The Soccer Team “Tunnel of Terrific”

Seems like yesterday that I ran in the team “Tunnel of Terrific” after finishing up a tough game against my peers, BFF’S and neighbors.  Sweating underneath the California summer sun of 80 degrees in the middle of Fall.  We ran all over for an hour, ate lots of treats, sucked down the gatorade and treats at halftime…then made the infamous run, round and round over a dozen times at lightning speed.  This treasured tradition is a classic, one that is enjoyed by many AYSO soccer families!

As for team snacks, I recommend adding some fun into the game (their only young once).  My kids have played in the AYSO league for two years now, and every time it is our turn to do snacks, I try and make it a fun project we do together as a family…and of course add a twist!

We put together these pumpkin soccer buckets this year.  Don’t get me wrong, we add the typical orange slices, grapes and water, but for a buck or two more, our lil ones walk away with much more.

Our trip took us to the dollar store where we nabbed the pumpkin buckets for $1.  We also purchased colorful popcorn bags (12 came in a bag for a $1) that we filled with popcorn (picked up a 3 pack of microwave popcorn for $1 or you can purchase the pre-popped popcorn $1 a bag) Took brown paper bags and filled them with healthy treats like Halloween pretzels, grapes and oranges-(best deal to buy those at Costco since we did snacks for both kids the same day). We took clear cello bags and filled those with a festive pencil, a mini autograph book and one candy treat.  (Dollar store for all those items as well).  Jeff made team name tags with their logo and placed on mini water bottles and also on team buckets so at each break- players could grab and go.

We always try and bring a blanket big enough for all kids to sit on and enjoy snacks together as a team…last year we did rice krispy treat lollipops for kids- we shaped the rice krispy as a soccer ball then placed a popsicle stick up inside the middle- making it look like a soccer lollipop.  We wrapped each “krispy-pop” in a cello bag and tied a big pink bow…we had to…reference the team name below…