The Waterstraut Waterspout: Social Distancing Journal, Days 330 thru 331: Hayden's SUPERBOWL Birthday!

Day 330: Saturday February 6

Superbowl Countdown: One Day!

So, what's even crazier about the Bucs in a Superbowl IN Tampa, was that it all converged on Hayden's birthday! Hayden was a little worried what that would mean for his birthday if the Bucs lost, but really, none of us thought we'd get this far, so it was totally one of those 'it's just such an honor to be nominated' situations. We promised we didn't expect to win, and we'd be totally cool about it.

Saturday morning Asa and I got up to go get the chicken tenders from PDQ that we usually get to fill in the snackadium. They reheat so well, we decided to pick them up the day before as to not have to cram that in on Sunday as well.

Because there was no time to waste. We needed to do some birthday activities on Saturday to make sure Hayden felt like he got all his birthday in.

First up: a game of hot lava.

A couple years ago we started making rules to it. With an economy based on trading, and duels. Last person standing wins. I'll let the pictures do the talking. But, ultimately Calib ended up winning this years Annual Hot Lava Game.

For dinner Saturday night, Asa made his knock off Five Guys, per Hayden's request.

And I got to working on the set up for the big day. I mean, again I was just so excited I got to make a Bucs Raymond James Snackadium with Birthday nods. We turned the table and I decorated the whole eat-in part of the kitchen.

And I got to work on construction of the Snackadium. I took so many pictures of this thing. But, it was one of my favorite things I ever crafted. See the signs at each endzone? Those are my pictures I took a few days earlier and then printed out and laminated.

I got the official Super Bowl Logo on there.

And plenty of Bucs slogans.

I even had some ring of honor names going.

Oh, and this year I got some goal posts to add!

I also premade some Farve-tastic Brownies, and topped them with Super Bowl Rings.

Day 331: Sunday February 7: Haydens 15th Birthday AND Super Bowl Sunday IN Tampa with the BUCS! What a time to be alive.

Asa started the morning with his new Super Bowl Coffee Mug.

I added to the kitchen decorations; most everything was stuff we had gotten as free giveaways back when we had season tickets. But, I also added all the flags around the stadium. (They raise them whenever the Bucs score- my attention to detail was something with this one).

You guys, I even made a little street sign.

And I added in Bucs Beach! (It's a thing, in front of the stadium). My sand, in case you're wondering, is crushed up nilla wafers.

You can also see the giant Bucs flag back there, a nod to the HUGE flag that flies at One Buc Place.

Mostly ready to go.

Asa and I then went out to grab our Publix curbside order, in our Bucs masks (and our matching Sunday RunDay Shirts).

And returned home with some tacos for lunch and some burritos to put in the Snackadium. Since it was Hayden's birthday, after all, we mostly just let him pick what we put in the Snackadium food wise.

I also picked up a Sunday paper.

After lunch, we got to Hayden's pirate map treasure hunt. A fitting activity for a Bucs Superbowl Birthday.

He's been doing this for a few years, and I always wonder when he'll stop asking for it. But then I think, man, I'll be 40 this year, and I'd totally find my birthday presents by treasure map.

So off he went to find his gifts.

His big gift from us was a keyboard.

But from grandma, he got a Chrome Book. So, a pretty good birthday haul for Hayden.

Lets just do a look see at the stadium. (Hey, my cardboard cutout is there somewhere!)

Since Hayden got lots of new stuff for his birthday, it was easy to keep busy while we watched Super Bowl coverage.

While he was busy, I finished off decorating the kitchen.

And I got to work on the food. First up, I made the bean dip field, complete with sour cream writing.

And then filled it will all kind of Hayden's favorite. We got chips and queso from Capital Tacos, Pretzles delivered from Auntie Annes, Publix sandiwches, and PDQ tenders, Taco Bell burritos, and topped it off with some chips and carrots for good measure.

But we didn't forget desserts, either. We had Buccaneers cupcakes from The Cake Girl, and the Brownies I made.

Plus of course, a birthday cake for Hayden, complete with a couple of pennets I had made.

But probably, my favorite thing I made was the watermelon pirate ship. If you know Ray Jay, you know the pirate ship. And no Ray Jay Snackadium would be complete without it. I even carved into it.

It sat in the sand, with windows carved out, and I even had a picture of the front of actual pirate ship printed out and laminated to go on the front of mine.

It came full of watermelon to enjoy, and beads that we had gotten at games (because they throw beads off the ship. It was perfect.

The back had 'Raise the Flags' carved into it.

Seriously, this thing was amazing. One of my best crafting ever.

Of course the birthday boy got to check it out first.

We lit his candles to have everyone sing to him before we dug in.

And then I took a million pictures, because, this was exciting! Birthday! Super Bowl! Tampa. What. A. Day.

Mom even showed off our work on the family zoom call.

And now.. Super Bowl Time.

I know, pictures of TV can be lame. But this is exciting, people.

So exciting, we all moved to Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood.

Asa and I changed into our Super Bowl gear for the main event.

And Calib changed into his.

Now, in case I haven't mentioned it, the Super Bowl was IN Tampa. On Saturday they did a practice fly over, and I heard it coming over the house. I peeked out the window and saw the tail end of it, so I thought we might be able to catch it on Super Bowl Sunday.

So we watched in on TV, and then.. just a couple minutes later....

... we watched as the flyover went right over our neighborhood. Look closely and you can see all three planes. It was super cool. And who gets a fly over on their birthday?

Also, it didn't make it on the table, but per Hayden's request I filled the punch bowl with prohibition cocktail.

And then we watched the game.

And it was kind of crazy. Look, we've been Bucs fans for over a decade. We've spent thousands upon thousands of dollars in season tickets to see them lose year after year. So even when they're up in the Super Bowl, you're waiting for an epic collapse.