Monday February 17
Country: Sweden
Olympic Event: Ice Dancing
Once all of our continent boxes were done, we began to share our file folders from our countries we drew for the Olympics. We had worked on them throughout the weekend and the week, and filled out some information pages (typical day in our country, the language, how a birthday is celebrated), drew the national flower and bird, and talked about our Olympians. Each folder also included a reciepe book, too. Some even had activities for everyone to do, such as a game (Calib had a game at the park, while I made another Where in the World game)
I was first up, since my folder was done and my meals were the easiest (I just shopped the grocery aisle at Ikea!) I shared my folder at lunch with our pizzabitar and leek pies.
Hayden worked on his 'Where in the World (Sweden Edition) is Clive Frankfurter. (He was in Stockholm)
Sweeds like their coffee, so for a snack we had some swedish crips with lingonberry jam, some swedish cookies, and some coffee.
Hayden was working on his folder this day. I like instead of writing the translation for 'do you speak english?' He just wrote 'no'. (When he presented it, it was so funny. He was like 'Do you speak english? No, they speak Dutch. I just said that.)
I wasn't going to go with swedish meatballs for dinner. It seemed to cliche. But, when looking for recipes it was EVERYWHERE. So, we had meatballs with cream sauce, broccoli medallions, mashed potatoes and lingonberry sauce.
Our event that night was ice dancing. Calib and Peyton decided to be judges, and so Asa, Hayden and I all picked out our elaborate girly ice dancing costumes and danced while Calib and Peyton used the score cards I had printed out.
Pretty sure I won it by putting on my wedding dress.
It was my first gold medal!
And, we ended the night with some Swedish Fish. Originally, the boys had said we needed them for Sweden day, but when I looked at the packaging, it said they were made in Canada. Apparently they are, but they are also made in Sweden (and they originated there, too). It just depends where you live, where they're made from. Another bit of useless information I know!
Tuesday February 18
Country: France
Event: Biathlon
Asa had France for his country, and while he wasn't thrilled with it- he totally embraced it and filled out his folder, plus he made croque madames and french green bean casserole for lunch.
Also, in non-related Olympic Events I got some new cookware. Target had it on sale for $140, BUT with the redcard, I got 5% off, THEN you got a $40 gift card to use later. So, super good deal. And, my kitchen needs some updates. Can you tell we're happening upon bonus and tax return time?
Not to mention go-go squeeze was buy one get one at publix, and Peyton LOVES go-go squeeze.
Plus we got to make some fun purchases! Speciality peanut butter, a new water bottle all topped the list.
But, back to France day.... I thought Asa's flag on the front of his folder was particularly cool.
And the boys listened to his presentation at dinner that night....
Which was french bread with Cassoulet-style sausage over beans.
Also, we picked up some croissants. However, we actually ate them for Calib's day (Austria), because fun fact: Thats where they originated from! Legend says they were made when they took down the Turks, and bakers made the crescent shape like the Turkish flag so it was like they were eating the enemy. Either way, it's an Austrian thing-- not a French thing.
The biathlon that night was a good time. We made skis from thick foam board, used packaging tape to attach them to their socks, and then they were timed how long it took to get from the kitchen to the family room, try and knock down the five targets with a nerf gun, and then return to the kitchen. We added .1 second for every target missed.
Asa was the winner, hitting 3 of his targets and returning in 26.53 seconds.
Wednesday February 19
Country: Austria
Event: Cross Country Skiing
We started our day learning about Austria with a presentation from Calib and some cookies. (Those are actually German made, but we figured close enough)
And we finished our day outside cross country skiing. Everyone had to do five laps around the chairs in the yard. Haydens chairs were pretty close together, and then we just moved them out a little farther for Peyton, and a little farther for Asa and Calib.
Calib ended up as the champion.
And for dinner we had one of my favorites- wiener schnitzel with some lemon and a simple salad.
For a snack that night, Calib made Buchteln, these little bread pockets with jam.
Thursday February 20
Country: Russia
Event: Alpine Combined
Thursday was Peyton's country. We started out with Syrniki for breakfast. They're like pancakes, but made out of Ricotta cheese. (Yea, you read that right) I didn't tell anyone what they were made of until they gobbled them all up. It was decent, but I probably won't be making them again. Apparently Russians put sour cream on EVERYTHING, kind of like Americans and ketchup only worse. This recipe said you could top it with jam or syrup, or sour cream. I couldn't bring myself to put sour cream on it though.
Also the big news of the day, our king bed arrived. No headboard yet, but we're still waiting on the tax return for that one. It's SO weird sleeping in a bed where I'm not fighting for space with Asa. I wave to him from the other side of the bed now. He can't take up all the space even if he wanted to.
Peyton shared his Russia folder with all of us just before dinner.
We had pirozhki, and Russian style potatoes... served with the sour cream Russians love so much.
