Superbowl Sunday
Patriots vs Rams
Ever since I can remember football has always been a large part of my life. My dad is a HUGE sports fan where some game or another was always on the radio or TV. Playoff games (in any sport) were a big deal in my house where we would decorate, mom would make a ton of snacks (things we usually didn't have in our kitchen) and a ton of their friends would come over- many of who also had children. The kids would usually go outside and play for awhile, but then get hollered at to come inside and watch at least half of the game. The Superbowl was like Christmas. Everyone would be drinkings, cooking, grilling, yelling, and laughing. I've always had great memories of the day even though most years I couldn't tell you who won or lost unless the 49ers were playing (my dad's team).
So every year regardless of where I live we always either host or go to a Superbowl party. This year we were invited to a friends party to watch with his siblings & their significant others. One of his sisters is a teacher and his brother is a chef along with a bunch of other strangers so there is always good conversation and good food. This year I was volun-told to handle all the snacks and others would handle the drinks, decorations, half-time meals, etc. So after a quick search on the internet for best Superbowl snacks I decided to make a snackadium (a stadium of snacks).
This was more work than I anticipated and spent more time constructing the cardboard "stands" than actually preparing any of the snacks and wish I had taken photos of the construction vs the finished product. I also attempted to make chocolate covered strawberry footballs which didn't come out as well, but took me back to my cake decorating days in the bakery while in undergrad. In reflecting back I thought about if this was truly play for me and I think it was. Although it was frustrating at times (when the stands kept falling over) or my poor husband, who was trying to help was not holding things the 'right' way and got yelled at multiple times, we had a ton of laughs like when an entire sandwich wall fell over and all the stadium snacks tumbled out like people fleeing the stadium after the game. Overall it was really fun. We were experimenting together doing something that neither of us knew how to do, but were figuring it out by trial and error and learned how to make it work. I think that play for children is sometimes like that, especially play within a group or with others where it can sometimes be challenging and frustrating, but also a ton of fun and really rewarding. I couldn't partake in many of the beverages and some of the food options this year and the actual game was lacking in excitement so the highlight for me was spending time with Jarrod and creating a masterpiece.
