As we're hanging out, watching the closing ceremonies, I figured I could get in my one last Olympic blog. Today we celebrated Japan, since they are the next hosts of the summer Olympic games.We also held two events, the Pentathlon (which was five events in one!), and Closing Ceremonies Bingo, which we just finished up.
The boys were happy to have one last bag to open this morning.
And in it was plenty of supplies for our Japan inspired lunch.
We picked up some more sushi from Publix, since it was such a hit back when we celebrated Asia. We also used panko crumbs to bread some chicken, and dipped that in yum yum sauce. Our Japanese noodles were tossed in tamari, and we had some Japanese gummies, and sriracha peas.
After we watched Italy win the silver in volleyball, we knew all of our countries were all done competing, so it was time to start tallying medals. I had been keeping track of country medals along the way, but we still had to figure out the trading card tallies. So, Peyton helped me out, checking medal counts while I tallied.
I took a picture of everyone with the trading cards they ended up with.
Hayden had the most thanks to an awesome showing by Jamaica's track and field team. They had almost as many medals as Cuba did!
Medal Count for countries... complete!
(Here's a closer look if you're interested, and because inevitably, when I do this again, I'll come look up this blog to see how I structured it - hi future me!)
Points so far..
But we still had the Pentathlon to play! Now, I know the Pentathlon is supposed to be five track and field events. And it was going to be, but about a week ago, I decided that it would be super fun to save it for the last day, and instead of 5 track and field events (since we just had our track and field extravaganza yesterday), I thought it'd be fun if we all picked our favorite event (which would make a total of 5 events), and play them again. You were awarded 5 points for coming in first for each event, 4 for second, 3 for third, 2 for fourth, and 1 participation point (assuming you were a good sport). Whoever won the grand total, got the Pentathlon medal!
Peyton picked to play handball, from way back on day 3..
Asa and I played a play in match. I lost, and Asa advanced.
(Meanwhile Hayden took pictures).
Hayden and Peyton then played a match.
Hayden won, and was on to the gold medal match. Peyton went to the bronze medal match. 
Calib and Asa then matched up. Asa won, going onto the gold medal match...
Calib and Peyton played for the bronze, and Calib won.
Then, Asa beat Hayden in the gold medal match.
Next up, Asa picked shooting, from back on day 5. Once again, he smoked everyone.
I, of course picked fencing from my birthday on day 6. Asa and I played a play in match, but he let me win, because he felt bad about hitting me too hard. (I also, maybe, made him feel bad about hitting me so hard. Pool noodles hurt).
Then, it was Peyton and Hayden's turn to face off.
Peyton was the winner of that match.
Calib then beat the crap out of me, because he didn't care how hard he hit me with a pool noodle.
I played Hayden for the bronze medal. But, he had a poor attitude, and kept stepping out of his pool, and was eventually disqualified, so I got third place by default.
Then it was up to Calib and Peyton to play for first place.
It was a brutal match.
But Peyton was the winner, and Calib was the complainer.
Next up, Hayden picked to play badminton again. We had previously played it on day 10.
This doesn't photograph that well. But water balloon badminton is just plain FUN. I highly recommend. We played round upon round, until we came up with our winners.
And then, to come full circle, Calib picked soccer, the first official event we played on Day 2 of the games.
Just like before, it was soccer croquet, and the least amount of kicks won.
When all was said and done, we had a tie for the Pentathlon gold. And that was just unacceptable to Calib and Asa. They decided it would be determined by a sudden death fencing match.
Calib ended up with egg on his face, literally (and his back).
And Asa was the winner.
Our Pentathlon medalists.
For dinner, we pulled out all kinds of food we still had from the bags, and some we still hadn't gotten around to trying. It was amazing though. We all tried things together and gave it thumbs up or down. So much fun.
We had meats, and cheeses again. Plus, all kinds of dried fruits (thank you Trader Joes!)
We still had lots of salsas, spreads, and dips, and different chips, crackers, and breads.
And then there was our amazing dessert spread, with international cookies!
I loved this dinner almost as much as the first time around! (The first time is almost always the best time!)
Asa also made one last Olympic International inspired drink, shochu jan screwdriver, in honor of Japan hosting in 2020. It was STRONG!
After dinner we had a special video to show the boys. Just like after our Winter Olympics, we made a slideshow of pictures and videos from the last 17 days set to the Olympic Fanfare. We'll post it to youtube after we add pictures from tonight, but we won't be able to have the music with it (copyright and all that). I'm not entirely sure what Peyton is yelling about in this picture, but this is the boys getting ready to watch the slideshow.
We did have one last event, just like Opening Ceremonies Bingo on the first day of the Olympics, we had closing ceremonies bingo tonight.
And I got on the medal stand one last time, along with Peyton and Asa.
We paused the closing ceremonies (because that way we've gotten to fast forward through commercials), to tally up the official totals.
Somewhere, something got a little off- but it all ended up right in the end. We were pretty sure this was how everyone would finish a couple of days ago, so there weren't any last minute surprises.
All that was left was one last medal ceremony.
The boys were finally awarded their overall medals. Hayden is your 2016 Rio Bronze Medalist.
Peyton is your 2016 Rio Silver Medalist.
And Calib is your 2016 Rio Gold Medalist.
On the medal stand one last time.
Along with their medals, they all got participation medals, filled with their favorites from the Olympics, and a few of their usual favorites.
There was only one more thing to do, we all gathered around our Olympic flame one last time.
It was time to close the Olympics, and extinguish the flame. The last 17 days have been so much fun. I don't always think I put together the best projects or events, but I think this one was pretty awesome. My goal is simple enough: I just want to make some good memories and teach the boys along the way. I'm pretty sure I pulled that off.
I declare the 2016 Rio Waterstraut Olympics closed. We will assemble four years from now, in a new kitchen (if we ever get to close on our house), for the next summer games.... maybe.
In 2020, I don't think I'll be able to get my 20 year old on board with my crazy Olympics, and maybe not my 18 year old. But, my 14 year old will probably be in, which just leaves more medal opportunities for me and Asa, I guess. (I did yell at Calib and tell him if he doesn't live at home, he's required to come back so I can smash an egg on his head!)
Next Up: Our weekend is up next, as we all come down from Olympic Mania. It's like our Christmas afternoon.
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