Philadelphia Eagles Carnival 8-19-07 Recap (MANY MANY PHOTOS!)
**Be warned-there are LOTS of photos under the cut! I did not skimp on the eye candy!**
Well, the Eagles Carnival was rain or shine so around 2pm (it ran from 3-8pm) we were on our way. It was me, Ben, Josh, Josh's mom Irene, my sister Erin and her kids Luke and Tara. When we got there we got good parking but still had to wait outside in the rain for about 30-45 min. Thankfully I had an umbrella so at least the baby (Luke) didn't get too wet.
When we got there I gave my sister and niece their storybook autograph books that I made and showed them mine. They seemed to like them although my niece was also wearing her jersey that she already had some autographs on so she could get more on that. That was a little disappointing only because I had told my sister I was making these autograph books and that they weren't cheap and if she had planned to have my niece just get autographs on her shirt, I would have saved myself some $$ and just made one for me. Oh well! The books themeselves were a hit though. I had people in line with us who were waiting to get autographs admire them and ask how I got/made it. Even some of the players were impressed and asking me about it and flipping through it as they signed them! That made my day I think!
I guess the best way to re-cap the day is chronicologically as best I can because then when I make a storybook from the photos from the day, I will have all the information all typed out!
They began to let everyone in at 3pm. It was still raining and we weren;t really sure where to start. We ended up starting at the Eagles Cheerleaders tent so Tara could get some autographs (and Josh went with her to be in the photos!) Since it was raining I was trying to take photos through my man-made camera shield of a bag-it didn't help the photos come out great but it served its purpose! I should have just thought to have my sister stand next to me with the umbrella but I didn't! Here are some pics of that:
Tara was in heaven since she wants to be an Eagles cheerleader and she was suppossed to go to a Jr. Eagles Cheerleading Clinic yesterday. I hope my sister took photos! Anyway, back to the carnival....
I think it was a good start for both Josh and Tara!
After the cheerleaders we headed up to the upper level where most of the day's activities were being held (under a roof) so at least we could stay dry. When we first got up there one of the first things we did was Tara had a cheerleader painted onto her face and we even got a small #5 on Luke's cheek (they said it was not harmful stuff).
Luke's #5 on his cheek...
Tara's cheerleader on her cheek...
Then we saw were two tables to get some autographs of alumni players. Since the entire event is for charity, all the autograph tables "cost" some tickets. I had bought 100 tickets ahead of time in a couple bundles so they were cheaper than having to buy them that day. Originally I had bought so many because I knew I wanted to do the field goal kick and catch a football actitivy they had but due to the weather, both of those events were cancelled we had plenty of tickets to use for autographs instead. The only thing that sucked was we had to pay tickets for each person who was getting an autograph and they were only allowed to sign one thing (we originally tried to have tara offer them the book I made for my sister/Luke too when they signed hers but they told us they couldn't) And because it cost tickets, it was usually just me and Tara (and occassionally Josh) who went up. We did get lucky that the first table we went too, we told them that Irene was our "papparazzi" and they let her in without a ticket and then Josh threw her his football when we got to the table to get signed!
For the record, there are only a few of the players that I know who they are correctly. I know the names of all that I got signed but there are a few of the alumni and the players who I am not 100% sure who is who because I need to match up their names/numbers with team photos and stuff so for the ones I know, I will post it. For the others, sorry!
Here are some photos from the first table of alumni we got autographs for:
Here is my first table autograph page:
Harold Carmicheal #17
Vaughn Hebron on right....
Ben Hawkins #18 FL 1966-73
Greg Brown #98 DE 1981-86
Joe Paglei #32 B 1959
Me and Tom McDonald
James Betterson RB 1977-78 (notice him admiring my book!)The page he is looking at is photos I scanned of me and my sister from when we went to Eagles training camp back in the mid-80s with the players!
After we finished with that table we tried to take a look at who was at the other table nearby since the line seemed to be getting bigger and bigger. That was when Ben told me Vince Papale was at the time and I was SO getting in that line. For those who do not know who Vince Papale is...he is the Eagles player that the movie Invincible with Mark Walberg was based on. Even Tara was excited when I told her who was at the table (She didn't recognize the name like I did but she did know the movie. He was probably one of the only ones I DID recognize the name b/c I am so bad with players names). Here are some photos from that:
The Table down the line....
Now it was at this table that Tara decided she wanted to have her shirt signed instead of the book and so when we got up there, the table was a little wide so the first player told us to put her up on the table for him! So we did! Then we "slid" her over to the next but when we tried to do it again some lady yelled at us and told us we couldn't have her on the table. I told the lady "they told me to do it" and pointed to the football player. She still didn't seem amused...
