Blessed Beyond Measure: Tailgate Party

On September 24th our littlest guy turned two and for the first time ever we had a birthday party on one of our boys' actual birthdays! If you had asked me 6 months ago what we would be doing for the boys' birthdays this year I would have told you that we were going to have some sort of joint birthday party mid-summer. However, as Asher's birthday approached I folded and gave in to the desire to throw him a party, resulting in a Superhero Training Camp for Asher, Avery and their cousins. This meant that to be fair I also needed to throw a party for Avery, but figuring out what type of party to throw was no problem. With balls being one of his loves (any type of ball...footballs, baseballs, soccer balls, volleyballs, basketballs you name it...) and his birthday being at the beginning of football season I knew that we needed to throw him a birthday tailgate party...and so we did.

The Invite
The first part and one of the most important parts of any party is the invite. It is what sets the stage and gives the party guests a glimpse of what they can expect. It also happens to be one of my favorite parts to make. When I was a kid my parents bought me a Crayola Card Making Kit. I loved it. I would make cards for everyone with the plethora of art supplies, stickers and card phrases that came in it. I was pretty sure that I had a future at Hallmark! ;) In the past I have created cards that I spent weeks on; designing, cutting, printing, and crafting. They were fun but took way to much time for what I've got available these days. For this party I found an invitation online that I liked and basically created my own photoshopped version. I can't take much credit for them since I didn't really design it, but it did turn out pretty cute!

Each invite came with a ticket for each child invited...or one for the adults if there were no kids in the family.

The Invite.

Once the invite was out, I continued collecting and studying my Pinterest ideas and worked to create the rest of the party while also working to keep it a bit more low-key and low-stress than previous parties had been. Here is the result:

The Decorations:
Decorations are always important to me. As a designer, I just can't help but create a space that is unlike the day-to-day; a space that turns our home from a house to an event space. Although there is a lot of stress involved in party planning, making and hosting I have to admit that I love it. I love the creativity, I love opening our home to guests and most importantly I love making something special to commemorate the big days of our special little boys. For this party, I wanted to go with the football theme, but it was also important to me that it remain generic. For basically anyone that knows our family even a little it is no secret that we are big Michigan fans. We bleed Maize & Blue, but for the party I wanted everyone to feel welcome in our home...even the few Buckeyes that were invited. For this reason I encouraged everyone to wear their favorite sporting attire and then went with a very neutral color palette: brown, black, white and grassy green.

The dining room is always party central at our house, and this party was no different. I made our dining table the main focus by creating a scaled-down football field for the table's cover. Then I made a simple Happy Birthday banner for the windows and finished it off with some crete paper and poms that I picked up at the Dollar Tree.

Happy Birthday banner on the left windows. Football table cover at the center table.

I loved how the football field turned out! I made it by spray painting the numbers, letters and lines on some indoor/outdoor grass carpet from Menards after drawing up scaled a plan of a football field using dimensions I found online. Considering it only cost me $10 and a few hours to make, I was very pleased. PLUS as an added bonus, I found the little orange goal posts at the DollarTree as part of a finger football game and they turned out to be almost exactly the correct size that I needed to match the scale of my field perfectly, making this type-A/perfectionist momma very happy! :)

A number '2' that I made along with the crete paper and poms that I purchased from the Dollar Tree.

To go with family tradition, I had some M&Ms out on the table for pre-dinner munchies, and I placed them in some football shaped bowls that I found at the dollar store.

Concessions:
In addition to the Dining Room decorations, I had two other main areas of focus: The Concessions and The End Zone. Since this was a tailgate/football party, I wanted to focus the food for the party around things that you might actually find at a football concession stand and wanted to decorate the area with items that would make that feeling come alive. I kept thing very simple by using my kitchen cabinets and shelving to feature the decorations and my kitchen counter to set out the food for the party. On my left cabinet I made a chalk-board style sign using a piece of black pasteboard and actual chalk to write out the menu. On the right, I made a similar sign posting the event's MVP (our little birthday boy) Stats. Then, I simply made a small "Concessions" banner by printing out each letter on a piece of yardstick and using small yellow paper clips to hang them between the signs. Finally, to bring home the Concessions idea, I also pinned up small chip bags that I purchased at Sam's Club on the shelves below the banner.

