I get a little excited about the Olympics…it combines so many of my favorite things; cultures, community, and competition!
This year we are celebrating even bigger than the last time. Mainly, because my kids are two years older and get it even more than before. And two years can make a big difference in comprehension and craft capabilities.
We kicked things off today with an Olympics party. We are still hanging around the house quite a bit for little miss, but my older kids are going STIR crazy! So this was a way we could get them some activity and interaction, and keep her as chill as possible with a dozen kids running around.
I love party planning and the food that accompanies it. It makes me happy. Because of my love for parties, I have a party closet. It also stores the gift wrapping things and some other random crap…but mostly party stuff. When we decided to do this (me and the kids), I went up to run inventory. I had almost all the tissue balls, and several galvanized tins. I pulled out the photo booth props, and a little chalkboard easel. Then I hit up Amazon. I snagged an American flag for our photo booth, a map, a flag table runner, and a flag banner. (All for like $20 or less)
We did a few crafts, like creating your own torch, and making flags from countries around the world. For outside activities, I don’t love super structured things. Not only is it exhausting and not very feasible with a toddler running around and a large variety in ages, I just find kids have more fun when they are allowed to do their own thing. So I found these cool blow up outside toys on clearance at Walmart for $5 each. I had two of the soccer goals, so we had a full court. They included blow up balls for each one, which were oversized and a bunch of fun on their own. I also had other outside toys, like a washers/bean bag game, basketball, balloon tennis, and bubbles and chalk for the littles. But it was all about the soccer.
For food (which, let’s be honest, is the highlight of any party for me) we went with olympic rings snacks and all American mains. We had blue tortilla chips for the blue ring, black olives for the black ring, strawberries for the red ring, potato chips for the yellow ring, and broccoli and dip for the green ring. We also had carrots, pb&j, pulled pork sliders, and hot dogs. For treats we had mini snickers, and donut holes from our favorite local donut place with little flags stuck in them. Originally the plan included my cupcakes…but this week has been a little cray, and I’m throwing a party less than two weeks home with a new kiddo. So whatevs.
We thanked friends for coming with one last photo booth pic, a gold medal, and a little goodie bag.
We still (thankfully!!!!) have friends bringing us meals after getting little miss home, so I will only be doing a few country nights this time. Obviously, we will be doing Brazil. This kids originally picked Argentina, Portugal and Bolivia as countries they wanted to do. Once I showed them the main dishes for some of those countries they switched a few of their choices and landed on Argentina, Spain, France, and Italy. Choices I can get behind! Heck of a lot better than Greenland and Iceland, which were other ideas thrown into the mix. I’ll put together some country facts, and the simple and challenging versions of that countries food for y’all, in case you want to do your own country nights!
My kids love these nights and were already asking about past nights and if they could have repeat dishes (unexpected request: blini and caviar?!)!
Hopefully this and upcoming posts will help inspire y’all or give you some ideas on how to incorporate the fun and culture of the Olympics into some education for our kiddos (maybe even unbeknownst to them), and maybe even us too!