Disclaimer – This is a sponsored post brought to you by Canon. All opinions are 100% my own.
Baseball is my everything right now. I love love LOVE it. There is nothing more that Jeremy and I love than watching Will up at bat or running around in his cleats! We are so madly proud of Will and how he has developed as a little athlete (we just found out he made ALL STARS! Wahoo!!!) and in the ways he has grown as a teammate, a kind hearted opponent and as a little fan of the sport. He chooses to watch baseball over cartoons now, we have seen him be so encouraging to his friends and other teammates (um, it’s hard to be five and expect so much of yourself. These little guys can hit, catch and know what to do with the ball and if they make any errors, oh, they break all the mama’s hearts with their kindergartener tears!) plus we have seen his compassionate big brother heart toward others and oh man, that makes my heart bigger than the baseball field. We just are over the moon about this kid and thankful that he got to play this sport!
Since this is his third season of doing it, we thought it would be fun to share some of the cute ways we have created the little guys snack bags. I mean….some of those kids literally play the entire game because they are passionate about baseball and some because they are passionate about the snacks. We as snack-mom would hate to disappoint 🙂
Okay so one of my favorite ways to make a snack bag is to brown-bag it. It’s super easy and affordable and the tag is the personalization that is great for this age group.
I have tweaked it for handled bags as well. These white mini gift bags are 3 for $1 at the Dollar Tree and they are great for the kids because they can easily access their treats and then hand it off to mom 🙂
You probably noticed that I added the baseball stitch tape to the bags….it’s SO easy and I love the way it makes the bags instantly baseball themed. Plus, I have bought one roll and use it ALL the time so it’s affordable.
I like to do a single strip of tape on one side of the bag and then just trim with scissors. The best part is that they made it clear so you can make any TEAM color baseball themed as well 🙂
For the personalized part, you need to break out the computer and your Canon PIXMA iP8720 Crafting Printer. It’s my GO-TO printer for tags because it prints everything on one big sheet of matte photo paper (13×19 is BIG and makes plenty of tags) and always looks amazing. It’s this one…
Life is short….take pictures with your printer. #yolo #justkidding #notreally
I create my picture or get one free online and then copy that layer (CTR + J) over and over till you have enough tags. My tags were about 3.5″ square and looked substantial. I like big tags and I can not lie – go on, you know the lyrics 🙂
Print out your tags and trim them with scissors. I think this would also work amazingly for your little ones if you did it on sticker paper too so that they could wear their team spirit!
Trim out your tags and break out your hole punch to finish the tags.
As far as snacks go…I love giving a little variety of junk – I know. I know. It should be healthy but after the games, I like spoiling them a little. Some of the moms also slip in baggies of grapes or fruit cups that have baseball stitching drawn on the plastic lid but I think of this as my opportunity to deepen the love for baseball or soften the blow from a loss 🙂 I also really dig anything that is baseball themed. psst…Cracker Jack is in these small boxes at Dollar Tree for 3 for $1.
I also found these plastic baseballs online and they come with stickers and tattoos and gum. The kids LOVED them after their game and immediately started goofing off with them 🙂
Tie your tags onto the bags and you are ready for treat time! Also – it’s always a good idea to mark a bag for any kids that might have an allergy (that’s one reason I love fastening the bag so that parents are there to intercept any unapproved foods!). You can always include names on the tags if you really want to go above and beyond by making personalized snacks 🙂
Aren’t they so cute? I love this kinda crafting because I was definitely the girl that looked forward to the orange slices during soccer practice and the mini barrels of Kool-Aid 🙂
Will’s team has 12 kids so we grabbed two of these red cartons at the Dollar Tree to tote the snack bags around. I like them because they are great puzzle boxes later 🙂
Me and the other moms were joking that we have had a Pinterest-season this year because all the moms have done really cute and fun snacks for the kids. We made fun of how into it we all were! But even with all the jokes….I like that we as parents could throw these little mini-parties after each game….just to celebrate them getting out there and playing ball! It didn’t matter if we won or lost, it was a way to really love on these little guys.
So I’d love to see your snack bags or your treat ideas! Our regular season ended this week but we have a full season of All-Stars ahead of us and I’m sure I need more cute ideas to spoil these ballers 🙂
Perfect timing on these ideas!! Love them! My son is in the middle of his tee-ball season here in TN and I have snacks next week! I am definitely hitting up the Dollar Tree this weekend!! We are the Braves so I’m excited to do some cute bags for the kids.
ALL-STARS!! WAY TO GO WILL!!!
I am feeling like the majority of your posts are sponsored now. It takes away the authenticity of this blog 🙁
So I sat looking at that first picture thinking “Are you kidding me? She reinforced the bag with tape, punched holes, strung them up, packed a snack, and labeled them!?! Who has time for that?!” Then I read on and it’s was all tape. Best hack ever. It looks amazing and so cute!
