Welcome to Olympics Central, where we've been fully immersed in cultures from around the globe, and Olympic events. Which let me tell you, living in Florida it's slightly difficult to come up with events that correspond to the winter Olympics. But, we've been creative and it's working out well.
Heres a recap of our week!
Tuesday, February 11
Continent Box: Europe
Olympic Event: Ski Jumping
We started out the day with some Norwegian Pancakes (made from scratch!) for brunch.
We opened up our Europe box, and worked on our Luggage.
Quick interruption for a picture of Maybel being cute.
Calib's post card to Asa.
Check out the scores..
Peyton/Russia: 20
Hayden/Netherlands: 19
Calib/Austria: 13
Corinne/Sweden: 8
And Asa/France finally got on the board day 3 with TWO French Medals (4 points!)
For our Europe dinner we had some French bread, Hugarian Mushroom Soup, and an Italian Sausage, Potato, and Pepper Bake. The whole meal was delicious!
After dinner we drew our order for ski jumping.
And then we used a marble down a pool noodle we had split in two, for our ski jumping. We put the measuring tape on the floor to see whose marble 'jumped' the furthers (rolling included)
Peyton won, with an amazing 66 inch jump.
Wednesday, February 12
Continent Box: Africa (talk about hard to find stuff to put in there!)
Olympic Event: Skeleton
We started off the day with some designing of our Skeleton boards. I cut some posterboard for the boys, and then they designed the boards and their helmets.
We opened our Africa Box, worked on the contents, and had Chicken Sandwiches with Peri-Peri marinade for lunch. The marinade was the only thing we could find at Target, Publix, or Walmart food wise that was made in Africa. We couldn't even find anything in the Morocco pavilion at Epcot. (Any food there came from Turkey)
Oh, and someone had out the South America Box (so please excuse the wrong landmarks book in the picture.)
Here's a peak into what the boys luggage looked like. Hayden's was less involved, drawing animals and things that could be found on that continent.
We did find a mancala board for the Africa box though, it's a VERY popular game in Africa, and one of the oldest games in the world.
Peyton located the latest Where in the World (Africa Edition) criminal in Sudan.
And then we piled up all the couch cushions and pillows in the house to make a safe Skeleton 'take off".
Then the boys got to run and jump.
Asa and I didn't partake, instead we were the judges. Here is Asa scoring Calib on his Helmet and sled design before his 'run'.
Porkchop rather enjoyed the giant piles of pillows.
I rather enjoyed Hayden's ice cream bucket helmet.
In case you were wondering how the scoring went, here's a copy of the score card.
For dinner, Asa made mealie meal bread and African-style Peanut Chicken. He also made some Nigerian Rice water (not pictured), and we added some broccoli. All earned rave reviews.
Thursday February 13
Continent Box: Asia
Olympic Event: Curling
We opened up our Asia box, and snacked on some of the things we had picked up. The pocki sticks from Thailand were a favorite.
And the boys found the latest criminal hiding in Bhutan.
Then we played curing. Anyone over 12 used the broom from behind the back line to push their ice puck onto the scoreboard, anyone under 12 got to use the front line.
The ice pucks were my favorite part. I almost forgot to put them in the freezer the night before, but luckily at like midnight I remembered!
Peyton, again, earned himself the gold.
For dinner we had Cambodian Cucumber Salad and Korean Beef Noodles. I ate all my cucumbers, but I was the only one. They were not awesome. But, the beef noodles will be made again, for sure.
After dinner, Asa made us all Malaysian banana fritters for desert. It was very banana bread-ish, and pretty good.
Friday, February 14
No Box, instead we celebrated Valentines Day
Olympic Event: Downhill Skiing
Asa had a half day of work on Friday, so after a brunch of heart shaped pancakes, we headed out to run some errands and to go to the Florida State Fair.
Since we were down that way, we stopped at Costco for some essentials.
And then went out to Fairgrounds. We don't ride the rides or anything (too expensive, and silly to do when you have passes to Disney!), but we do check out a lot of the exhibits and the animals.
We had a good time in the forrestry building. The boys enjoyed the outlines of the leaves that you ran your crayon over, and some puzzles.
And while we're not Valetines Day people, Asa and I made each other a cool leaf picture too.
Then we went over to Cracker Country, and learned all about living in Florida in the early 1900's.
I did spring for some 30 cent candy sticks for the boys.
Then we were off to pet the animals. The nice part about during a school day was the lack of crowds. We had plenty of space to feed the animals (and they were actually hungry!)
Peyton even happily got to brush a cow!
We did splurge on an elephant ear, too. Because what fair is complete without one?
