It’s Fall and it is Football Season!

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and The Coca-Cola Company. All opinions are mine alone. #NotSoFastMom #CollectiveBias

 

It is Fall and that means one thing around here–that it is football season! We’ve always been football fans but this year, we’ve reached a whole new level as we have not one, but two players in the house. Our oldest son is playing on the high school team which means that if you are looking for us on Friday night, you’ll find us on the sidelines cheering his team on.  Our middle son is playing on a recreational team and has a game each Saturday. Luckily he has most of his best buddies on the same team which makes it even more fun for them. Each Friday night, we take a crew of the younger boys with us to cheer on the high school team, I can’t believe in just another year or two the younger ones will be running out on the same field under the very same lights!

Being a dual-football mom has been a bit of an overwhelming experience.  We survived two-a-days this summer, have carted cases of POWERADE to the school to keep all the boys on the team hydrated through the lingering heat this early Fall and it seems like I can’t keep enough food in either of my boys these days.

Since it’s ALL football ALL the time around here right right now (our neighborhood boys play together any chance they get, even on days they don’t have practices), as the Mom I am responsible for keeping everyone fed and especially hydrated! We go through gallons of POWERADE, I stock up at Wal-Mart, our store has a huge display right up front to make life easier for us sports moms. I buy it POWERADE in the 12-pack bottles so they can grab a cold bottle and go, because wearing football pads in the hot sun is seriously no joke.  It’s important to keep their bodies fueled, the long practices can be grueling for young athletes.

 

 

This weekend is our biggest game of the season with our rival school. My son has been talking all week about the team’s chances of winning and my younger son is so excited to get all his friends and cruise the sidelines at the game Friday night.

We love to cheer on all the players at the games but since our players jerseys don’t have their names on the backs, I quickly made up some cards to show each players name and number.  This is a great way for all of the parents to cheer on the whole team. These were so popular, I also made a second set for the parents on my younger son’s Rec team.  

 

{players’s names have been changed for privacy}

Here is how simple it is to create these cards. I copied the roster into a word processing program and downloaded the team logo. I use InDesign, but you could use Word or Pages as well.  Simply type up one card, then copy and paste as many as you can fit on one page.

 

 

I printed them out and cut them down with a paper cutter (scissors would work fine too). Then I used self-laminating pouches from Wal-Mart in the 4×6 size.

 

 

These pouches are so great because you don’t need an expensive lamentation machine. You simply open them up and insert the card, then press to seal them. Easy!

 

 

The lamination make the cards durable enough to last all season long. This way, when a player does something great you can cheer them on using their name, rather then shouting out something vague or just their number.

 

 

Since this week is our biggest game of the year, we are hosting a small pre-game party to get everyone excited!

 

 

I picked up some fun football themed party supplies at Wal-mart (or you can order online at walmart.com) and made some traditional game day food. The boys especially love celebrating with Coca-Cola and the Coke Zero product with no caffeine is perfect for the teenagers–they have enough energy as it is!  This way they not only get together and have fun before the game, but I make sure all the boys are well fed–getting enough calories in these young athletes is always a challenge these days.

 

 

We served a simple football friendly menu with just popcorn, hot dogs and some cupcakes for dessert. The boys filled up, then grabbed the football and headed right back outside to run some plays in before we headed off to watch our older son in the big game.

 

 

 

The boys, who usually just notice the food, kept talking about how fun the football-themed party spread was and how excited they were for the big game. They came back inside a few times for another cupcake or another drink, then once it got dark we loaded up and headed to the game. Sadly, our team lost but everyone still had a great time!

 

 

Whether you are celebrating pre-game like we are or at the game, or even cheering your favorite team on from your couch, you can get more great tips from ESPN’s College Game Day host Lee Corso HERE!    

Next up, we have Homecoming! I love this time of year 🙂

XO,