20375

Steelers Training Camp -9yr- NFL Draft Invite

August 2009

Holly in Stewartstown, PA USA

Special Mention

My son who was turing nine loves the Steelers. This year we planned a Steelers training camp party!

I started out by making a draft letter" for each of the boys and girls that we invited with party details. I told them that they had been drafted for the NFL and they had to pick which team that they would play for either the Steelers or the Ravens. (We live close to Baltimore and many of his friends were Ravens fans) I worded the invites like Place: Myers Stadium Game Time 2p-5pm RSVP to coach Myers and our phone number. I also found on E-bay ticket invitations that could be personalized with Ravens or Steelers pics and party info so I ordered them and included one with each invitation. 

Decorations included Steelers pennant flags that I got from mikefeinberg.com  I also purchased a large tissue football that I hung from the inside top of our party tent along with football garland.  Prior to the party I went to Five Below and they had lanyards for Ravens and Steelers. I purchased each kid a lanyard for about $2.50 each. At home I copied my son's yearbook pages so that I had a photo of each kid and we made Field Passes for each of the players. We bought vertical badge holders from WalMart (10 for $1.88) and with Print Master we created a badge that looked like a football field. We had each child's name at the bottom and VIP FIELD PASS at the top then glued the pic on for each kid.

We also made every kid a manilla folder with a copy of their favorite team's game schedule for the year that I printed from sportsillustrated.com. Then I made a scorecard for each child with the activities that we were going to do that included  Passing drill kicking drill workout running & obstacle course. I also made each kid a certificate which was our thank you note. It looked like a football field and at the top said Football Star. It was awarded to Awesome Team Player is awarded to and thir name for making Alex's Party great!!

My son and I both signed each one. These were given to each kid when they arrived and they had the option to get a team tattoo under the eye stickers that I got from crazyforsports.com (Ravens or Steelers) I rented a line painting machine from our local hardware store and bout 2 cans of field making spray and my brother in law painted our yard to look like a football field. I staged all of the games there! We also placed 2 inflateable goal posts at the end of the fields.

Games: After all the kids had arrived we started our activities. It was hot and we had asked that each child wear a team shirt or jersey and their swimsuits. We started out by running passing drills where one of my neighbor boys threw the ball to each kid as they ran to catch it. The neighbor boys are 14 & 16 and they were great!! They gave encouragement to those who missed and praise to all who were able to catch the ball!! 

We then ran the obstacle course which I had gotten most of the items for from Oriental Trading. They had to jump over 3 hurdles crawl through a tunnel jump over 2 more huddles crawl under 2 hurdles jump through 8 inflatable tires and then use the bouncing balls with the handles to jump to the finish line.

We had a relay race with batons that I got from Oriental Trading. We also had a passing drill where we paired up a Raven and a Steeler and they had to toss the ball back and forth then take 5 steps back. They kept going until only one team had not dropped the ball and they were given plastic team cups filled with candy.

They had a workout where I made them do 5 pushups 5 situps 10 jumping jacks etc. They were hot at this point so we let them swim for 20 minutes or so. After that we ate at the concession stand described below.

Food: Each table setting had a steelers or ravens placemat that I got from crazyforsports.com also with a small NFL helmet that was steelers or ravens (8 mini helmets for $8.99) and the placemats were 4 for 8.99. We were going to serve the food like a concession stand so we made a sign from a trifold poster board we got at the dollar store that had pictures of pizza and hotdogs nachos popcorn and chips. We also included pics of gatorade pop and bottled water. Each boy or girl got to order what they wanted and wsa delivered on a Steeler or Raven plate. We had chocolate ravens cupcakes iced black and purple with mini helmet picks that I got on the internet and then we had a  white Steelers cake with a mini helmet and scoreboard that I got from the internet.

Favors: I went a little overboard this year with favors but we were having so much fun and finding so much cool stuff I could not help it!! We made NFL money on the computer with Bank of Alex at the top and the NFL logo in the middle. We made each bill worth 5 dollars and all kids who completed their tasks got 4 bills to spend at the souvenir shop. Under our deck I made another stand. I purchased #1 hands and Go Team noise sticks from Oriental Trading. I purchased Ravens and Steelers pencils on ebay. Alex's birthday is at the end of July so I thought the kids would like getting some stuff they could use for school. I also purchased Ravens and Steelers folders for each kid.  At Five Below we found Raven and Steelers footballs so I for one for each kid.  I made CD's with Steelers and football songs for everyone too!

For the girls I found purple and yellow lip gloss and added ravens or steelers sticker to them as well as nail polish in the team colors. Also I got black and purple water bottles from Five Below for a dollar. If the kids helped me in anyway during the party I gave them extra bucks to spend at the store. I had bought reuseable bags from a football store in our mall that had the Ravens or Steelers logos on them for $2.00 each and it held all thier loot nicely. This helped me with clean up and they loved having extra money to spend!! The store was a great hit!!

At the end after everyone had gotten what they wanted I gave out some fruit snacks goldfish crackers and candy for each kid. I had 2 other moms who helped me with the store and I needed it!! They were so excited! My in-laws were also a great help and I could not have pulled it off without their help! "

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