The Touchdown Birthday

Smunch still isn't really quite seven. His birthday's not for another week and a half, but he was so excited about the prospect of having a Superbowl party for his birthday, that I quickly caved and said he could do it. And since a touchdown is often worth 7 points (when you include the extra point, as Smunch would remind me) and this was his seventh birthday, everything seemed to fit.So first thing Superbowl Sunday, we were preparing to host 7 boys (and one little sister) with varying degrees of interest in and knowledge about football for a Superbowl party. Daddy started off with a short game of pass-the-football in the front yard while I made the finishing touches to the party spread. Then all the boys came in for a chaotic make-your-own pizza project with some extra sticky raw pizza dough.Sadly, after this point, Daddy and I were so busy with stuff that we hardly took any photos of the proceedings...hence the video in the previous post. The game started as I started putting pizzas in the oven and the boys were transfixed...as much as seven six and seven-year-old boys can be transfixed. As you can see in the video, that doesn't mean they stayed still at all. We got some free 3D glasses for the 3D commercials. Obviously, they came in handy much more often than that.I was surprised how excited they all were to get a pack of football playing cards. When the game failed to keep their attention, their new cards did.

Finally it was time for cake. The cakes were a big hit and everyone got to choose strawberry or yellow cake. They weren't the tastiest, but I didn't expect them to be. I reserve that sort of thing for my own birthday...and Daddy's.

All the boys seemed to have a good time. The one who had to leave particularly early even cried because he really didn't want to go. Daddy later told me he was also the least well-behaved of the bunch, but clearly he had a good time here and in the end that's what mattered. Each boy left with his own little football, his pack of trading cards and some prizes that were supposedly from the football pool we were running...although in reality, they all just got a smattering of little toys.

Mam and Smunch did their annual halftime show dance to the tunes of Bruce Springsteen. Too bad we only got that on time lapse video. It was pretty funny in person.Smunch had a great time and although all the boys were gone by the end of halftime, he watched the rest of the game with us and it was a terrific Superbowl. It went his way too...Steelers 27, Cardinals 23.