a football party

When Mason told me he wanted a football party, to be honest, I tried to give him some other suggestions.  He's so into Legos, that would be a fun party!  Or at one time awhile back he told me he wanted a Hot Wheel party, so I tried to remind him of that.  I think I could have gotten creative with that one too.  But football?  I guess I wasn't too excited about the level of creativity it would provide me, but he wanted it badly, so football it was.

 

And to be honest, it ended up being one of my favorite parties!

 

I got most of my inspiration from here and here. 

When I first saw this vintage football party, I realized this may be more fun that I thought. And although we didn't really take a vintage spin to it, I was definitely inspired to have fun with this theme!

 

 

I think Dave liked this theme the best too!  He was pretty crucial is the making of the football field table cloth and the field goal.

The tablecloth was my favorite detail of the party!  We have had "green grass carpet" on our camping list for a few years now, and never seem to go get one.  So when I saw that we could use it for this party and then still be able to use it for camping, it was the perfect reason to finally go buy one.  We got the 6x8 ft. prepackaged roll at Home Depot for $18 I think.  You can also buy 6ft. or 12ft. widths by the yard.  But the 6x8 already packaged was the perfect size.
We could have bought skinnier white tape, but we just chose to use the fat roll that Dave already had and we just used my fabric cutting board and rotary cutter to slice long pieces in half. This added a little bit of time, but we already had it on hand.  Dave's detail to measurements was definitely helpful.  I can be a perfectionist in some areas, but in other areas, I don't seem to mind just guesstimating and eyeballing things.  I kept saying "it's fine, as long as it's close", and he kept calculating exact measurements.  So thanks to him, the field turned out great!
We used stencil numbers and letters and a small can of white spray paint to do the yard lines and "MASON" in the end zone.  We almost did "Happy Birthday" in one end zone and "Mason" in the other, but we opted for the least amount of work.
 

 

 

Ok, I changed my mind.  The scoreboard was my favorite detail of the party. I finally tried out a chalk pen and it helped SO much in making my scoreboard look nice.  And at the last minute I decided to incorporate his birth info into the scoreboard.  

 Born at 12:30pm, 6 lbs, 14oz, and 19.5 inches long.

 

All of Mason's friends were sent home with a Sprite referee. (referee coozies and whistles both from Windy City Novelties).  At $1.75 per favor, I think they were one of my favorite party favors.

 

I loved the idea from Paper & Pigtails of having a backyard football game, with "draft notice" invitations and colored tshirts for the kids to wear when they came to the party that signified what team they were on.  But we were in the middle of the "blizzard of Oz" while I was planning this party, so no outdoor football game would be happening unless it was done in full snow gear.

  But such a fun idea if you can plan a game of football.  Even better, order a set of cheap flag football belts, and have a much less aggressive game.

 

I as thankful for this free printable invitation, since I forgot about invitations until about a week before. I failed to take pictures, as I was managing 10 kiddos, but we played football bingo and a wall football game.  The bingo game was a little hard for them, but thankfully I had some other adult help, so we made it work.  I failed to think that through ahead of time, but it would have been better to have pictures and not just words, but who wants to go to extra work when a printable version is so easy!



 

Mason loved being surrounded by friends for the first time to celebrate a birthday, and they all spoiled him so much with gifts.  

 



 

It was such a fun day celebrating our new 5 year old.

The things I want to remember about him at this age are:

*He loves to play basketball in the house. He has a hoop that goes on the door, and the hard wood floor makes it easy to dribble. He plays ALL the time.

*He could do Legos all day. He can do them pretty much by himself, with just a little help from time to time.

*His ears are super sensitive. He has major issues when his baby brother is screaming at the dinner table or in the car. He just can't handle it.

*He loves oatmeal and PBJ. He doesn't eat much at all, and typically asks how many bites he has to eat before the plate is even put in front of him.

*He sleeps with the same 3 baby blankets he's had since the day he was born, the same ones he was swaddled in.

*He still falls asleep during "rest time" nearly every afternoon even though he doesn't technically have to take a nap anymore

*He still likes to pretend he's not capable of dressing himself

*He loves his MP3 player, and is caught all the time singing sweet worship songs with his headphones on, and he doesn't know anyone is listening.

*He knows more about how to get the fire in our wood-burning stove going, and keep it going, than I do. He has watched and helped his dad MANY times.

*He loves watching K-State football and basketball

*He's still the best cuddler of all 3 of my kiddos

*He is still a roller coaster of emotions, highs and lows, you never know what you might get.

*and He drives his new remote controlled helicopter better than his dad (who accidentally landed it in the birthday cake at the end of the night).

 

 

 

After the last friend left, Mason was asleep within 5 minutes. 