My youngest daughter is 9 and she plays soccer pretty much for the snacks after. LOL
She is a foodie like her momma. One time I was trying to be the “healthy mom” and packed cuties, small sticks of beef jerky, cheese sticks, mini water bottles and 2 pieces of candy and she said “this is the worst snack ever, where is all the goodies?” Ha
But I love the cute ideas. You could also use the little see through plastic baggies you put treats in at birthday parties or even buckets if you wanted to drop some serious $$$.
OMG Katie!!!! You are sooo cute!!!! You have great ideas!!!
Where do you get the tape from?
Cute, but this is exactly why moms are so tired and stressed out. There’s nothing wrong with passing out a packaged snack and a juice box.
You had me at Royals awhile back on one of your other posts, but then you showed KC Royals on one of your pictures and hooked me!! I’m from the Kansas City Royals territory and am super proud of our team but, I am so excited over what you have put together!! So clever!! This tape looks so realistic to stitching and the bags are so much better than just handing out the goodies where the trash gets lost on the field, road, or in the car. Great idea Katie!
Where did you get the stitching tape from? I love this idea!!
Absolutely! We definitely don’t mom-shame anyone and if someone hands out ANY snack, we are so grateful! But if someone has the time and energy to ignore their laundry to make cute bags, I am not gonna shame them either 🙂
xo – kb
Motherhood at its best! Love, love kids baseball and snack time. Congrats on all-stars! What a happy time to make fun things for the team.
My 15 year old started playing hockey in kindergarden. Thank God it was a sport that never had the team snack after every game; in fact they would make fun of the other kids’ sports that did that because “real sports don’t have a team snack”. Not my words; that came from parents who had older kids go through the program. And I was thankful for it. For all his other sports I brought a team snack and after awhile I just found it to be silly. Every kid (and I mean these are kids that don’t even break a sweat while playing) would bring a water bottle for the game which not one of them ever finished, but then they need another drink for the ride home? You want to bring something special for a birthday? Great. For a big tournament? Fun. But after every game? Nah. And now to see that the moms are going to pinterest to make personalized team snack goodie bags? Gimme a break. Sorry, but it does not feel like it’s about the kids, more about the moms. Especially picking up a color-coordinated basket to serve it in.
Maybe it is for the moms – maybe they get an excuse to be crafty but I think that’s okay. I guess it’s one of those different folks, different strokes things. I always say that you just do you. And you have to try to remember that sometimes we as parents do silly things to make not-so-big-deals (like 5&6 year old baseball games) more fun…just for the sake of fun. There is no shame in that game 🙂
xo – kb
So cute k. Also really appreciate all your kind responses to this post. I totally agree… Just be you.
Wondering if you can give the source for the lace/stitch tape?
I love this idea for a party! Where did you find the tape?
Ladies. Is it physically hurting you for Katie to make a cute snack bag? I work full time and happened to have an extra busy week on my snack week so I sent a box of applesauce packs in a grocery store sack to my son’s soccer game. One week a Mom brought cute snack bags for each kid. You know what I did? I told her how cute the bags were! Ease up everyone. Katie, those bags are adorable and I bet you had so much fun making them for the kiddos. Well done! I’m definitely going to buy some of that tape. It may look great on my grocery store bag. 🙂
Katie…I also have 4 boys (ages 14-24) who all played baseball (3 later switched to lacrosse…along with basketball, wrestling, soccer & football) I have done goody bags, baseball cakes and themed/ team colored desserts up through college lacrosse tailgates. Sometimes I was to overwhelmed to go all out, and I just kept it simple…they are great memories…you do whatever feels right! My boys all remember fun times at the ball field, and we are still going strong with my youngest who is still playing!
Super cute! Was the baseball tape from Dollar Tree as well? If not where did you find it? Thanks!
Just an honest question here (as I tend to pinterest-ify things myself): do any of the families decline the snacks? My kiddo is going into baseball next year & we don’t really do snacks in our house. When we do i try to make them healthy-ish. Dried fruit,oranges,cheese stick, hummus & veg. I will be very disappointed if I have to decline team snacks fir my son of they are more junk foods (we call those “sometimes food”). Did your team talk about the snacks before the season? How does that work?
Usually the team mom is the one that discusses this with everyone before hand. She comes up with the schedule for the snacks and I am sure that if you didn’t want your child to have them, you could tell your team mom and she would be happy to inform the rest of the parents. And honestly I think that if you had a healthy snack, it wouldn’t be refused (at least it wouldn’t by the boys that I know!) – I know my Weston would choose fruit over chocolate every time!
xo – kb
Here is the link! Sorry I didn’t include it earlier!
xo – kb
Here you go! Sorry about that.
xo – kb
Nope I ordered it online. Here is the link.
xo – kb
Here is the shoppable link. Sorry about that!
xo – kb
Amazon! Here is the link. Sorry about that!
xo – kb
The snack and drink are for half time. Does ice hockey not have half time? Normal hockey does.
