Football Players for 5 Year Olds Party

For our son's 5th birthday party we asked two high school football players to come to the party dressed in their uniforms including their shoulder pads, knee pads, and other protective gear. They ran the children through some drills and then demonstrated some maneuvers (including defensive blocking). It was a big hit.

The teens wanted to decline any payment, but we insisted on paying them for their time and also giving them some party pizza and cake. I don't remember what we paid them, but it was about $25 each for a couple of hours.

Before the children came, I gave them some prep about safety issues and brainstormed with them some ideas to start off introducing themselves and what drills would be safe and fun.

One of the drills involved each child running forward a few feet, then catching a ball that was tossed to them, then avoiding being tagged as they ran through a "goal". Also, we set up an obstacle course that involved several orange cones around which the kids run zig zags, then had some ropes in the shape of rings on the ground (two in each row) that the kids had to step into as if they were tires.

One other thing we did was paint a "football guy" on a 5' tall plywood plank and had a friend cut a circle about 1 1/2' in diameter cut out above the figure's hand. We had the kids throw balls through the opening.

By Kayla from Atlanta, Georgia