At the tailgate on Saturday Calvin decided it was time that he learned to use my good camera, and, because he's always so careful with his own things, we let him have a go at it. The first picture came from my dad's iPhone, the rest are entirely Calvin's doing. In other news, holy moly we're beginning the season with a 3-0 record, and that's great news!
football, photography ...and Go Blue! Both last week, then again, and especially, this week, have brought back to Michigan fans that once familiar enjoyment of watching a good football game. There are still improvements to be made, but that just adds to the air of excitement. We wouldn't want the season to be boring, would we? Go blue.
football It's that time of year again! The leaves are just starting to turn colors, 
the nights are cooling off, the rains are coming in, and the Michigan Marching Band can be heard practicing nightly, at least by those who live in the area. We had our first tailgate of the season today–a time to reconnect with good fall friends and good fall foods–and we even had an enjoyable football game following! The past few weeks many Michigan football fans have been walking around with big question marks hanging over their heads. 
What will the season be like? Who will be the quarterback? Will our coach be headed to court? And, really, we are still walking around with question marks hanging over our heads, but they might at least be a little smaller, since the game on Saturday was actually enjoyable to watch (easy to say, of course, since we won, but I remember a day when a game against Western was not question mark at all, and a win against Western nothing to celebrate). But 
regardless of the team or the game, the tailgate marked the beginning of a great season of parties to come.
Go blue!
football I had to do it - it's the obligatory cliche. The pictures from our Easter weekend are now up in the April 2009 album. It truly was a wonderful weekend. 
Friday was our Easter bunny day, and after visiting Creep E. Bunny (he's the one in yellow) at the local resale shop Calvin begged to go visit the bunny at the mall as well. Of course it didn't take much begging (ha, where do you think he got the idea in the first place?) since Creep E. Bunny didn't make for really great pictures, but on our way out the door a nice lady told Calvin the Easter Bunny would be coming to our house that weekend, at which point he walked back to Creep E. with a very expectant look on his face and I had to explain that it was all just a figure of speech. 
Keeping no secrets we'd already told him the bunnies would just be people wearing costumes, so I'm sure he expected the guy to actually show up for drinks and hors d'oeuvres or something. I actually had far less difficulty getting him out of the mall display where, while the bunny was much more inviting, the guy doing the jig behind the camera to make kids smile for their photo op was a little iffy. Calvin refused to take his eyes off that guy and I'm sure he was thinking something along the lines of "what institution did they just let him out of?" or at least that is what I was thinking. I'm pretty sure that I wouldn't do these crazy things if I wasn't a scrapbooker, but Calvin had fun just the same.
Having gotten the bunny visits out of the way, then, we spent the latter hours of Saturday decorating eggs. I say the latter part because the earlier hours were spent pretending it was fall. 
Who tailgates in the spring? Well, actually, tens of thousands of people this year, that's who. We've attended a handful of Michigan Spring Football games in the past, most of which amounted to a sprinkling of giddy tailgaters in the Chrysler lot, but this year was a whole different animal; an animal that wrapped itself all the way around the stadium in what had to be a three hour line just to get into the locker room for a quick tour. We opted out of that one, visited the inside of the ever-changing stadium (Calvin's first visit to that part of town!) and then retreated to our usual fall tailgating spot to enjoy the usual tailga
ting treats. Ahhh we love our tailgating crowd! But that brings us back to the Easter eggs, which was a resounding success. Who knew an almost three year old could color and dye eggs without making a mess? The whole hard boiled bit helps a lot I am sure (doubly so when you hear about the egg hunting situation), but the dyes and crayons stayed exactly where they ought as well. I was incredibly impressed, but I still would not have ventured such an activity while in our church clothes on Sunday. Instead we spent our dressed up Sunday afternoon going for a (muddy) 
walk on our (muddy) path to take some family pictures (which you already saw) before the extended family arrived for an Easter party. We then followed up said walk with a (slightly muddy) egg hunt in the back yard. You know how I mentioned the hard boiled-ness of the eggs? Calvin did a great job finding the eggs, and really seemed to get a kick out of finding each one, after which he dropped, and I really mean dropped, if not half threw, each one into the basket. Out of a dozen eggs I think three survived un-cracked. Did I mention that we will be eating potato salad for every meal this week?
Ahhh Easter. We hope yours was as beautiful as ours. With love, from the Ophoffs.
Lee Corso may understand play making and statistics, but he's got nothing on Calvin in the enthusiasm category. While this is really his third season of 
the Michigan Football Experience it is only his first truly conscious one, and that makes it especially fun for us. Over the past few weeks we've been preparing him for the game day phenomenon by talking about college, football, college football, and, of course, the maize and blue (there is no such color as yellow). The Friday before the first game we went to the resale shop to pick out some clothing in those particular colors and on our way out the door Calvin gave a rousing cry of "Let's Go Blue!" that he kept up through the parking
lot, and I knew we had done our job well. In good weather we start our home game celebrations with a Friday evening picnic at the Michigan Marching Band rehearsal. The Friday evening band rehearsals are a popular Ann Arbor event and this week we spread our blanket and picnic foods out on the ground between several other families with young children and settled in for a good show (Calvin, we mean, who kept pointing out and naming all 
the instruments and repeatedly remarking "they're marching down the field with their instruments, mommy!"). Calvin's favorite part of home game weekends, though, is probably the Saturday morning tailgate, where food, playmates, and adoration are all abundant. My family has been tailgating with the same group since before I was even born, and the kids that I grew up with now all have families of their own that take part – the next generation of the Go Blue club. And though we don't go to the games themselves
, after some great tailgating we trek back through the crowds (Calvin imparting an emphatic "Go Blue" to all we pass) to take in the action on TV. Football games are the only television Calvin is allowed to watch (really it's the only television WE watch), and he has yet to take any interest, but it's clear that he's listening when we hear him repeat phrases such as "overthrown pass" and "missing offense." Hopefully in years to come he'll be learning different phrases, like "great recruiting" and "experienced team."
activities, fall, family, football, friends