Oh yeah, baby! 8 and 0!!
(alongside a tea party and a shotgun demonstration for the new boyfriend...trust me, keep reading!)

Our most excellent Bama football season continued on Saturday, with a very convincing win over Tennessee. If you read my last post, you know that I take the act of watching football very seriously and there are certain rules to be followed while doing it. Well, on Saturday, most of the rules were followed as we gathered for a really fun party to enjoy the Bama-Tennessee game. The party consisted of all teenagers and then Gary and I (Gary said he invited some "grown ups," but they all declined when they found out that there would be eight teenagers in our house!). We had a blast, though, and here are some pictures to prove it.

I provided appropriate game-time snacks and decorations...


There was even a cigar for the celebration (a tradition with the Bama/UT game is that Bama players, coaches, and fans celebrate with a big ole stogie after a win). I found an old cigar that we had been given at some point at the birth of a baby (notice that it says "It's a girl" on it!)...
And then we were mostly dressed appropriately in Alabama attire...


Sydney was excited about the evening not so much because of the Alabama game (although she did wear her Alabama cheerleading outfit and yelled "Roll Tide!" at actually very appropriate moments during the game, without any of us even encouraging her to do so), but because it meant she was hosting her traditional Halftime Tea Party. She made invitations for all of the kids coming over and then they attended her tea party at halftime of the game. There is nothing like seeing thirteen-, sixteen-, seventeen-, and eighteen-year-olds drink tea with a four-year-old...complete with "pinkies out" and British accents. They are so sweet with Sydney and she thinks they are awesome! It was quite the party...Pip Pip Cheerio (as Sydney instructs them in saying!)...



But this post would be incomplete without a picture of Gary cleaning his shotgun before the party begins. Now you must realize that Gary really didn't need to clean his gun and he hasn't gotten out of the closet in months (since last hunting season), but he felt that Saturday was a good day to do so since McKenna's newest boyfriend was coming over for the party. Gary has a very strict policy that any boy must first talk with him before he and McKenna can go out on a date. From the time she was a toddler, he has joked that he'd "be cleaning his gun whenever a boy comes over for McKenna," and so far he has lived up to it. McKenna is, of course, completely mortified...but, I think, also secretly impressed that her Pop cares so much for her. The boyfriend, Jordan, did fine and just segued straight into a conversation about rifles with Gary. When Gary asked him "Why in the world would you want to go out with my goofball daughter?" he answered, "She makes me smile." I guess that was a pretty good answer, huh?

Here is the picture of Gary and his shotgun as proof (can you say, Scrapbook Page and great story to journal?)...

I hope that you all had a wonderful weekend. And thanks to all of you who cheered for my Crimson Tide (some of you, apparently, are cheering for them even though your family and those around you have no clue why in the world you're doing so. Ahh, the power of blogging friends!).