For the food, we kept the menu very simple with football-named tailgate foods:

Hail Mary Hot Dogs
Long Bomb Brats
Hook & Lateral Hamburgers
Passing Yards Pasta Salad. *
Punter Potato Salad
Victory Veggies & Dip**
Fullback Fruit Salad ***
Cornerback Crackers & Cheese
Chop Block Chips
Penalty Flag Jello Jigglers

Notes:

*/** For the Pasta Salad and Veggies & Dip I found a great football-shaped bowl and football-shaped veggie tray at the DollarTree.

***For the Fruit Salad, I found a watermelon football helmet on Pinterest that I thought would be a fun and easy addition to the party. Since I knew my dad (who is pretty artsy) would be around the morning of the party I figure it would be a great task to give him. I was right! Not only did he make the helmet for me but he went all out for it and said that if he wasn't going to make a Michigan helmet there was no point in making one! ;) Go Blue!

The concessions with the food. You can't see the plates good, but Eric found some perfect ones that were very sturdy and matched the party wonderfully at Sam's Club for me.

Dad's Michigan watermelon football helmet!

For the drinks, we kept things very simple with a "Wet Your Whistle" zone including a sports-style water cooler, some Gatorade and some soda.

My Mom manning the grill for all of our tailgate eats! Thanks for all your help Mom!

The End Zone:
The End Zone was the final focus of the party, with a touchdown table full of goodies to celebrate our MVP. Here I kept the decorations pretty simple as well, making a goal post out of yellow crepe paper, more poms from the Dollar Tree, a home-printed 'End Zone' banner, and some game plays made on more black poster board. I also made a runner out of left over grass carpet to set all of the goodies on.

The goodies themselves included a football shaped cake (made with a Wilton football cake pan from JoAnn Fabrics), some football brownies, some vanilla cupcakes topped with "grassy" frosting and mini foam fingers (we're #1) that I found I Amazon, and finally some popcorn tubs with cheese popcorn and caramel corn (made by my Mom) to keep with the concessions/football theme.

The Game(s):
With so many kids coming to the party I knew it would be too much work to coordinate games for them all to play but wanted to come up with some game-time fun for the kids. Eric borrowed his corn-hole set from work (a tailgate must) and then I purchased a gigantic football and a target football toss on Amazon for the kids to play with. Unfortunately the gigantic football was a major let down. I was so looking forward to watching 20 little kids play with a football bigger than they were, but when we opened the package we found that the ball already had a hole in the seam. My father-in-law tried to patch it with the patch that came with, but it wouldn't hold, so other than a few pictures of the ball right after it was deflated, no one was really able to play with it. The target football game seemed to be a pretty big hit with several of the bigger boys though!

For the really big "kids" (aka adults) we decided that there should be an actual game on for people to watch during the party...and what better game to watch than the Michigan game? For this, Eric borrowed a projector from work and then set up a "big screen" in the garage for people to check out of so inclined.

The gigantic football before it was completely deflated.

The boys playing football with Gramps before the party.

Eric setting up the big screen.

My Dad watching the Michigan Game before the party.

Asher playing both games at once with cousin Hudson.

Avery practicing his football throwing at the target.

The MVP:
So, as I've already mentioned this party was to celebrate our MVP, Avery Michael Migrin who turned two on this day. Here are a few pictures of our guy before and during the party along with his Stats from the MVP board:

Name: Avery Migrin
Weight: 29.2 pounds
Height: 35 inches
Loves: Snuggles, Reading, Wrestling & Playing
Favorite Toys: Balls, Trucks & Dinosaurs
Favorite Foods: "Wa-er", Bananas & Pizza

Chasing me before the party with a Lobster claw that Grammy & Gramps brought back from Maine.

He got me!

Give this kid a balloon and he is happy for days!

The Ticket Holders:
The invitation, decorations, food and treats are all wonderful, but what really makes it a PARTY are the guests! Although it is a lot of work, we love having family and friends (from both long ago and those we are still getting to know) over for fun, food and fellowship and that is exactly what we did! We had close to 40 people show up for the party (many of which remembered to wear their favorite sports gear) and had a great time playing in the back yard and the boys' playroom inside.

Aaron, Hudson, Dad, Gramps & Avery enjoying the game (that is before Aaron went to the hospital to get stitches in his finger for an earlier injury!)

