it's goooooooooooood!!!!

 

29. Kick a field goal on an NFL field. - DONE!

This is another flashback post that happened WAAAY back in October.  I know, I keep posting that I have to get back to blogging...I am a work in progress with not much progress, huh?

Anyway, a little backstory.  One of the best things about being a Baltimore Ravens' fan is that this team does so so so much to involve the fans.  From the Spring Football Festival, to the Kid's club, and events on the field, and opportunities to meet and greet with the players, it really is pretty awesome.  For years summer training camp was also open to the public, but unfortunately it sounds like that is changing for good.  Regardless I have had wonderful experiences attending events sponsored by the Ravens organization, outside of the actual games.

One of my favorite events is the annual Purple ladies' night at the stadium.  Purple is the official women's Raven fan club, so it's a ladies only event.  They have player autographs, locker room tours, access to club level, information sessions with the coaches, on field drills, photo ops with the mascot and SB trophy...aaaannnnddddd the opportunity to kick a field goal on the field.

I have gone to this event several times in the past and had done pretty much all of these things, EXCEPT kicking a field goal.  So when I got tickets to this year's event, I knew it would be #1 on my list to accomplish.

Lauren went with me.  It was her first time attending, and she had a great time too.

We got to stand right in the middle of the field, standing on the crest.  AWESOME!

 

We got to see the lucky Raven statue the players all touch for good luck.

 

We saw the leftover notes from the previous game on the locker room dry erase board.

We took pics under the "Play Like A Raven" sign at the entrance to the locker room.

 

Posed for pics in the lockers.

Saw the lockers of some of our favorite players...

 

Ran through the tunnel.

Met "Rise" and "Conquer" the real live ravens who live at the Maryland Zoo.

Our autograph session time was 7:45.  Besides that, the only other thing we hadn't done yet was....KICK A FIELD GOAL!!!  So off we went to get in line.  It looked easy enough, right??

 

I lined up to kick, fully confident...

 

And at the last second they moved us over to "left kicking lane."  So I once again lined up to kick aaaannnndddd...

It went wide left. :-(

 

Lauren lined up aaaannnnddddd........

same thing.  That damn ball sailed wide left once again.

 

We walked away feeling a little defeated.  But it was time for our autograph session, so we didn't sulk for too long.

This was the scene on the field as we waited for our autographs.

We knew what we had to do.  We had to try again.

As soon as we had gotten our autographs, we headed back down on the field for round two.  This time, we insisted that we lined up on the right side (we both are right footed, after all).

Once again, I lined up first.

 

AND IT'S GOOOOOOOOD!!!!!!!

Next it was Lauren's turn..

AND SHE NAILED IT!!!!!!!!

Whew! Sweet vindication.  We celebrated like the game was on the line, there were 3 seconds left on the clock, and we just hit the game winning field goal.  Good stuff.

We got our picture taken with Capt Defense...

 

and I had to get a shot on the 30 yard line for obvious reasons....30 During 30!

 

Crossed another one off the list.  Thanks for joining me, L!!!!

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holy crapoly

It's been a freakin' month since I've posted.  Yikes.

And I have so much to write about, but seemingly no motivation.  Boo...motivate me, blogosphere!!

A lot has happened.

But, most importantly....

Sadira turned FOUR!

I know, I know, I really can't believe it myself, but it happened.  I'm now mom to a FOUR YEAR OLD.  I guess it's time I stop referring to her as "the baby?"  As in, "I'll be right over, just gotta get the baby dressed,"  or "let me call you back after I get the baby to bed," or "sure, I'll be able to come as long as I have someone to watch the baby."

Yeah, not so much a baby anymore. :(

I protested toddler.  I didn't really even begin to call her a toddler until at least age two.  I mean, whoever heard of a one year old toddler?  It's just ridiculous.  They're babies.  As long as you count their age in months still, they're babies.

But at two I finally gave in and started calling her a toddler.  But then she turned three and everyone started referring to her as a preschooler.

PRESCHOOLER?

HOLD. THE. PHONE.

There was not one single THOUGHT of sending her to school last year, so I refused to accept the term preschooler. 

NO WAY.

But then this year, she started school.  She was legit.  She was a preschooler.

And two months into her preschool career....she turned four.

SIGH.

FOUR.

It just sounds big to me....FOUR.  FOUR.  FOUR.

I have actual memories of when I was four.  I even had these little barrettes that said, "I am four" to drive home the point.  I remember them.  I remember being four.  I remember who my friends were and what my favorite things were when I was four.

And now my girl is four.  And now less than a year she'll be FIVE which is one away from SIX.  When just two weeks ago, she was THREE, which is just one away from TWO. 

TWO!!!!! 

How'd we go from two to six so quickly?!?!

I miss two. :(

But as far as birthdays go, this one was pretty rocking.  It started with her birthday party, which we celebrated on Saturday the 5th.  Per Sadie's request, we had a Dr. Seuss party.  It was a blast.  A couple dozen photos:

 

As you can see, one of her favorite gifts was her framed photo of her favorite Raven, Terrell Suggs.

A pretty successful party, if I do say so myself!

The next day Sadie, me, my friend Kerri, and Sadie's BFF Sean headed to an AWESOME pumpkin farm in Virginia for Punkin' Chunkin'.  The Ravens were playing a big game against our arch-rival the Pittsburgh Steelers, so we were all decked out in our Ravens' purple: 

That night Sadira tried her very hardest to stay awake to watch the football game...but this was the scene by halftime:

The next morning (her actual birthday) the first words out of her mouth were, "Mommy, did the Ravens win?"

Happy Birthday Sadie, they did! :)

I had another surprise up my sleeve...the night before after Sadie had fallen asleep and after the game, I had tucked Sadie into my bed and snuck off to complete her birthday surprise---a pink bedroom, something she's been asking for, for a very long time!  I'm going to save photos of the entire reno for another post, but I'll let the following photo speak for itself...

 

I think she liked it. :-)

The next was something I could never plan in a million years.  My friend (and Sadie's Godmother) Amanda let me know that Terrell Suggs (Sadie's fave Raven) was doing an autograph signing at the Hartford Mall.  Luckily tickets were still available, and on the day after her 4th birthday, Sadira got to meet her favorite NFL player, #55--SUGGS!!!

He really couldn't have been sweeter to the kids, and despite the store staff trying to rush everyone through, he was happy to let us take pics and talk for a minute or two.  I told him that Sadira has been a fan of his since 18 months (and I have the video to prove it!) and she mentioned it was her birthday.  He signed her photo:

 

And here is the part where he was asking her how old she was.  She told him "four" (that's why they're both holding up four fingers) and he said he has a daughter the same age.  He wished her a happy birthday and told her he liked her jersey. :)  She said, "it's yours!"

 

The face of one VERY happy birthday girl.

Our week was busy but FULL!  Perhaps we stayed so busy to keep me from dwelling on the fact that I HAVE A FOUR YEAR OLD!

FOUR!

As you can tell my head has been spinning over this.  I know it's so cliche to say, "they grow so fast," but seriously, if you are looking for a way to speed up your life, all you have to do is have a child.  The years will FLY.

All in all, four has been pretty good to us so far.  We've have a few meltdowns with some tears, where Sadie insisted she wants to go to back to being three.



And I can't say that I haven't joined in the crying with her, wishing for the very same thing!

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