Minsy Gets Some Tiger Pride

Minsy is sporting her new Tiger t-shirt.
Sadly they only had one in an 18-month size.
Even more sadly, it totally fits Minsy.

There are a few things that are distinctly American, and high school football is one of those things. With Minsy I have looked forward to introducing her to things like this ever since she arrived on American soil. I love to watch the wonder on her face as she takes it all in. Tonight was the first game of the season for the Waynesville Tigers, so it was the first opportunity we had to bring her to a game. And we had a blast.

It felt really, really weird to be having a high school football game before school had even begun for the year. Normally we would have already started at this point in the year, but this year Waynesville is not beginning until after Labor Day so that the brand new 6th grade center could be completed in time for the first day of school. This means that the fall sports have already begun even though we are not yet in session. I wondered if that would keep the number of people attending the game down, but it didn't seem to. Maybe there were a few less students than normal, but overall it seems as if this first game was well attended. We arrived a bit late for the game because for some reason I thought the game began at 7:30, but it actually started at 7 pm. We took our place in our usual area, right in front of the Waynesville cheerleaders. I'm not sure how we always end up in this section, but it's been our spot for the past fifteen years. (And I should pause for a giant EGAD! now that I realize that we've been coming to Tiger football games for 15 years. I can't believe that we've lived here that long.) We're almost regulars at this point.

I was a bit worried about how Minsy would handle being in the middle of a huge crowd for so long, unable to really see or understand what we were looking at. Sometimes at events like this she gets really antsy, causing us to need to leave early. But at the game tonight she had so much fun.

The first thing that she noticed was the Tiger mascot. It's hard not to notice a giant stuffed animal roaming the area. Minsy has a sort of love-hate relationship with large animals, whether they are real or fake. Apparently she had a bit of a freak out when she came to the high school this week with Laney and Savannah to get Savannah registered. There is a giant bronze (Is it bronze? I don't know. It's some sort of non-shiny metal.) statue of a tiger. Minsy was not thrilled with it at all. Well, tonight she saw our mascot and was fascinated. Spencer told her that there was a chance that the tiger would eat her ... because that is what Spencer says in moments like this one. Minsy said, "No Tiger!" ... except when she said Tiger she pronounced it more like "tijer." Kinda cute. Then she waved to the tiger and decided that the tiger really needed to eat some popcorn instead of snacking on small Asian children. So she kept grabbing handfuls of popcorn and holding them out to the tiger. Only the tiger couldn't eat the popcorn because we were sitting like fifteen rows away from it ... and it's a costumed person (hard to get the popcorn through the breathing holes.)  We were going to have to get her closer to have her own one on one Tiger mascot experience. Katie, Hyrum, and JoJo volunteered to take her down to the field level to get closer. And ...

She was terrified! She would not look at the guy/girl/Tigerthing.
Oh well!

So Minsy's intro to the Tiger mascot did not go so well. At least she didn't seem to be too traumatized by the experience. I don't think that she'll end up with latent fears of stuffed tigers or anything like that. When she got back to our seats she still insisted on calling out to the "tijer" and offering it some delicious stadium popcorn.

How about this fancy giant Tiger tunnel that the players
get to run through before the game?
Our boosters spare no expense for our team.

Let me just tell you, Herman is so loud at these games. So loud. I am still amazed after all these years of marriage that such volume can come out of his mouth. I am sure that if I was sitting on the opposite end of the bleachers I would be able to pick his cheers and yells out over ever other person there. At times this can be a bit overwhelming for a shy person like me who would prefer to blend into the crowd, but I will admit that Herman does always make the games more exciting as he cheers on the Tigers. And Minsy loved hearing her daddy yell so loud. Soon she joined in, yelling "Go Tijers!" as loud as her little lungs would allow. And that was not very loud at all. But it was super cute for those in our immediate area who could hear her.

I don't think that Minsy has ever really seen a cheerleader before, but she LOVED watching the WHS cheerleaders. She would cheer when they cheered, and she would clap when they clapped. I loved to see her have so much fun watching them and mimicking their actions. We may have a future cheerleader on our hands. I will say that if she stays so tiny she would be the perfect person to top the cheerleader pyramids or get tossed high in the air.

This is kind of a funny Laney face. Sorry Laney!
You know we think you're beautiful!

At one point Laney came by to grab Minsy and take her to the student section for a bit. That must have been a treat for her. Minsy is definitely a crowd pleaser, so she loves hanging out with her adoring fans. I was happy to see Laney back in the high school swing of things. I have worried a bit about how her transition back to regular high school would be after her year off to home school, but so far it seems as if things are going wonderfully. She jumped right in with a group of her friends to watch the game, and other than her brief time grabbing Minsy and then bringing her back, we didn't really see her at all.

Of course we were there to see the wonderful game ... which, by the way, Waynesville won in a thriller 26-21 over West Plains with a last minute touchdown. And I gotta say ... we got lucky with this win. Things looked pretty dire until the very end. But Herman and I were really there to see the band and root for Savannah in her first marching band season.

The Waynesville Marching Tigers!

I have to admit that it was kind of strange seeing the band perform at this game. Normally at this point school would have been in session so that the band would have had several extra marching practices. So far this year they only had a few weeks of band camp, so for this performance they didn't wear their uniforms or march at all. They just gathered together at mid-field and played their songs. I can tell that their program will eventually be really awesome, and I can't wait to see it. I will say this ... the percussion section was AWESOME! They sounded amazing! Savannah is a tuba player, for those of you who don't know. You can  pick her out of the picture above because she is the one brass tuba. All the others are silver. She will be getting a brand new silver tuba sometime next month. Hurray! Watching her hold that gigantic instrument while she played made my shoulders hurt. I can't imagine how she is able to do that. And in a few weeks when they start doing the actual marching program? That will be amazing to see. How do you hold an instrument like that, play the right notes, and go running across the field for the program? That takes some super human skills, I think. Herman made sure to show the proper amount of parental pride by yelling at the top of his lungs, "GO SAVANNAH!" and "GO BAND!" She has really matured a lot through the years because instead of hiding her head and pretending that Savannah is actually some other poor sap in the band, she actually turned to where we were sitting, smiled and acknowledged Herman's shout. Way to go Savannah!

Overall this was a really fun experience for the Blau family! It has been awhile since we have brought all of our kids to the games. Last year Savannah stayed home for a lot of them so we left the younger kids with her a lot of the time. But this ended up being pretty fun, so we'll probably bring the whole crew along this entire year. I'm glad that Minsy enjoyed the game. I can't wait until it gets a lot colder for the games because I bought this super cute Tiger hat in China when we were there specifically so that she could wear it to the Waynesville football games. She hated wearing it in China ... probably because she realized that it really was a ridiculous hat, but maybe she'll be happy to wear it here to a football game when she realizes it helps her to fit in, especially with giant man-sized fuzzy tigers!

I had to add this picture. Katie is giving a giant hug to Esther Malone.
Esther played Maria in The Sound of Music two years ago when
Katie played Gretl. Katie LOVED Esther! Still loves her!
She cried and cried whenever the musical was over, and
for awhile she called Esther every night. Now Esther
is headed to college, but Katie got to see her one
last time before she left. Makes me smile. :)