Patriots Day ~ According to Hayley

2010 Season ~ Joey, Hayley and Emily

Here in our household, Sundays during football season are days that we spend the day watching our favorite team, the New England Patriots, wearing our Patriots clothing and making football appropriate foods.  Since childhood, my family has been Patriots fans, even during seasons of just a handful of wins and the Super Bowl against the Bears, though no need to bring up that memory!  Luckily, Patriots have been very successful and have given us some exciting Sunday afternoons over the years.  This morning my daughter Hayley asked what day it was and when I told her it was Sunday, she let me know that Sundays are Patriots Days.  She loves to wear her Brady shirt.  Princess Emily, my youngest, would not wear anything but pink, so I had to get her a pink shirt.  Well, I figured I would use my blog to today to share a couple of my favorite recipes and just some cute pictures of my kids over the years in various Patriots outfits.


The 2006 NFL Season - Hayley & Joey



Of course, like everything else in our lives, we have a Disney story to go along with this.  My husband wears Patriots things pretty often and when our son was born, he was, of course, given many Patriots outfits as well.  I have a few Patriots items, though I save mine mostly for football Sundays.  One day while making our way from Frontierland to Adventureland, my dad veered away from our group and said hello to someone and shook his hand.  When I glanced over to see who he was talking to, it was Bob Kraft.  I couldn't believe it!  I especially couldn't believe that my dad walked over to talk to him.  In all our trips to WDW, we have seen many celebrities, though my dad made it very clear to my brother and I we could smile or wave to them, but they were on vacation and we were not to interrupt their time with their families.  So let me tell you I was quite shocked that my dad went against his own advice.  My dad introduced himself and thanked Bob Kraft for all that he has done for the Patriots and Patriot fans.  He then said he would let Mr. Kraft get back to his vacation with his grandkids.  The great part was, Mr. Kraft continued to chat with us about the Patriots.  My son Joey was 14 months at the time and wearing his Patriots hat.  My Kraft commented that he didn't even know that they made Patriots hats that small.  He gave my son a pin which had the Lombardi trophy and Patriots symbol on it.  He was such a nice guy and was so sweet to my son.  This just endeared me to the Patriots even more.  My dad and my husband talked about it the rest of the trip and even called my brother, who had left WDW just the day before, to let him know he missed Bob Kraft.  I will say my brother was quite disappointed.  Needless to say, we didn't get a photo, I was the camera carrier, because I felt like we were intruding on his vacation, but the men in my family will not let me live it down that I didn't get a picture of them with Mr. Kraft. 

2009 Season ~ Joey, Hayley & Emily

During every trip to WDW, we try to dress the kids in similar clothes each day.  One day of every vacation is always Patriots clothes. In 2008, my three kids and my nephew were all decked out in their Patriots shirts.  As we stood in line for Playhouse Disney Live, a cast member came up to us and said our Patriots shirts caught their eye and we would be the first family into the show.  This was a huge relief to my sister in law and I, since the men were on Tower of Terror and here we were with a 3.5 year old, 2 year old, 1.5 year old and 10 month old.  We couldn't wait to get in and get them all contained in one spot!  Luckily, my mom was there to help out too!

Each Sunday my kids help cook some special football snacks.  One of my favorite football recipes is Rachael Ray's Super Nachos.  This recipe is definitely for a crowd, but worth every second of prepartion!  I sometimes make the meat topping ahead of time and just heat it up before serving.  Normally, it is well paired with a Sam Adams, particularly a Sam's Octoberfest.  But if you are having people over who may not necessarily be beer drinkers, a nice drink for a group would be Guy Fieri's Fish Bowls.  This is a great football drink, but also we enjoy it a lot during the summer.

So good luck to the Patriots today!