Larry Watkins B 1970-72
Al Davis #43 B 1971-72
And the highlight for me at that table:
Vince Papale WR 1976-78
MAjor Everett FB #39 1983-85
He was another who was impressed with my book and asking me how I got it and thought it was pretty cool.
I think this is Hugh Douglas LB/DE 1988-2002, 2004
Even though you cant really see his face well, the one on the left is Mike Mamula DE 1995-2000 and the other is Cecil Martine.
In line waiting to mee the 2nd table:)
And the next ones are a few I liked that ben took while we were in line. He had the good camera, I just the pocket point and shoot
And here is the final autographed page from this table:
By the time we finished all that we had probably been there about an hour and at that point Tara and I were really the only ones who had done anything. So we decided to continue walking around and see what else was available to do. We got to the grab bag game and both Tara and I put tickets in for a prize. Tara got a long sleeved Eagles T-shirt and I got a white hat that was autographed but I forget who-I have a pic later in the post. We continued walking around and we got to see the Eagles Pep Band with Tara and Josh:
After we saw the pep band we continued to walk around and looked at what else was available to do since the outside stuff was not happening. We played a game with keys trying to unlock the lock and win an autographed mini-hemet then took a look at the field. Here are some photos:
After the fun and games we did the key game we continued walking around and we were able to get a few more autographs from some current players. Philadelphia Eagles players #31 Rashad Barksdale CB and #22 Joselio Hanson CB were sitting at a table sort of out in the open but they didn't have a sign up around them saying you needed tickets or how many or anything. It was sort of annoying because they had all these "handlers" around them and if anyone tried to take a photo they would yell at them but you had no way of knowing you even NEEDED tickets until they yelled at you. Lucky for us, we had tickets so we were able to go up and get autographs and photos (but they even tried to yell at Ben for taking a photo when they told us they could b/c they didn't realize he was with us!) Here are some pics from that:
After that we went and had some food. Here are some cute candids:
After lunch we continued on our trek around the stadium and we came across a headless McNabb statue where we all got our photos taken:
After our attempts to impersonate Donavan McNabb, we continued along and ended up back on the ground level looking for some more things to do since it had stopped raining for a few minutes. It was here we found a few more kids games for Tara to try and then even the big kids (Josh and Ben) got to play a game-they through balls at the "Dunk a Cowboy" dunk tank where a guy in a cowboys jersey (I think a TO Jersey) was sitting trying to get dunked! Josh was unsuccessfull and tried to run up and push the button but they got mad at him for that b/c they said he was too old to be doing that but he didn't actually end up doing it. Ben on the otherhand was successful and dunked the guy on the first try! Here are some photos:
Here are the kids getting another photo with the Philadelphia Cheerleaders
While we were outside we also checked out a couple more autograph tents. Tara and I went into one, and just I went into another to fill my book with signatures. Here are some photos of those players. I haven't identified everyone yet but you get the idea!
#63 Jasper Harvey on the left and #18 JJ Outlaw
And I think this is #68 Pat McCoy
#34 Jason Davis and #59 Nick Cole (I think)
#49 Kyle Hunt is the one signing the book
L-R is Chris White (Who I think has since been dropped), Winston Justice (From USC Deb!) Scott Young, Max Jean-Giles.
After the autograph tents, the kids (josh and tara) ran around in the rain a bit while I scoped out the other autograph tents but the lines were too long so we went inside, played a few games and worked our way to "Carnival Game Row" where we basically hung around and played games until it was time for our "big ending" of meeting McNabb. There were a bunch of simple games for Tara to play, she won a few prizes (a pink cheerleader mega phone, some white stuff for under the eyes that players wear and a cute football rubber ducky (side story on that in a second!) The boys used the last few tickets to play the game where you hit something to make the bell ring and both made the bell ring and won prizes (eagles carnival mini towel and a pretty schedule which reminds me I need to look in my bag for that!) Here are some pics:
Tara and I inside:
Playing the wheel game:
Luke wanting Josh's pizza....
View from the stadium
Back at Carnival Game Row....
No one won until it got to me!
