Football-a-Palooza

Well, the football birthday party bash was a great success (if I do say so myself)!  Everyone came except for one friend who has the flu.  I prayed for beautiful weather and we sure got it! It had rained for days before the party and had been getting down in the 20s at night and not much better during the day, but God must like football (or little boys' birthday parties...... or maybe it was the cake?) because it was 56* and sunny and perfect!  We started getting everything ready early that morning and, true to form, I put off decorating one of the cakes until the last minute.  My future step-mother's father (that's just a weird mouthful for me and one day I'll blog about why..... not today) came up for the weekend and taught Eric his famous 'Jambalaya for 100' recipe.  Eric had gotten a rather large cast iron outdoor cooker for Christmas and was anxious to break it in.  They sure did it right! It was delicious!  Here's a shot of Mr. Bernard and Eric watching the pot earlier in the day... Oh, and Eli showing off his new pocket knife :( That's what you get when you let DAD take them to spend their gift card at Bass Pro! I would've talked him into something a little less SHARP, like a nice life preserver or a sleeping bag or something...

So, everyone got there and the boys were all eager to start the game, which was fine with all of the adults; that meant we could eat first and in peace :)

I made some 'jerseys' for the visitor team and Eric told them they looked like a bunch of lunch ladies, to which one little boy answered, "That's right! And we're gonna' serve 'em some MEATLOAF!" I don't know what that means, but it worked because the visitors won :)  That was Eli's team, so he was happy about it.  I made a referee's apron-type thing for Eric to wear and, bless his heart, he wore it! He organized the whole game :) I love him.  There were about 25 boys playing and everyone of them played well with others.  Some were friends from church, some were from the neighborhood, some were homeschool friends, some were on our football teams but they all got along and the only cross word I heard came from one of mine when he told the referee (aka dad) that he needed new glasses :)

I wish I had gotten some pics of the cakes..... but, alas, I did not. One was chocolate cake with chocolate frosting shaped and decorated like a football.  The other was two white sheet cakes put together and decorated with a disgusting amount of green frosting to make a football field. 

The boys had a wonderful day!  I got to thinking about it and neither one of them has ever had a party like that before.  Sam has had some big parties with lots of kids and games, etc. but it's always been to benefit whatever cause was on his heart; he never wanted gifts, he wanted donated items like pet food one year, bibles the next, etc. and Eli has NEVER had a birthday party before this!  I know, I'm a horrible mother..... But I think I redeemed myself after this weekend.  The boys were just blown away by the gifts they received; they didn't expect it at all, which was so sweet and just made it even better to see their faces light up!  So, all in all, a great day :)