Super Bowl Party with Kids

Super Bowl Sunday has become one of the top party nights of the year, right up there with New Year�s Eve and Halloween. Some 20 million people, many of whom do not even follow football the other 364 days of the year, will gather together with their nearest and dearest to down a few beers and scream at the TV. But what can you do if you have small children and cannot find a sitter? Are you doomed to sit at home watching the game by yourself? Not necessarily. When it comes to balancing your kids and your grown-up social life, it�s often best to adopt the philosophy �If you can�t beat them, join them-or rather, include them�. Plan your own Super Bowl party for your kids, their friends, and their friends� parents, or for any friends of yours who have their own kids. Chances are, your child-free friends will opt out, given a choice, but you can always invite them as well if you�re feeling brave.

Kids, even ones who aren�t big football fans, tend to be up for just any kind of party as long as it seems sufficiently festive. One good way to get kids in a party mood is to send out actual invitations like you�d do for a birthday party. You can easily print these out yourself, decorating them with football-themed clip art or with the logos of the teams competing. If you really want kids to get in the spirit of things, suggest on the invitation that they come dressed in costume, as football players, cheerleaders or superfans sporting team colors.

Time your party so everyone begins arriving about two hours before game time, so the kids can work off some of that party energy playing a few games. If it�s warm enough, you can always send them outside to toss around a soft Nerf-style football, or even organize a game of flag football. For the flags you can use bandanas, hankies or strips of cloth tucked into a back pocket or through a waistband. If it�s chilly out, or you just prefer indoor games, you can easily come up with football-related versions of classic party favorites. Try a game of �pin the football through the goalposts� � much easier than pinning the tail on a donkey, as the target area should be bigger. A treasure hunt could involve small prizes like football-shaped erasers, football stickers or temporary tattoos, or organize a scavenger hunt for larger items such as a football helmet, trophy or copy of Sports Illustrated with Brett Favre on the cover. (Surely he�s been there more than a few times?) Football-themed craft projects could be as simple as coloring sheets, or you could even go so far as to provide plain t-shirts and fabric markers so kids can customize their own �jerseys�.

A buffet of finger foods works well for TV-distracted adults as well as kids. Popular bite-size items include mini pizzas, sliced and quartered sub sandwiches and chicken wings (boneless if kids are very young and/or messy). Sliders are cute and very trendy, and you can make these out of ground beef, ground turkey, or even veggie burgers, or change things up a bit by using pulled pork or making mini sloppy joes. Chips and dips are always popular, but you�ll make health-conscious moms happy if you include some cut-up fresh veggies�and the kids may even eat them if you include plenty of ranch dressing for dunking. For dessert, what could be better than football-decorated cupcakes? You can customize these using green frosting with white lines drawn on to represent yard lines, or you could go for team-colored frosting or even use miniature plastic helmets or football players as cake toppers.

While the game is on, understand that not all children present will have the patience to sit and watch the game, and practically none of them will be able to do it silently. Your adult guests will thank you if you have a second TV with a DVD player set up in another room for the kids to watch if they prefer. In keeping with the spirit of the party, you may wish to choose a football-themed kids movie such as �Angels in the Endzone� or �Little Giants��the kids may become so inspired by these movies that they develop an interest in the game itself. Who knows, they may even opt to watch the real thing with you on TV next year!

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Maria Scinto has a master's in library and information science from the University of Denver. Her work has appeared in publications including "Northern Virginia Magazine," "The Montgomery County Gazette" and "The Fairfax Times". She has co-authored two books, "The Takeout Cookbook" and "Savvy Convert's Guide to Choosing a Religion." Her favorite subjects are sports, food and the paranormal, and her dream is to eat a hotdog in a haunted ballpark.

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