Olympics!

So I have this sort of crazy awesome friend with endless energy and big ideas. She loves the Olympics and decided we should celebrate the opening ceremonies (and her birthday) with a mini-Olympics for the kids. We ended up with three families and nine kids - 6 of age to compete - and some pretty exciting games.

OPENING CEREMONIES

Caleb liked using his torch as a trumpet.

marching boys.

 THE GAMES
They did some balance beam balancing...

and tricky tricks.

Then we had a complicated relay involving balance beams, water balloons, bean bag tossing, and balloon popping (via compression by little kid tushie). The kids loved this.

Lining up to go. Divided into teams by family.

To the water balloon station.

Across to the beanbags.

Caleb's first attempt.

He was all about accuracy and endeavored to utilize any advantage available to him... including standing right in front of the board and dropping the beanbags through the holes.  Emily, on the other hand, was all about efficiency and tossed her handful of three all at once.

Balloon popping. No lightweights in this family! I think this was the only shot I got of this part because they always popped it first try.

We filled buckets with cups of water next.

Then there was discus making and throwing, but I ran home for refreshments so didn't get any pictures.

Next up was hurdles. They raced by age.

Here are Caleb and Will.

And Ben and Emily. These guys were fast! I only managed to snap one picture.

CLOSING CEREMONIES

 All to appropriate music, of course.


 and the refreshments.

Amazing cookies made by Reianna.

I made some Olympic torches and a flag fruit tray.

I did not think the kids would eat all that cheese - it was almost a pound of mozzarella! But the tray was empty by the time we got back home.

Here is a better view of those cupcake torches out of the bread pan.

 The kids had a blast even though the humidity was pretty bad. I have to admit, the next morning I woke up feeling like I was the one who had run all those races. The kids are none the worse for the wear though.
What a fun day! Thanks, Reianna and Cassie!