Dad (aka Papa) snuggling with Gabe

We do have a few friends that are Ohio State fans and most of them couldn't make it. One family did bring their littlest dressed in OSU gear though and we seriously considered making him leave (no not really), but he was just too darned cute! :)

Avery keeping a watchful eye on his little OSU friend.

Happy Boys!

Fun in the backyard

Grammy, Erika, Mom & Gabe catching up on the back porch.

Etta and her mom Allison taking Avery's bike for spin.

The spoiled birthday boy has a cup of POP! I tried to just look the other way!

Susan with our little friend Tim.

The guys catching up.

Nicholas, very focused his driving!

Birthday boy tackling Daddy.

Asher was thrilled to see his best buddy Theo and Theo's little sis at the party. They hung out together for much of the night. Miss them!

Everyone ready to hit up the Concessions!

The birthday boy eating his dinner (aka Doritos).

Sitting around the field.

Andy enjoying dinner at the kids' table.

Chendy and her little man eating up tailgate style.

Done with dinner...let's go climb a tree. We had to remind Andy that he needed to preach the next day so he better not fall out!

Red and Black but still cute.

Sorry ladies...He's All Mine.

I bought the green and white balloons to match the rest of the party decorations (it's hard to find black or brown balloons for a low price), but everyone gave me a tough time that we had Michigan State colors decorating our backyard! :(

Eric's proof that I was at the party.

Gorgeous little Lilou

Hudson conspiring with the girls Katelyn and Adalyn.

Erika and my nephew Hudson blowing kisses! <3

The Half-Time Show:
When dinner was over, it was time for the half-time show, also known as Happy Birthday to You Avery! We lit his candle, gathered around and sang Happy Birthday to our little man. He loved it...or most of it. Asher and his cousin Caleb were sitting right next to him and purposely singing as loud and horrible as they could and I don't think Avery was impressed. For a minute I thought it was going to make him cry, but then the song ended, he blew out his candle and then everyone clapped and he was smiling and clapping right along with them!

In awe of the candle-lighting.

Happily enjoying his moment.

Looking concerned and sad by the tone-def singing around him.

Blowing out his candle.

He did it!

Yay!!!

Happy Boy! Can't believe he is TWO!

Video: Happy Birthday to You

Now for the best part...the Cake! If you've seen the video of Avery eating his cake on his first birthday, you know that the boy likes Cake and has ever since that day when he had his first taste. One year later, nothing has changed...he still loves his cake!

Avery wasn't the only one that enjoyed some cake! :) Etta insisted on bringing the green lawn chair from outside into the house to relax and enjoy her cake too! :)

The Gifts:
We always encourage our friends to not worry about bringing a gift as we genuinely just want to fellowship with them during this special time. There are always a few that bring gifts anyway though and that along with gifts from us and family make for one very blessed (& spoiled) little birthday boy!

Big cousin Caleb handmade a birthday card of him and Avery surrounded by hearts to give to Avery and then pulled a dollar from his own piggy bank to put in it!! So sweet!! ...and Asher must have really liked the card because a couple of days later, I found the card not on the fridge where it had been and instead hung up on the lockers in Asher's room.

Avery & I opening the gifts from friends with some help from Hudson & Adalyn.

Game Day Souvenir:
Finally, the party was almost at it's end and it was time for our friends to get their littles home and in bed. Before they left though, we made sure each kid got to take a Game Day Souvenir home (choosing between some Amazon inflatable footballs or DollarTree foam footballs).

"Thank you for coming. We hope you had a BALL!. Please take a ball (and some sweet goodies) to enjoy at home!"

Asher saying goodbye to his best bud Theo. I wish I could have captured this hug without the blur...so genuine and so cute!

The After Party:
After everyone left, the after party began. My dad and brother returned from getting Aaron's stitches at the hospital, so they enjoyed a late dinner and then Avery got to open all of the family presents.

Dad

Aaron & Hudson

Daddy tickle torturing Avery

Avery opening the Dino Block book from Eric & I

Ooo a VTech Truck!

All of the cousins gathering around to see what Avery got.

A bag full of balls! Gramps & Grammy you know this boy too well!

Avery got lots of wonderful gifts (thank you EVERYONE), but this Jurassic Park TRex hand puppet from Eric and I was probably the favorite. The boy loves his dinosaurs!! Roar!!!