So now the story of the great "Ducky Scam of '07". After we all played the game, and the kids won lollipops and I won the actual ducky, I gave it to my niece because I figured she would appreciate it more. It was when we looked closer at it, we realized that it said "Eagles Charity Carnival" on it and so now I wanted one as a souvenior (it only took one ticket to play and I had a few left!) So....I thought I would take a look at the photos ben took of us playing the game and I was lucky enough to notice that he got a great shot of me holding the winning duck! I noticed it was all pink on top with a green bottom and so I worked my way over to the game, gave the man my ticket and watched the ducks in search of the pink and green one! Now if you notice from any of the other pictures, there are a lot of duckies all varying in color combonations of pink, orange and green. At first I got antsy and I grabbed the wrong one but you get two chances and so I watched.....and watched....and then I saw it!!! I saw the magic ducky and so I waited patiently for it to come into the tunnel to be grabbed. I waited patiently stalking it strategically and then miraculously-I GOT IT AGAIN!!! So now I had won myself the special duck and I was a happy camper! I felt a little guilty that Luke didn't have one but if I went over and won it again I knew it would be too suspicious so I told my sister which duck was the winner, gave her a ticket and she went over and got it on the first shot for luke! So now we all had special duckies! And that my friends, is the great Duckie Scam of '07!
And then Luke was happy and dancing now that he had a nice duckie to play with!
And then Josh and Tara skipping along....
Back to business......
After we played some more games it was FINALLY time for us to go meet McNabb! At this point we still had not told Tara what we were doing so we stepped to the side to give her the jersey and fill her in on what was going on.
Here we are giving her the news:
After we told her what was going on, it was time for us to get in line. Although we didn't really want to be first in our group (it did end up working out for us but more on that later!) we did end up first in our time slot to go to see McNabb:
So we waited in line for about 5-10 minutes tops and then they led us over to where McNabb was. Now, I had some issues with the way the "handlers" handled things and had our Jerseys signed (They had McNabb sign on the front dark green mesh number of the jersey in a black pen instead of on the back near his name where we could actually read it! And we were not really able to get any pics of us in front of McNabb but we did get some pics of him and so I wont dwell on the annoyances here.) We got up to the table and he was really nice, said hello, even called my sister over a little closer to give the baby a high-five (A slobberly one at that!) And I did get to shake his hand so that was cool. Here are the pics we did get:
He really was a nice guy so that part of it was cool.
Brian Westbrook was at the table next to us and we tried to get a photo:
So after we met McNabb we figured our day was pretty much over. It had been a long, wet day and we were all ready to go home. Until we were on our way out, and walked past one of the volunteers who was saying something to passerbyers about giving any amount of donation and getting autographs for Ackers and some others. At first we walked by him but then Josh went back over to see what he was really saying and it turned out that he had extra Fast Pass tickets that hadn't sold and since the event was for charity and it was literally the end of the night, they were basically trying to get whatever they could so we took him up on his offer! Josh's mom gave the guy $10 and got two tickets, one to go meet Shawn Andrews and one for Reggie Brown. I have the guy all I had left in my pocket which was $4-5 and he gave me two tickets for David Ackers (the kicker) and one for Shawn Andrews! My sister's fave is Ackers so I gave her one of those tickets and she had him sign the book I made her, I took my white hat that I had won early had Ackers sign that. Ben took Tara over to Shawn Andrews and had him sign her shirt. Of course we didn't know if he could sign it on her back because of the table set up so while we are walking up, we had her take off her shirt and just wear her zipped up jacket so it could be easier to sign! Here are a few photos from that:
Reggie Brown
David Ackers-the kicker, signing my hat (my sister and Luke are on the right)
josh with Shawn Andrews
Tara getting her shirt autographed
And last but not least...a photo of my signed hat!
Signed first by Jason Avant (who had signed it before I won it!) And then by the kicker, David Ackers (who I got to have sign it and meet!)
After all that excitement we finally were on our way heading home. It had started to rain again and since it was a sunday night coming from south jersey, I can't say it was a quick drive home:) But we did get home and it took a week for us to get back to normal I think. The next day we were so beat up from the whole day (and for me the whole weekend!) I just needed some good sleep. On the way home we were a little annoyed on the way home because my sister didn't say thanks at all for the day and in turn really hadn't taught my neice to say it either and while it might seem silly and little, it was a bit annoying to both ben and I at the end of the day. Its over now and it was more of annoyance because my sister didn't end up paying for a thing the whole day-even the toll ben paid for our car and hers (she was right behind us) when we went over the bridge and so by the end of the day it was just one of those things that struck us wrong and all that. It seems silly to harp on it now, we are over it but have learned our lesson.
Anyway....I hope you enjoyed ALL the many photos but if you have a craving for more, you can see them all at these two links:
Photos of all our "meet and greet" stuff from the day:
http://cb-morningglory.smugmug.com/gallery/3360527#P-1-15 password is oaklyn
All other photos from the Eagles Charity Carnival:
http://cb-morningglory.smugmug.com/gallery/3360732#187500619 password is oaklyn
You should only need to put the password in once if you look at the photos in a 24 hour period so dont be surprised if it doesn't prompt you both times.
Enjoy!!