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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Away up in Gorgie at Tyncastle Park......

On Saturday we attended the wedding of a work colleague of my husband. The boys had been looking forward to it because the wedding reception was to be held in the function suite of the football team that they and my husband support.

At dad's suggestion they took their football tops with them to change into for the evening. They wore their kilts to the service and then when we had parked outside the stadium got changed in the car into their football tops. There was some hilarity in the car as tried to get changed without being seen, even though we were parked in a dark street, at night, and the car has tinted windows!

Alasdair doesn't have a football top so he stayed in his kilt.

At the start of the evening the groom had a word with the security man and the boys were allowed to go to the pitch-side.

I stayed inside so this next photo was taken by my husband. I think he was so excited that he forgot to hold the camera still!

On a slightly different note, the boys were hugely impressed when they saw the wedding cake.

Princess Leah and Hans Solo.

with Darth Vader at the bottom

And the words in this post title are from the club song,

Away up in Gorgie at Tynecastle Park
There’s a wee football team that aye makes it’s mark
They’ve won all the honours for footballing arts
And there’s nae other team to compare with the Hearts
…
H-E-A-R-T-S
If you cannae spell it then here’s what it says
Hearts glorious Hearts
It’s down at Tynecastle they bide
The talk of the toun are the boys in Maroon
And Auld Reekie supports them with pride
This is my story this is my song
Follow the Hearts and you can’t go wrong
For some say the Celtic and Rangers are grand
but the boys in maroon are the best in the land

As a wee footnote, my husband took me to a Hearts match when we were 'just good friends'. The trouble was, I had been brought up in a family of blue-noses (Rangers fans) and we were going to watch Rangers V Hearts, at  Ibrox (Rangers' stadium) in the Hearts end! I had to pretend to be a Hearts fan that day. Hearts won 3-0 so we have a laugh now about how my husband got to hug me three times! It wasn't long after this that we became officially more than just friends, although the football had nothing to do with it!

Now, living with boys who all support the Hearts I have to keep my original colours under wraps! I'm quite happy to support the same team as them, just not when they play mine!

Gaelic word of the day:

ball-coise (bal-cosh-e) - football 

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