best night

friday night we went to the brewer's game with matt's work and it turned out to be a wonderful evening at the ball park! unlike last year, matt had arranged for an official tailgating spot so there was much more room and it was less stressful with the kids (the regular parking made it difficult to keep an eye on them because you had to cut between cars to get to the food, etc.).

the tailgating was a little rough on mason because he had to spend most of the time in his stroller because the parking lot asphalt isn't really ideal for crawling. next year we will bring the pack-n-play for baby #3. madelyn was in heaven. everyone was happy to see her and more than willing to say "hi" back to her when she greeted them. not to mention there were lots of cookies and other special treats.

one of the ladies set up a "princess castle" in the back of her car with madelyn's toys where madelyn spent most of the pre-game.

and then she got to "say hi and give high-fives to the sausages. and then i said bye." the racing sausages are always a crowd pleaser and they made their way through the tailgating area. matt was able to take madelyn over where she got her picture taken with almost all of them.

and then the moment that madelyn had been waiting for was finally here - game time! she actually cried when we started setting up in the parking lot because she wanted to go into the stadium. as we were making our way up someone (whom i am pretty sure had a fun time pre-game) called to us, "go brewers family!" of course madelyn wanted to know why he would say that. so i explained that we were all wearing brewers shirts and we are a family. she had already put on her jacket, and zipped it up per usual, so she didn't believe me that she was wearing a brewers shirt. she always tells us that the "m" on her shirt is for madelyn, but she unzipped her jacket to take a look and was very pleased to see that she was indeed wearing a brewers shirt.

as we walked in both kids were given pennants (that are now hanging in their rooms). then madelyn found a penny press machine so we got her a "bernie brewer" penny. we were barely inside the stadium and madelyn was ecstatic! she didn't want to say "go brewers" until we were in our seats so we made our way towards the section. after a bathroom stop, we sat down in the second inning. we were sitting right under bernie's watchtower where he slides down after each home run and were explaining it to madelyn when there was a home run. it was almost on command because she said, "i want to see him slide," and "crack" there was a home run. slide, splash, and fireworks. then madelyn said she wanted to see it again - and there was another home run! and then there was another one! she got to see it all three times in the same inning.

after that she was given a 'rally towel' with bernie on it that was handed out before we got to our seats. she really liked this and mason liked playing peek-a-boo with her. mason did beyond great! because of everything else we had going on friday, he had only gotten about one hour worth of napping all day. he was so tired but he never cried or fussed. he even sat still wonderfully during the game (i think we were there four or five innings) - way better than madelyn did at this age.

and then the icing on the cake was ryan braun throwing a ball up into the bleachers - right to matt. madelyn thinks that it is so cool that "daddy caught a ball in his hand" for her. but i must say that at the game she was probably more excited about the bag of popcorn someone gave her in a ziplock bag with the sliding closure.

we stayed just a little bit longer for the sausage races and then left a little after 9. both kids were in bed by 10pm. it was a very late night and we could not have been prouder of how they both behaved. a great time with the family. love.