In the Fall, thoughts of many dads and their little boys turn to football! Games on the television, pee wee games and playing catch in the front yard are common events. Even though this theme works best for little boys, you can have a lot of activities that will be just as fun for girls. When you have a football theme at your child’s party, you can keep your kids moving and active the entire time.

When the guests arrive, have a jersey for everyone to wear (or a t-shirt with a number and their name stenciled on the back). You can have various colored shirts for splitting the group into teams, or you can keep them all the same color and just divide the group up evenly if needed. If you want, you could make this an activity at the beginning of the party and the guests can make their own jersey. (They wouldn’t be able to wear it, since it would take most of the party time to dry.) This makes a great momento of the party that the guests can take home!

Now you can move to the outdoor activities. With lots of footballs on hand, you can play several games! Catch is always a great skill the guests can learn. With two rope lines about one foot apart, have two guests stand on either side and throw the football back and forth. See how many catches they can get in a row!

After catch, everyone can move to throwing the ball through hoops! You can get large hoops, small hoops, tires…anything that the football will fit through. If you want, you can give a prize to each guest that gets the ball successfully through any of the hoops and a grand prize for the first person to get it through the smallest hoop.

Once you are done with the activities outside, it is time to cool off and have some refreshments. First on the menu can be Gatorade or another sports drink to hydrate everyone. Then you can move to a menu of things you would find at a football game: Soft pretzels, hot dogs, popcorn and ice cream sandwiches! For dessert, you can have an extra large cake shaped just like a football!

With the party winding down, you can have the guests do a very simple craft making a football player out of two paper plates. All the kids do is draw a face on one paper plate, and then cut a helmet design out of paper plate #2. You glue the helmet design over the face plate and you get a football player! (For better instructions, go to About.com.)

If you don’t have enough time for a craft, have the kids watch a classic Charlie Brown cartoon on VHS or DVD. Make sure to choose one where Lucy holds the football for Charlie Brown!

Paper products for a football themed party are easy to find at local retail stores and through online providers. You can get plates, napkins, cups, decorations, invitations and thank you notes with the designs of your favorite football teams. (If you order items online, be sure to leave enough time for delivery.)