Hayden REALLY wanted to use the foot massager, so for a quarter I obliged him.
After the fair we made a stop at IKEA, we're couch hunting again to replace the one in the family room when we get the tax return. It's falling apart and leaking stuffing everywhere. But, a neighbor gave it to us for free 5 years ago, so I'm not complaining. I think we're going with this one, possibly in a different color.
And then, because we were going to be celebrating our countries the next week, I stopped by the grocery section and picked up some food for Sweden day. That might be cheating since everyone else had to look up recipes and such, but I deserve a break every once in awhile, right?
We did get home in time for a quick dinner (non-Olympic related, I'm afraid) and our downhill skiing event. We did the same idea as ski jumping, but constructed a mountain for which the skier (marble) to travel the whole way down. Fastest time won.
And Asa won his first (and still only) medal of the games: GOLD!
That night, I treated Hayden to a Valentines Day cupcake. Calib and Peyton went to the 'Anti-Valentines Day Dance' at the Library, and he was feeling left out. Especially when he heard there was going to be pizza, games, pop and candy.
Saturday, February 15
Continent Box: Australia
Olympic Event: Speed Skating
The next day we had planned on going over to St Pete for the art galleries open house, but we still had a box to do, Hayden had a craft at the library, and Katie and Kevin were coming over for a game night, so we just didn't think we could fit it all in.
We took Hayden to the library for the Valentines Day crafts, and I was pleased to see him not conform to the examples. I'm pretty confident kids made fun of his individuality at Odessa (I know they did on the bus), and it was stifled for awhile. Remember when he went all out for things like 'hat day' and 'crazy sock day'? He did a total 180 from that last year. Since home schooling though, it's slowly coming back.
Case and point, his flamingo wasn't quite as the example showed, he made a cyclopes, and a two headed pig.
Since it was happy hour (60 cent slushies!) and he didn't get to go to the library for the stuff the night before (it was ages 11 and up), we stopped to get him a slushie on the way home.
When we got home we opened our Australia box, and did the activities.
The licorice was interesting. It had an address from exactly where it was made in Sydney too, so we google street-viewed it. Pretty cool, Google, pretty cool.
And then we had speed skating. I cut up the old kinder mats, and taped them to their socks. Then they had to race around the table. In a helmet of course, safety first!
After much debate how to make it fair (having them skate as many laps as their age seemed terribly unfair), so we did a little creative math and came up with Calib as the gold medal winner.
Quick time out for a cute picture of Sophie having a nice nap. (My puppies are getting so old)
After all of that, I managed to finish the laundry and cut the boys hair before Katie and Kevin were over for game night. We played some games, watched the Olympics and had some snacks while the kids played. It was a nice evening.
Sunday February 16
We didn't get to Australia dinner on Saturday because we just picked something up from Publix, but we did get to it on Sunday. Asa had been cooking all of our meals, but he had to work so we kind of tag teamed that. I spent most of my Sunday working on my Sweden File, since I was first up on Monday. I also have some other projects in the work I had to get started on. After reading a book about our countries, the boys had pretty much a free day. They played some games, watched a movie, before there was a game of Sardines (a super fun game we learned this week that comes from Germany). We also watched some Olympics.
But for dinner, we did finally get to Australia's Creamy Parmesan Leek Soup, and Meat Pie. I added a common snack in New Zeland: a kiwi cut in half and drizzled with honey.
For desert I made a cantaloupe sherbet that was easy AND delicious.
I tried to construct a cool track for our bobsledding on Sunday, but it was a total failure. I did have a back up plan of using Hayden's hotwheels track. We all picked a car and then had 5 heats (1 person each sat out one heat so we all got to run 4 times).
Calib won the gold medal (his car pictured), and is gaining some ground on Peyton, but not enough. He's killing us all with over 50 points. Hayden is somewhere in 40s, Calib in the 30s, and Asa and I are way behind.
Today we've been learning all about Sweden, but I'll share that in next weeks blog. Before I leave though, I've got to share some of my very, very funny valentines Asa printed out for me. Like I said, we're not ones to celebrate valentines (probably due to a lack of disposable income and our hatred for crowds-- theres no way we'd go out to dinner when it would be that crowded! Plus I hate buying cards-- they're too expensive, I can't smell flowers, and I don't wear jewelry ), but these were awesome. The quit Stalin is my favorite!
Next Up: Our countries, the Rays fanfest, and (sadly) the Closing Ceremonies
See ya'll next week!
The Stalin one was your favorite? I didn't see that one coming. I guess I deserve poor Marx for perception.
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