Super Bowl Open House

Super Bowl Sunday is a special day for our family. It's a party with a lot of food, some fun commercials, family time, and oh yah, there's is a sporting event on the tv.

The food theme is different every year (sometimes inspired by the teams that are playing or the venue) and we add to our decorations every year. Here's this years' rundown.

The Decorations

I made 3 more team pennants. I've made almost 20 now. Welcome Bengals, Dolphins, and Cowboys.

The football field banner is decorating our kitchen window.

The usual football field platters, football plates and bowls, felt football coasters, as well as our football cheese spreader and bottle opener all make a comeback this year.

The Food

Specially brewed rootbeer (regular and diet) from Brew Bakers in Huntington Beach.

Giant Football Calzone. I used storebought pizza dough and filled with pizza sauce, lots of cheese and veggies. We also had a ziti pasta with the same sauce.

Pretzel Sticks from Brewbakers with homemade marinara sauce (leftover from the calzone). We also keep chips and veggies around for snacking.

 Knock-You-Naked Brownies from Pioneer Woman's Recipe.

Peanut M & Ms.

 Jell-O Jigglers Helmets in sugar-free lemon and strawberry banana.

The Entertainment

We are playing Bingo during the game this year. I found these fun Super Bowl bingo cards online from Parade Magazine

and of course a lot of cool commercials. :)

I hope that you have a wonderful day. Thank you for vistiting We Grow By Our Dreams.

I have lots more projects and tutorials on my other blog, The Vintage Sheet Blog. 

Super Bowl Spread

Super Bowl Sunday is a holiday at the Grow home. I collect foot-ball themed treasures all year long at garage sales and thrift stores. This year I was thrilled to find the NFL tablecloth and the little football bowl with a football spreader.

This year's menu:

Antipasti platter including olives, peppers, mushrooms, artichoke hearts, mozzarella balls, kosher pickles and spicy jack cheese

Crackers and Brazil nuts (don't they look a little like footballs?)

Cheese fondue with green apples, broccoli, carrots, and Panera bread cubes

For dessert: Jell-O jigglers in Saints gold (sf lemon) and Colts blue (raspberry)

Not pictured: Turkey Sausage Chili and Vegetarian Chilli

Thanks for stopping by my blog. I hope your team wins. Please say, "hi" if you have the time. :)

Super Bowl Prep

I made another 2 NFL (American football team) pennants tonight. And, I decided to string them up on a laundry line so I can adjust them every year as I add more. Actually, I'll probably need two strings because I have 5 more pennants not pictured here (maybe AFC and NFC?).

The big game is this Sunday. Our menu:

• Antipasti platter featuring olives, pickles, roasted peppers, mushrooms and baby mozzerella balls
• Cheese fondue with bread cubes, green apples, carrots and broccolli
• Chili (turkey and veggie versions)
• Jell-O helmets in blue and black (orange+grape=black)
• and for dessert we are tentatively planning on chocolate fondue

We'll probably do some chips and guacamole and some chex mix too. I'll post pictures.

Oh, and my football pennants are featured this week on the modern eve blog along with some really yummy looking football cupcakes.

Thanks for stopping by my blog today. I'd love to hear your Super Bowl traditions. And, if you are from outside the USA, I'd love to hear about your sports traditions.

Weekend Happenings

Our Super Bowl spread complete with cheesy football and veggies, apple pie, chili and cornbread, sugar-free rootbeer, white cheddar popcorn and helmet jell-o jigglers.

My niece and I went for a walk along the wetlands at sunset yesterday. She took the picture of me. Be kind, I was makeup-free yesterday. Lost a front tooth.

Sitting by a big tree.

Looking toward the beach. The hills in the distance are actually Long Beach, it's beach faces ours.

Thanks for stopping by.

Favorite Team Sport Pennant Tutorial

* I have an updated version of this tutorial, if you are interested, check it out here.

For the past 8 years I've been making these fun Super Bowl decorations out of felt. However, the idea can certainly be used for any sports team, theme (including your child's team) or to show your school pride. This year I made the football field and the Cardinals. I already had the Steelers. Here's a little tutorial on how to create a banner for your favorite team.

This is my felt pile. I always by the 8 1/2 x 11 sheets when they are on sale.

Step 1: Fold the felt in half and mark the center.Step 2: Make your background shape. Using a ruler or piece of paper, mark and cut from each of the top corners to your center line.
For the field, cut a staight piece and glue it down the center. Don't worry about the bottom part hanging off the sides of your triangle. Just flip it over and trim.
Step 3: Make a template: Print out and cut out your shape. I find images on the internet or make numbers in Word.Step 4: Lay your image on your felt and cut around the outside of your template. If you are using an image with multiple layers (like my Cardinal), then cut the largest piece of felt first, cut the template down to the next color and continue cutting until all of your layers are cut.
Step 5: Glue it down. I like Tacky Glue but I'm sure any fabric or Elmers glue would work.Some of the penants have a top strip. For the field I made it in 2 pieces so it would be flat and added a couple field lines. Here they are hanging in my living room. You can email me with questions. Thanks for visiting. Happy Super Bowl Sunday! If you make a pennant, please share the link with me. I'd love to see it.