodness).  That was our cue to leave.  The Hawkeyes were down by 30, so we were done with the game anyway.  Next time we will get a babysitter for Hannah.  Henry would have made it. 

My little Hawkeye fan!!

COLLEGE!!

I loved college.  I love Iowa City.  I love the Iowa Hawkeyes.  I love my husband.  I love my friends.  I love to party.  Put all of those together and it pretty much sums up my weekend. 

My weekend started on Friday, around 4pm when I attended FAC for the first time since college.  My sister and I went to Martini's, a bar that is owned by the same owners as Vito's, which is the restaurant/bar Andy and I met at and worked at in college.  Who would have known 10 years ago that getting a job at Vito's would have led to this life!!  And to think Buffalo Wild Wings turned Andy down for being a cook - I can't thank them enough!!  By 6pm my girlfriends and their husbands started to trickle in to join us, bellied up at the bar.  It was so fun to all be back to our old stomping grounds!

We ate dinner at Givanni's, a fabulous Italian restaurant in downtown Iowa City.  We had our own upstairs area, which was perfect for our group of 12. 

Saturday morning Andy and I were up bright and early to set up the tailgate.  Props to my wonderful husband for picking everything up the night before and for setting everything up Saturday morning.  I have to say, he did a great job.  By 9am the troops were rallied from the night before and our day began!

My parents were down at CoralRidge Mall getting the kids pictures taken.  So I had them bring them by to meet everyone.  I was so excited the girls got to meet Henry and Hannah.  It meant a lot!



Amy (8th month prego!), Anne and me.

 

Anne having a heart to heart with Henry about the train and how his mommy is 'so silly'.





Warming up Amy's yummy chili on the grill!

 

The girls!  Jessica, Anne, Emily, Megan, Me and Amy.

 

Tailgating.  So.Much.Fun.



Even Henry and Hannah got to join for a few minutes!

 

Megan's 4th time holding a baby!!  Honored it was our little Hannah!!



Train ride to Kinnick!



Go Hawkeyes!



Me and the hubs.

Beautiful day for a great game!

Lucky for us, my phone died, so I was unable to capture pictures of us later in the day.  Here are some bullets that sum it all up:

• Watching Iowa win and chanting I-O-W-A!
• Airliner for pizza and beer after the game
• Union front bar for shots of patron and lots of dancing
• Megatouch!! 
• Marco's grilled cheese sandwiches
• Losing phones, jackets, and forgetting to close out tabs
• Losing husbands
• Learning that the new trend for college kids is 'Doc Shoes'
• Having so much fun it hurt bad the next day

I'm already looking forward to the annual XO tailgate next year!!  Until then, get ready Iowa City.   



We Love the Hawkeyes!!

Football season has finally arrived!!  That means every Friday is Hawkeye gear day at school and work for the entire family.  Check out the kiddos gear, especially Hannah's adorable Hawkeye dress. 

Both kids were so good for me this morning.  They must be very excited for the weekend!!

Hannah got some new kicks this weekend too.  She can run even faster now. 

We head to my parents house tonight.  We will get up bright and early tomorrow morning and head to Iowa City.  So excited I can hardly stand it!!

Go Hawkeyes!!