Olympics Day 16: Hockey & The Best of Europe

Today was our last 'Best of' Day, we celebrated Europe, and played our Hockey event. 

 But first of all, who stayed up late last night watching curling? We tried, and made it part way though. Peyton joined us to see the girl from the Czech Republic get her gold medal, and then we watched the rest of curling this morning. 

When I went to check the mailbox today, I had a complaint from Hayden. Yesterday the Home Office said all the pictures were from North America, but they weren't. It was an honest mistake. I think maybe the Home Office collected the pictures the night before and then the next morning they sent the letter, and kind of forgot what pictures they had set aside. I mean, if I had to guess. 

But, today they did get all European pictures to help them with Jeopardy later in the day. 

There was a lot of five spoons up meals to choose from, so we decided to have a lunch and dinner. 

For lunch we had the San Marino Piada wraps, where Asa made the wraps and then we filled them with everything from chicken and pesto, to Strawberries and Macedonia Eurocreme (nutella). 

Then it was time to mix up the Europe flags and see who did the best. Peyton studied up. 

He only missed one (Liechtenstein and Luxembourg are hard to distinguish for the boys, I've learned.) He went first, and they aren't allowed to watch anyone else (so there isn't any distractions), so he knew he had won when the Google Home started blaring the Soviet Union's National Anthem, Peyton's usual choice for his 'anthem' when he wins. 

It was kind of a busy day, we had to get new tires on the Fit, and Calib was gone for a few hours volunteering at the animal shelter. When he came home, I said it was time for Jeopardy, and he protested, saying he didn't have time to study, because he was 'busy helping poor homeless animals!' So, I let him study for a bit before we did Jeopardy. (They get very intense about Jeopardy, in case you couldn't tell!) 

After that, the boys picked out their favorite Europe Postcards. 

Calib picked Portugal, Ireland, Norway, and Albania

Peyton went with San Marino, Georgia, Croatia, and Macedonia 

Hayden chose Austria, Croatia, Belarus and Albania. 

For dinner we had the Sopapilla and Pears from Spain, Pan roasted carrots from Liechtenstein, and the qofte piqum from Albania. 

Having the main dish from Albania was kind of funny. It was our second country nearly 14 months ago, and tonight is the night before our last country. It was our second country meal, and our second to last. Also worth noting: It was just as good the second time around. 

Our event tonight was hockey. I just opened up my lamp that has all of our golf balls  (Pucks) we um... borrowed... from all of our mini golf trips, used a little putter (hockey stick) I picked up at the Target 90 percent off summer clearance and made a net using one of the kitchen chairs and some masking tape. 

There were ten 'pucks', the winner was whoever could get the most goals. In the event of a tie, we also timed everyone. 

Hayden was the winner of Hockey. He said he had to pick his 'anthem' song carefully because it could be the last one he got. He picked Greenlight by PitBull again. 

Peyton was not thrilled to be the one handing out the medals this evening, and he was sure he had lost ground on Hayden (they were tied last night). 

Everyone was very interested in tonight's tallies. I checked country medals, got those all up to date, and then did the totals. Even after everything today, Peyton and Hayden are still tied going into tomorrow, the last day of the Olympics. 

There are two events tomorrow: World Jeopardy and World Flags. It's a culmination of everything. 

Peyton is currently studying flags with Peyton, and it's something. (Asa has never done flags before, so he doesn't actually know them. 

And, it's a little sad tonight is our last night with our Olympic Flame lit. 

But, it's also a little exciting. Because, I just got to write this: 

Next Up: We will see you tomorrow, for our VERY LAST COUNTRY! 

Olympics Day 15: Speed Skating & The Best of North America

The last week has been super busy with everything going on. Plus Asa has been job hunting (as always) and finishing up a class. Today was no exception. 

The boys woke up to mail from the Home Office and the second last batch of pictures. 

After Etta went for her run, and we got some things done around the house, we were off on our Olympic Field Trip. During the Summer Olympics, we took a couple. We went biyaking, to the trampoline gym, and horseback riding. But, it's a little harder in Florida to find some places to go on field trips for the winter games. 

But, we do have the new Florida Hospital Center Ice. It's about 20 minutes from us, and opened last year, but we had never been. In fact, none of us had ever been on ice skates before, except Calib who did it once in Ohio (and told us he was just terrible at it). But, we wanted to try it out. And it was a perfect place, because the gold medal winning Women's Ice Hockey Team trained for the Olympics here, as did the French pairs skaters. 

We laced up our skates, and we were ready to go. 

Hayden got the penguin to help him around (spoiler alert: it didn't help that much). 

I'm pretty sure Hayden spent more time on the ice than on his skates. 

Calib and Peyton spent a lot of time clutching onto the side boards. Though, Calib eventually made his way to the middle to do some laps (slow laps, but laps!) 

I was way better than I thought I'd be. Technically I fell once, but only kind of, because Hayden drug me down, and even then I just kind of sat on my knees since it was a very slow 'fall'. Probably all that rollerblading I did as a kid helped me out. 

We had Hayden take some breaks (so Asa and I could skate around instead of picking him up off the ice the whole time, and Peyton stole the penguin to help a bit. He really did like it though, and said he wouldn't mind taking the 'learn to skate' classes they offer if it isn't too expensive. 

We did have fun though, and everyone would totally go again! 

We decided if we had to say who did the best, it was Peyton, followed by Calib, and then poor non-coordinated Hayden. 

After skating, we went out for lunch. We were already down by PDQ, and Asa and I both had coupons for free sandwiches. 

Once we got home we did some yard work and then played North America Jeopardy. Peyton was the only one who studied, so he ended up with the most money for his jar. 

We also had a poor showing in flags. Nobody has ever been able to get down the exact placement of the Caribbean countries. They're just a giant blob of various nailpolish dots though, so I don't exactly blame them. Peyton was our winner, with four incorrect. 

Then it was time for Speed Skating, everyone had 30 seconds to see how many laps they could make in their fuzzy socks. (The boys told me to save my tape and not make the outside of the track this time around, how thoughtful of them!) 

Peyton swept the events today! 

After our event the boys picked their best of North America post cards. 

Calib went with Saint Kitts and Nevis, Haiti, Dominican Republic and Barbados

Peyton went with the USA, Dominican Republic, Barbados, and Canada

And Hayden picked his Saint Lucia, Belize, the USA, and Cuba. 

I kind of screwed up and put Trinidad & Tobago on the North America list, even though we did it under South America. But then, the box dinner of BBQ Chicken, fries and garlic bread won, so I went with it. They also voted in the Mexican corn and pineapple. (We didn't have time to make the Nanaimo Bars from Canada for dessert, and we still had leftover Chocotorta so we called it close enough, and had that with dinner.) 

We tallied our medals for the day. Last night Peyton was amped for the Russian skaters winning gold and silver. 

Which made us have a tie for first place! Peyton is not pleased. He said Hayden is winning because of the Netherlands, and he's super annoyed by it. (Also while I was typing this, the Netherlands just won another gold medal in Speed Skating, and Peyton flipped out.) 

That is it from here. 

Next Up: Tomorrow is the last of our 'Best of' days with Europe. It's also our last non-academic medal event with Hockey (they will have a final Jeopardy and final flags for medals).