af2

Last week we discovered that we have an arena football team near us. It is in the af2 league which is basically the minor league of the main arena football league.

On a whim we found out that they were playing that Friday and we just decided to go.
I was a little leery about taking the kids. They are pretty young. But they had a great time. There was a lot of music for them to dance to and cheerleaders to watch and scoring to cheer for.

Frances even seemed somewhat interested when I tried to explain what they were trying to do on the field. I don't think she completely understood but she did figure out that they were playing some form of catch. The next day, she found a plush football and asked me to play catch "like the guys".

I almost caught a T-shirt twice. Both times I got a hand on it but couldn't pull it in. It didn't help that each time, I had a child in one arm.

But that was made up for when a girl about Frances' age came across the aisle and gave Frances the shirt that she had. (We think it was a "first X number of people get a shirt" promotion.) We really don't know why this girl wanted to give it to Frances. (We also think that she might have wanted to give it to someone else further down but her mom wouldn't let her go any further.)

The kids got a little tired for the second half (game-time was only a little before their normal bed-times). They weren't acting badly but it was obvious that it wasn't as much fun as it was at the beginning of the game.

When it was down to the last play of the game, I explained that if they scored, they would win but if we stopped them, we would win. She said in a tired little voice, "Then we can leave?" I told her yes.

The whole thing was a lot of fun. I would recommend it. And the kids slept great that night.

mwz