Since all of our skiing events were done with marbles, I kept with the theme and instead of combining two events (ski jumping and downhill skiing) we did it all in one. We combined the scores of how long it took for the marble to go from the top of the pvc pipe to the ground, and how far it ultimately rolled.
Calib was the winner, with a really great roll.
Fun fact: We can all fit in our bed!
Really, though, Calib is the one who needed a new bed.. so he got our old one, and we got a king. I'm not sure who was happier about the switch. He was glad not to have to share his twin with the dogs anymore.
Friday February 21
Country: Netherlands
Event: Snowboarding
Hayden's country was the Netherlands. When looking for recipes, we found that on holidays and birthdays in the Netherlands, you are often given a chocolate letter (fr the first letter of your name) So Hayden and I used the chocolate left from the fondue and made everyone a letter.
He happily shared his folder at snack time. Fun fact: The Netherlands flag's top line used to be orange (it's the color of the royal family- a popular color for the Dutch- and also the color of all their Olympic uniforms), but they thought it couldn't be seen well enough in battle so they changed it to red.
We had a popular comfort food dish for dinner, Hutspot. It's basically mashed potatoes with carrots and onions, with sausage served on top.
And we had our chocolate letters for dinner.
We timed everyone for how fast they could 'snowboard' around the kitchen table. We cut a part a couple of remaining kinder mats we had, and taped flip flops to them.
This one might have been a little skewed for Hayden, but he hadn't won a gold since Bingo, so he was happy to be named the winner.
Saturday February 22
Event: Hockey
On the last day of the Olympics were were all out of countries, which was ok because we had another project we were working on (stay turned for that, I don't want to ruin a surprise for anyone!) and places to be. Asa was working ALL day, so he stayed home while I took the kids out.
Our first stop was the Lowes Build n Grow class where Peyton and Hayden put together a cool claw game. Calib was along for the ride (he's a little old for the build n grow) but he helped out and enjoyed it.
We stopped over in Saint Pete at Tropicana field for the Rays fan fest.
And even got a peak at the clubhouse.
A quick lunch at Little Caesars back on the other side of the bay, and we were off to a friend's birthday party.
Before heading home we stopped at the Manatee Viewing, but had no luck seeing any as it was a very warm day.
Since the boys had been troopers all day and we were stopping by anyway, I treated them to some smoothies at Costco on the way home.
We got home in time to hold our Hockey event. I made a net from a kitchen chair and some masking tape, and put all those golf balls we 'borrow' when we putt putt to use.
It was all about how accurate you were, if we needed the time it was going to be a tie-breaker. I took gold in the last Olympic event, besides Closing Ceremonies Bingo.
Oh, and Asa made George Washingtons birthday cake. Though, if thats what cakes were like in the 1700's, I'm sure glad I wasn't born then.Yuck. (Side note: Not at all Asa's fault. The recipe had us wondering to begin with)
Hayden and I watched the last night of Olympic coverage, and he saw yet ANOTHER sweep from the dutch speed skaters.
He added the medals to our count, and we realized we were going to have to wait until after the last two olympic events and our final event of closing ceremonies bingo before we could declare a silver medalist. Calib and Hayden were too close too call.
Sunday February 23
Closing Ceremonies
So on Sunday, everyone watched the last day of Olympic coverage (all nearly two hours of the 50k cross country skiing, and the bobsled).
At the end of the events we totaled everyone up, and Calib was within 3 points of Hayden. If he won a gold in closing ceremonies bingo, and Hayden didn't medal we'd have a tie.
For dinner we had 'around the world' and made all the things that we had planned to make but missed out on. Creamy French Potatoes, Baked Plantains, Bitterballen, and Australian Damper.
And for a grand finale, we had an 'Around the World' ice cream bar. Asa and I also put together a really cool slideshow video of our two weeks at the Olympics. We sat and watched that while eating our ice cream, and it was awesome. If you haven't seen the video its on my facebook and on youtube. The Olympic Fanfare is missing from the one we uploaded though, something about dumb copywrite laws.
That night we all sat down for some closing ceremonies bingo.
Calb and Peyton tied for gold, and I won silver....
Meaning Peyton was the overall Gold Medal Winner...
And after all of our events....
And all of our countries medals figured in...
We had a tie for Silver! Which was a problem, since I had painted the medals gold, silver, and bronze.
But, replacing the podium so that the silver medalists were at the same height, made it ok and Hayden happily took the 'bronze' that I wrote silver on the back of.
After the medal presentations, we had to extinguish the flame. 'We will assemble four years from now, at the Waterstraut farm'....
Overall, it was a total success. Hayden was so sad it was over he even cried at the closing ceremonies. We're back to more text book like work this week, before we really all dive into History-- so they can really appreciate our trip to Philadelphia and DC in just under 2 months.
Up Next: Heading North!
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