We had our family party starting in 2 hours! It was a pretty easy transition from party to party, I kind of liked the way it worked out.  I even laid down and dozed off for 30 minutes and was ready to go again.

 

We tidied up just a bit, wiped down the table and did a quick vacuum of the floor where all the kids ate, and then picked up pizza from Papa Murphy's. I added a pepperoni football to one of them.  We threw out a salad and were ready for our entire house full of family. 

 



It's always so fun having cousins, aunts and uncles, grandmas and grandpas and neighbors who are like family, all here to help celebrate.

 



 





Five is done. Just like that.

 

A few other party details:

Day party banner, Football plates, and napkins - Windy City Novelties
Football cake was done with Wilton's Tshirt cake pan (thanks Julie and Tonya for helping me with this!)
#5 and juice boxes covered with textured football paper from Hobby Lobby.

 

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I want to leave you with a few thoughts on birthday parties.  I've read these little disclaimers on party posts before and now I know the reason they are included.  I want to respond to a lot of the comments I've gotten in person, on my blog and on Facebook about my parties.

Birthday parties give me a reason and an opportunity to bring out my creative side.  Whether I am using original ideas or borrowed ideas, they give me a chance to create and decorate. I enjoy planning and implementing birthday parties a lot.  I love to be creative, but I just don't get the opportunity very often with 3 busy kids all over the place.

As moms, there are so many things in life that can make us feel inadequate and can cause us to play the comparison game. While party planning can be fun and enjoyable for one mom, and offer a creative outlet, it can be stressful and exasperating for another mom, and can bring a sense of pressure.  We all have different skills, talents and interests. We are all uniquely designed by God.  

I love the world of blogs and Pinterest (although there are negatives too) because it gives us a chance to learn and see ideas from others in areas that we may not be strong in, or simply just things we would have not thought of.  While someone may say that I'm
"great" at parties, I can promise you I am lacking big time in other areas.  While my kids will have special memories of certain things I did with them and did for them, other kids will have completely different memories...and ALL are special to that child.  Memory making can consist of whatever you choose it to consist of.  We all give and receive love differently.  But in the end, it's whether our kids know how much they are loved.  I know it can be a battle as we fight our feelings of inadequacy, and I am far from perfect in this area. But it's so important as women, and as moms, to know that we are already good enough, because God made each of us to be special, with different skills, talents and interests. 

Just be you.  Find your worth and value as a mother through God's description and requirements, and not those put out there by our culture and social media. Do what you enjoy because you enjoy it. And don't do what you don't enjoy.  And just love your kids and make memories.  :-)

That's what matters.

 

 

 

while he was sleeping

I still haven't gotten to our vacation pictures.

But these are from vacation and I thought they deserved a post of their very own.

This sweet boy of ours keeps us on our toes.  There's nothing too predictable about him, other than the fact that he's unpredictable and we never know what we may get from him.

One minute he can be cuddling cozily on the couch with me or giving me sweet kisses,

and the next minute he can be stomping his little feet as hard as he can down the hallway.

One minute he can be singing sweet songs about Jesus in the cutest voice I have ever heard in my entire life,

and the next minute he can be screaming bloody murder to demand his way or let us know he is upset about something.

One minute he can be shooting baskets, playing legos, or drawing contently,

and the next minute he can be throwing his paper and marker across the room out of frustration.

But I can't tell you how many times he has humbled me, or made me realize that his choice behaviors are very similar to my own at times.

One minute he can be throwing a humongo fit and exhausting us to our wits end,

and the next he can be zonked out in the middle of the living room floor at the lakehouse,

with 15 other people coming in and out from the lake about 4 feet from him.

I knew he was exhausted.  His vacation was spent swimming, tubing, swimming, and swimming some more.

So I tried to calm him and have him just lay here and relax and breathe for a few minutes after a major meltdown.  Within minutes he was out....

...and then he turned towards the window.

And finally, it was the most perfect moment ever, one I was certain I'd never get.

I have wanted for so long to photograph those lashes.

But when does a child actually fall asleep in the middle of a room, facing the best natural light ever?

When he's sleeping, I just want to scoop him up and cuddle with him soooo badly.

For almost 4 years, every night when I headed to bed, I detoured into my boy's room.

I crawled onto his bed and would half way pick him up and hold him in my arms while he slept.

Sometimes just for a minute, sometimes 10. 

He's a sound sleeper and I knew he'd always stay asleep. When I laid him back down, sometimes he'd wake up just enought to whisper back "I love you" as I kissed his forehead.

I love this little guy to death all the time.

But there is something so heavenly about him when he's sleeping.

And there is something so heavenly about those lashes.