Welcome to Day 4 of our Olympics, and the first day of my Birthday Weekend Olympic Extravaganza! The next few days we'll be celebrating Europe, and my birthday, and getting some events in here and there, and hopefully keeping with the Olympic themes, if the weather corporates.
So this morning, the boys had the Europe bag to open.
It was full, because stuff made in Europe is easy to find. And because I knew we'd only have this bag for a few days, so I wanted them to have a couple of days worth of stuff to try.
We also did our trading cards today.
And we had a trade! Latvia for Moldova.
Lunch wasn't Europe or Olympic themed, but it is one of my favorite places, and it's my birthday weekend, so to Hog Barbecue we went. It was the first time the boys got to eat there, and they loved it.
We were downtown today, because we were headed to the temporary exhibit at Amalie Arena called 'The Beach'. The Lightning's owner (our hockey teams) and his wife visited this event when it was in like New York, or D.C. or something, and decided they had to bring it to Tampa. The whole thing was free, you just had to order timed tickets online ahead of time. Parking was free, and they handed out free ice cream while you waited for your timed entry.
And once you got in, they gave you free locks to store your stuff in lockers. It was so well put together. When we got there, it was raining, and there was a gap between the waiting tent and the doorway, and they even ran everyone back and forth with umbrellas.
So what is the beach? Well, it's a place you can swim... in a sea of balls. The whole pit is surrounded by mirrored walls, so it seems gigantic. It's a good size, but it feels so big.
And then you just hop on in...
....or dive in, whichever.
There were inner tubes, and beach balls, but the real fun was just in playing in the balls. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves, but it was just awesome. We were at the beach for a good hour before we got out, and we only did that because we had somewhere else to be, but everyone loved it. While you do have a timed entry, you can stay as long as you'd like. But, an hour was good. It was kind of exhausting to swim around in the balls. It was pretty deep, too. So it took awhile to sink to the bottom, but it was possible to stand, if you could get your feet out underneath you.
After about an hour, we got out, and before we left, we went to the top of the Arena, where you could get a better view of the beach.
Then we were off to our next swimming themed event: watching Finding Dory! We kept meaning to see it, and we waited so long that we weren't able to watch it in the good theaters with the recliner seats. But, it was a cute movie.
When we got home we held our one event today, swimming! But, the boys wouldn't be doing the swimming, their chosen ducks would.
They all chose their ducks.
And we filled the pool (aka sink), while the boys labeled their ducks.
Then they had a few seconds to wind their ducks.
And the last one left swimming was the winner. (Fun fact: Hayden spent the whole time winding his duck the wrong way and broke it).
Our swimming medalists...
You might notice a couple of skipped events on our board. That's because it was a very rainy day here in Tampa Bay, so we had to swap out some outdoor events for some indoor events. But, we'll figure it all out.
For dinner we were back to our Europe theme, with some Mediterranean Nachos. They are pita chips with ground lamb, kalamata olives, red onion, tomatoes, lettuce, and taziki sauce. Everyone liked the topping choices, but we were split on the pita chips.
And for dessert Jaffa cakes. Asa, Peyton and I were fans. Hayden was indifferent and Calib was completely grossed out.
After a new tally of medals, here's our leader board after Day 4:
Next Up: More Birthday Weekend Olympic Extravaganza!
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