Colts Football Party -4yr- Consession Stand

We live in Indianpolis, so of course COLTS excitement is at a high right now, with the recent Super Bowl win.  My son loves the Go Colts as he calls them, so he chose a GO COLTS themed party! 

The invitations were designed to look like tickets into the big game.  I used a typewriter-like font and included the following information:  You are invited to xxxxx's Fourth Birthday party. 

Game Day:  Saturday, March 24, 2007  Kick-off:  3:00 pm  Location:  (Last Name) Stadium  RSVP:  Coach (Last Name) Show your team spirit by wearing your COLTS blue!   The picture at the top of the invite was of the Colts player who wears the number four jersey, since my son was turning four.  I put a bar code at the bottom to make it look like a real ticket.  I printed them on a color printer onto card stock.  For the decorations, I hung Colts banners and posters everywhere.  I also had blue and white pompoms everywhere. 

Blue and white streamers hung from the doorway so the players" (guests) could run through to make a grand entrance.  The streamers also hung vertically over the table to make a nice backdrop for pictures!  The tables were covered with blue table cloths and had Colts and football balloon bouquets in the middle.  We are the Champions and Monday Night Football songs played in the background. 

The food area was set up like a concession stand.  Hot dogs nachos & cheese and other stadium-themed food was served in the little "paper boats" that are used at stadiums.  (I got these from my school's cafeteria.)  We also had cake that was shaped like a football player who was wearing a number four Colts jersey and blue and white punch.  The punch was super easy to make... blue Kool-Ade Sprite and a half gallon of white ice cream. 

THe children and parents all showed up decked out in their blue and white.  My son wore his Colts jersey and we spray painted his hair blue and white (Sally's beauty supply).  My infant daughter even wore her Colts cheerleading outfit.  My husband and I wore referee shirts and whistles (borrowed from my friend who is a PE teacher).  (THe whistles came in handy during the game part of the party!) 

I had planned inside actiivities in case of rain but the weather was wonderful!  I had drawn three large football players and taped them to the floor for the kids to color when they were waiting for the rest of the guests to arrive.  We made picture frames out of foam sheets. 

We decorated them with foam stickers that were shaped like footballs jerseys various shapes and football words like Touchdown and Score!  I wrote each child's name on the back.  I kept the frames as I knew I would put a picture of each child with the birthday boy in his/her frame after the party.  My son and I later wrote a thank you letter and glued it to the back as the backing of the frame.  We added a magnet and mailed the completed frames/thank you cards.  The guests loved it! 

The games we played were easy but fun.  I had a blue hula hoop that children took turns holding.  Each child took a turn throwing three footballs through the hoop.  They took turn after turn!

We also had a Corn Hole game that looked like a football field.  The bean bags looked like footballs.  The kids didn't really follow the Corn Hole rules but loved just throwing the bags and trying to get close to the hole!  We also had a large football player on the wall and lots of little paper footballs with which we played Pin the Football on the Quarterback! 

The goody bags were the best in my opinion.  I found Easter baskets for a dollar each.  They were brown and blue and looked like a football with a blue helmet.  Since my son's birthday is late March I knew that the kids could later use the baskets for Easter in April!  Inside the baskets were football shaped soap (Wal-Mart Easter section) football pencils (Oriental Trading or a local Education store) and football Easter eggs filled with candy. Each child also received a copy of the Indianapolis Star's special Colts Super Bowl newspaper.  It was rolled and tied with a blue ribbon.  The children were encouraged to keep this keepsake as a reminder of the Colts winning season!  

The parents sat out side on lawn chairs and had a "tailgate party" of their own while the children celebrated my son's fourth birthday!  Go Colts!       "