World Cup Fever

Back in the days when I was at high school I loved football. On Saturday nights myself, my dad and my brother would all watch the highlights of the days' games together. Now our youngest brother is looking to making a career from his football playing.

I remember when the US 94 world cup was on I used to babysit for my piano teacher. Once his two little boys were in bed I had the rest of the evening to watch the football. And I got paid for it too!

I was obviously being prepared for living with boys in my future!

In our house not all of the boys are football mad. James (14) will only watch it if a really big game is on. Other than that he isn't too fussed about it. Calum (11) loves to watch a game and he especially loves to read all the facts and trivia about games, players and teams. I can see him on Mastermind or a similar programme in the future as he retains all those facts so well! He also enjoys a kick around of the ball.

David (8) is the real football crazy boy. He will watch any team playing, no matter how low the league they play in. He would also kick a football about from dawn to dusk if he could.

Both he and Calum enjoy their special Saturday night treat of getting to stay up late and watch the football with daddy.

Alasdair (5) is still a little young to enjoy watching a whole game but has been buoyed along by his brothers' enthusiasm. He has started to enjoy kicking the ball about the garden with his brothers.

So, they have been eagerly awaiting today and the start of the world cup.

The wall chart showing all of the games, and with space to write in all of the scores, has been hanging on the dining room wall for a few weeks now.

We've printed off some bunting of the flags from each country taking part, although we haven't got round to hanging them up yet. It's a sneaky way to get them learning what are the flags of various countries without them realising!

I found the bunting on this site here and I've also printed off a few different activities to do over the next few weeks from the same site.

The boys have bought a couple of special football magazines, one of which came with this inflatable ball that Fraser loves to play with!

We decided that to make the tournament even more fun, everybody should choose a different team to support. The boys were also treated to a top or jacket from their chosen team.

David chose Portugal, because he wants to play like Ronaldo one day.

Alasdair chose Spain, because he inherited a Spain top that was David's at the last world cup!

Calum chose Italy. I can't actually remember why he chose them but I know he had a reason.

James chose Brazil because he read a book about Kaka a few years ago and liked it. And he seems to think they have a good chance of winning!

I've chosen France because we honeymooned in Paris and I have always had a soft spot for France since then. And my husband chose USA - because he liked the look of their training top!

Finally, just to kick start our world cup fun, we had a Brazilian inspired barbecue for dinner. I must share the beef recipe as it was so delicious. Just not tonight as I've said enough already!

We're going to have some food from our chosen countries on some of the nights they are playing. If anyone has any good suggestions for foods from any of the countries I've mentioned then please let me know!

And we finished off with these wonderful little balls, which are called Brigadeiro and are apparently a popular Brazilian treat. They are seriously delicious.

Now, I have a football match to finish watching!

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