But, i’m seeing why the south has a few weight issues, you would be crucified by the other mothers everywhere I’ve ever lived if you handed out halloween candy for a sports snack. Sure, it doesn’t always have to be oranges, but candy! I hate to think what they’re like in the second half with all that artificial colouring and sugar coursing through their systems.
And, more to the point, how do you make birthdays and treats special when they get candy every day?
Yalls snack and drink are for half time? Is that for football or soccer? We do ours after the game is done for baseball.
xo kb
I kinda of agree here. I never had snacks brought in by parents after a game when I was a kid. It’s getting out of hand & it’s too expensive. Kids just expect a snack after every game and there is such pressure on the moms to bring something that everyone will like. The worst part is after their sugary snacks they won’t eat dinner b/c they just loaded up on crap.
Do Dads ever organize and bring the snacks? Sorry to be a downer but i find this whole thing focused on Moms depressing. Great snack bags if you can swing it… but I am very conscious that we ask the women in our society to bring snacks, bring something to potluck, to christmas dinner etc.
Katie, you are gracious. You are kind and ever so patient to your readers. Maybe I can be a blogger like you when I grow up.
Aww that is sweet!
xo – kb
Hmm…well, let me try to remember….I don’t think we had any dads do it this season – I am not 100% sure.
xo – kb
I’m sorry you feel like they take away from the authenticity. I do have a very strict sponsor schedule (there are 52 weeks in the year and we only do 52 sponsored posts….so it’s never more than an average of 1 per week) and we vet our sponsors VERY hard….if we don’t LOVE it or would pay to TRY it out, then it doesn’t go up. I also think I deserve to make money just like anyone else would….I know that sounds greedy but it’s true….this blog costs me a lot of money after it’s all said and done and I can’t pay the tax man with dirty diapers (I have plenty of those around here!)
xo – kb
I don’t think I have ever commented, but I wanted to give a big thank you for your acknowledgement of food allergy kids! My son is too young for sports, but as I was scrolling through the pics, I kept thinking how he wouldn’t be able to have 95% of the treats – and that sports is just another unexpected area I’m going to have to make him feel special in other ways. But then you mentioned special bags for allergy kids and my heart leapt! Thank you so much! The parents of allergy kids HATE to be a nuisance (and truly hate the food allergies themselves), but just want their kids to feel included like all kids when possible. Thanks for your accommodation. Xoxo
Absolutely! Every kid is special in their own way – we call them “switch snackers” and we had one on our team that got something similar (regular m&m’s instead of peanut) and he never knew!
xo – kb
Are you crazy? Give it a break and hand each kid an orange Be done with this trying to outshine the other moms with your stuff. Life is about being with your kids, not competing with the other parents for a acknowledgement of time & effort spent on a snack!
I guess Pinterest snacks isn’t your thing, eh? 🙂 I guess everyone invests in the kids in different ways….I know my mom would sing to me in front of other kids and their moms…not to show off her voice or to make people feel a certain way about her or me but that is what she feels in her heart. I do it with crafts and that’s okay too. I think maybe snacks aren’t your love language but that doesn’t mean that it’s not a good thing! Like I said in the post – most of the moms got into it and were having fun and everyone was very supportive no matter what the snack was!
xo – kb
This is adorable! I love the baseball stitch tape – good find!
Who would have guessed that a post about a bag of snacks would be so controversial? Phewww, lighten up folks. Katie, thanks for being gracious and keeping it classy.
I remembered seeing this on your Insta a couple months back, and am due for snack/drink mom duty in a few weeks. I’ve been following your blog since you were pregnant with Will, and I was pregnant with my first. I’ve always appreciated your integrity, your kindness, your honesty, and your ingenuity. It’s sad to have to defend the changes you make, whether it’s affiliate links, sponsored posts, or making fancy snacks for your boy’s team. I have two kids, and eventually they’ll be too cool for me, so for now, I’m all about this stuff, because I love it, and they do too. I just ordered my stitching tape and some cracker jacks, and am excited to put these all together. 🙂 Thanks for the great idea. You’ve saved my hide many times. haha.
aww – thank you Madison. I love hearing that sometimes I am doing an okay job because honestly – isn’t that what we are all trying to do? Your kind words mean so much 🙂
xo – kb
Love the bags… Where do I buy the clear tape to make bags look like a baseball?
Amazon! I put the link in the comments 🙂
xo – kb