fail photo: buckeye salutations

in order for this particular post to make sense, please allow me to first provide a bit of context. 

if you are not familiar with the culture around Ohio State football, you may not recognize the gestures i am trying to capture below. 

but, one of the many Buckeye traditions is that sections of the stadium will chant the letters O-H-I-O, while that entire section of the stadium throws up their arms in the shape of that letter. 

simple, yet quite effective in person. 

as a spin-off, it is common for folks to take pictures with four people/3 people and a conveniently shaped object to make a human O-H-I-O. 

see one of our family photos from 2011:

there is an entire page on the OSU website dedicated to this phenomenon. 

here is a random one including complete strangers that i enjoy:

anyway. 

you get the point. 

so. . . when we were at the recent Buckeye Kickoff event in August, and we were practicing our cheers along with 7,000 first-year-students, i was excited to capture benny in the act, as i thought it would be a cute little 4-part-series to use somewhere in the house. 

and, cute it very well could have been. 

if i had not, apparently, gotten distracted somewhere along the way. . .

O:

H:
 

I:

and. . . end scene. 
apparently, i forgot that there are 4 letters in "Ohio."
i find this particularly amusing, because i JUST came across this image and shared it with a friend today: 

anyway. 
before someone points out the SUPER obvious. . . 
i know that if i really wanted to cheat and repeat the "O," i totally could. 

but that would be kind of obvious. 
and would further emphasize my awesomeness.

so, instead, i have left myself with a lovely 3-shot series of benny. 

saying, "O, Hi."

so, friends. . .

hello. 

from benny. 

'tis the season...for football

ok, friends. 
brace yourselves. 
for lots of photos. 
lots and lots of buckeye photos. 
last weekend was the 2nd annual Buckeye Kickoff event. 
it is a really fun event for the first year class, held in the Ohio Stadium. 
the boys loved it last year and asked to go again. 


anth was really excited for the event. 


benny was. . . benny. 
he didn't want to pose for a picture. 


check him out. 
this is benny intently staring into the distance and refusing to look at my camera. 
i had to respect the concentration, if nothing else. 

thankfully, one of his favorite buckeye ladies, beth, came around and brought him out of his shell. 

and, of course, The Best Damn Band In The Land can always get him out of his seat. 
he genuinely loves them.
(he is not alone in this sentiment.)

look at them. 
both smiling beautifully. 
fun fact: benny is only smiling this way because there is a bunny-ears-in-progress behind anth's back.
i'll take what i can get. 

this was almost a really cool picture. 

and then the band walked away. 

oops. 

this is bern teaching benny the proper rhythm for the song. 
i went through a similar lesson before my first game in 2001. . . 
in the car from bowling green to columbus. 
almost the whole way. 
festive. . .

if i were a much taller, you might be able to tell that there is a fully formed Script Ohio behind them. . .

after the band left the field, benny was super interested in the rest of the show. . .

although he was happy to join daddy on the field for the first year class picture. 
again, i'm not tall enough, nor high enough in the stands to show what this means. 
here you go. 

timmy siverd was very proud of this photo, so i am giving him proper photo credit. 

he took this one, too. 
come back soon for the tragic Fail Photo version of this one. . .

all 3 of my savvy boys. 
(which, PS, the savvy is short for Savarese. someone admitted they didn't realize the connection between our name and the name of the blog. which brings me back to this post, in which i explain that i am trying to be punny, not cocky. . .)

anth and one of his favorite camp counselors, Danny. 
:)

per usual, not sure what benny is doing. 
but otherwise (minus the random array of first year students behind us) this is actually a decent family photo.
life's little victories. 

Dr. J (Dr. Javaune Adams-Gaston, our Vice President of Student Life) tried to photo-bomb our family photo. 
and just ended up in it. 
genius. 

another gem of a human, Moe Samad, teaching benny some of the finer points of football. 

most of my pictures of these two ended up looking like this. 

with a little bit of this. 

but by the end of his lesson, they were ready. 


perhaps benny was a little too ready. . .

i have about 43 Fail Photos of this one, too. 
all of them are worth a 1,000 words. 
most of the words being along the lines of, "mom, why on earth are you trying to make us hold still on the Buckeye football field?"

and, of course, i ended the night with a few photos with some of my favorite buckeyes.
including jen. 
whose hair is still long enough to make a perfect mustache. 
i was worried. 
(yes, this only makes sense if you know her.)


moe stopped running around long enough for a photo. 

and, of course, a pic with the now most-senior Assistant Director of Residence Life, curtis. 
whose hat i should have borrowed as to not be eating my hair in this photo. 
charming. 

also? 
one of these days i will remember to get a picture of bernie and i at this event. 
oops. 

anyway. 
all of this to say. . .
Happy Buckeye Football Season!

fail video: how little buckeyes avoid naptime

this is benjamin.

at naptime.

note: he is not napping.

not even close.

he is, however, attempting to sing I Wanna Go Back, an Ohio State Marching Band classic.

(note: you really have to turn the volume up on this one to catch the beginning.)

i kind of love that ben already knows that, if you get stuck on the exact lyrics, shouting "O-H!" is a good bet.  

in this case, the O-Hs became increasingly louder.

and, because all good buckeyes are programmed to respond with a requisite "I-O!," i did eventually go into his room.

to lovingly tell him I-O and to go to sleep.

multitasking

anth made it as far as he could watching the OSU v Marshall game before he asked to play games on my phone. he was soon engrossed in his recent favorite, “angry birds.”

at one point, the commentator…commented on the extreme length of Cameron Hayward’s arms.

i asked bern if he was talking about his “wingspan” or if his arms were literally a little bit longer than average.

bern and i were discussing this trend in athletes when anth, without looking up or missing a beat in his game, offered up “or, guys, maybe the rest of his body just came out a little bit short.”

note to self: they are ALWAYS listening.