Her 9th Birthday...

I have some blogging to catch up on! I'll dedicate this post to our celebratory birthday weekend for our baby girl, and my next post will be for Christmas. Nana & Poppi are in town. We made special plans for Madeline's birthday, to see the Vikings play the Texans in Houston! They played on Madeline's actual birthday. So we took Nana & Poppi down to Houston. The day before the game we went to the Houston Space Center and then celebrated with a birthday dinner at my Oom & Tante's home. Above is Madeline at their home as we were singing her happy birthday. The picture next to it was on her 2nd birthday - she's grown SO much! Where is my baby!?

Stephen wanted to take his Dad to the Space Center because he spent so many years working for McDonald Douglas and Boeing working on many space equipment parts. Dad certainly enjoyed it and I think if we hadn't rushed through the exhibits at the kid's pace he could have spent all day there reading about everything!

We got to see their new Saturn V Complex Rocket Park as well as go inside the Mission Control Center building. While we were viewing the real Mission Control room and seeing a live feed of the astronauts in the space station this is how I found James. :) Okay so maybe he won't grow up to be a rocket scientist or an astronaut. :)

The morning of Madeline's birthday we woke up bright and early. Had breakfast with my Oom and Tante, said our goodbyes and headed toward the stadium 3 hours before game time. Stephen wanted to park and tailgate. At this stadium you have to pre order and purchase your parking passes, you cannot purchase them game day. They were outrageous prices, so we just winged it. Parked right across the street at a somewhat ghetto parking lot, but the Asian owners said it was fine that we BBQ'd so we made the best of it. All the Texan fans smiled as they walked by us and we even met some Viking fans who joined us in the tailgating!

About an hour before the game we walked over to the stadium. Can you tell by Stephen and Dad's expressions we were excited?

The crowds there were just a sea of red and blue but we found a few in purple and gold! The guy in the Viking costume wasn't allowed to bring in some of his costume because I guess security said it was dangerous. This couple did some tailgating with us. The lady had bought new Viking earrings for herself and her sister but when she found out it was Madeline's birthday she gave them to her instead. Madeline said this was probably the most favorite part of her day. So sweet of this lady.

Here we are ready to rock and roll and start the game!

This was the view from our seats. Even though we were in the nose bleed section, the view actually wasn't that bad. And for some reason we ended up in a Viking section, there were fans behind and in front of us!

This was the kids and Nana's first time to a NFL game. Madeline wanted to understand how the game worked. By mid game she finally got that each time each team had possession of the ball, they had 3 downs to get 10 yards. She said it made the game more exciting now that she understood how it was to be played.

At half time we were up 13-3. GO VIKINGS!

And we ended the game with a W for a win! 23-6 was the final score. And I think Stephen heard somewhere it was the first game the Texans hadn't scored a touchdown (they only got 2 field goals) since 2006! Way to go Vikings! It was a ton of fun and I think everyone had a great time! When we left the stadium many of the Texan fans displayed good sportsmanship and some even congratulated us on the win.

After the game we drove back home to Austin and arrived late in the evening but still managed to take Madeline out for a birthday dinner. James got her a birthday balloon next door to the restaurant at the Dollar Tree. It was a great birthday weekend!