Olympics, Family style.

We have been studying ancient Greece (using SOTW) and I decided to let the kids have their own "Olympics" and Greek Feast. The kids planned the contests and made the medals.  The hardest for them was planning the obstacle course, but they persevered and planned a fun path through the backyard.  It included swinging, jumping jacks, trampoline bouncing, jumping over obstacles and running up the  ramp, across the bridge and down.   I am very proud of their planning.  They learned to negotiate what events would be included.  Christopher only wanted events that he could win (Don't we all).  He REALLY protested against the Limbo contest, but he lost that negotiation.  Keener had such a huge advantage, but couldn't figure out how to do it.  Very funny.

I discussed the food feast menu with them, but Elizabeth and I made most of it.  As usual there was too much food, but it was so yummy.  Most of the ideas came from this web site http://greekfood.about.com/od/discovergreekfood/u/classic_traditional.htm.

Here is the menu:
3 different types of olives-green, brine (kalamata), gaeta (olive link here) ,
dried figs, apricots, dates and golden raisins;
almonds
hummus and pita
Tyropita-3 cheese stuffed flakey pastry
Spanakopita- spinach and cheese stuffed flakey pastry
Camomile Tea
Tzatziki (Yogurt Cucumber Garlic dip)-SUPER EASY to make!!!
Froutosalata-Fruit Salad with honey dressing- yummy!
We also had two different types of fresh bread-thanks to the store bakery!

They had so much fun practicing the past couple of days and  then participating today.  It was such a great way to start off a week.  We had perfect weather and everyone had fun.

So here are the results:

Crabwalk
1st     Christopher
2nd    Elizabeth
3rd     I---- (Our neighbor)

4th     Rolo     

5th     Keener

Bear crawl

1st     Christopher

2nd    Elizabeth

3rd     Rolo

4th     I---- (Our neighbor)     

5th     Keener

Hopping

1st     Christopher

2nd    I---- (Our neighbor)

3rd     Rolo

4th     Keener    

5th     Elizabeth

Frisbee Toss

1st      I---- (Our neighbor)

2nd   Rolo

3rd     Elizabeth

4th     Christopher     

5th     Keener

Wheelbarrow Race (Teams)

1st      I---- (Our neighbor)/Christopher

2nd   Rolo/Elizabeth

3rd     Keener

Long Jump

1st     Christopher

2nd    Elizabeth

3rd     Rolo 

4th     I---- (Our neighbor)     

5th     Keener

Limbo

1st     Elizabeth

2nd     I---- (Our neighbor)

3rd     Rolo

4th     Keener

5th     Christopher

 

Obstacle Course (Time)

1st     Elizabeth (1 min 12.2 seconds)

2nd     Christopher(1 min 18.7 seconds) 

3rd     I---- (Our neighbor) (1 min 47.4 seconds)

4th     Rolo (1 min 49.9 seconds)

5th     Keener (2 min 35.0 seconds)  

     Keener was adorable doing the obstacle course. The other children helped her.  It was so wonderful to see them cheering her on and helping her not get sidetracked.  She did however tend to stop to fix her socks.  If she wasn't looking like a European tourist with her socks up to her knees, she just wasn't happy!  Made me laugh just to see her stopping to do that.  

Awards Ceremony Picture 

Alter Boy.

Today Christopher served as alter server for the first time at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in the Blessed Sacrament Chapel.  Wow!  Isn't that a mouthful!  We went on a tour there today with our good friend Father H and our homeschool group.  He gave mass in the BEAUTIFUL chapel and Christopher was one of the boys to get to participate.  He was so excited!  The nice thing about Father H. is that he wants to seize the joy of being a server and allow boys to participate whenever they are ready.  He figures that if they have the desire to serve God, then allow them to participate.  He does not mind the little mistakes and tries to encourage them on their way to serving God.  Some priests are really bothered by the little mistakes, but not Father H.  He just corrects them with a gentle word.   I was very proud of my little alter server.  He did a great job.  Father H also had me do the reading for the mass.  Oh boy was I a nervous wreck!  Oh well, God knows I tried my best.
    So after our wonderful day at the Basilica, I came home to have dinner prepared for me by Keener's godmother.  She brought dinner and cake to celebrate Keener's 3rd birthday (Next monday).  Oh how yummy and what great conversation! Once she gets her pictures on her blog, I'll put a link up so you can see the food.  Kebabs with scallops, shrimp, swordfish, chicken, tomatoes onions, and peppers; and a Kenwah salad.   I am so glad to have friends like these.   She is a great comfort and help when I am not feeling my full 100%.
   I'll leave for now, baby has decided to kick for a while, and I want to enjoy it.  It is always a comfort to know that baby is doing well and has the energy to move around.

Bacon

My Friend Mary (Passionate Perseverance) posted this for her husband. It made me laugh so much that I had to share with my friends. I hope you enjoy this. Elizabeth LOVES it and has been quoting it for the past two days. Enjoy Jim Gaffigan's Bacon monolog.

This Little Piggy

This little piggy ate Roast beef.  

Doesn't it look yummy?  ....Uh, .. no?  Yeah, that's what I thought too!

           Christopher has decided that he likes to make what I would call a Dagwood sandwich.  I can't tell you all the things he puts on it, but at least he is "cooking" for himself and creating new things.  It is sort of hard to sit next to him while he drips and slurps, but boys will be boys and despite all my trying to understand them, they are alien creatures to me!  

It comes in 3's

Isn't there a saying that trouble comes in 3's? Well I thought it was supposed to be spread out a little bit.  So here's my three: within 24 hours the dryer broke, the car died, and Rolo got an ear infection. My sister "broke" the dryer while drying 1 pair of undies for her child.  Okay, really it was the rollers and the belt, but literally that was all that was in it when it croaked!  I mean really, who knew that a 2 oz pair of underwear could break a dryer!

Here's a picture of the culprit. 

 I know you're asking, why would I put something as boring as a dryer onto the blog.  Well, because it's MY blog, not yours!  Okay, really it's because I actually really like this dryer and am willing to get it repaired until I no longer can.  Thankfully I got to see my appliance repair buddy, who fixed the dryer 4 years ago when the motor died and fixed the washer last year when I cracked the plastic cylinder that holds ALL the water for the washer.  Now THAT was a mess when that cracked!  

   The car died in the Krispy Kreme Drive through, thankfully I was at the window and already had my doughnuts!  I can think of worse places to have the car die.  Thank goodness we have USAA, it is so easy to get the car towed with them.  They got the car to my mechanic, my friend picked me up and all was well.  My mechanic told me today that it was the alternator that was broken.  Apparently it was the original one and the car is 16 years old and has over 200K miles on it.  I was especially lucky since the last trip in the car was to downtown Baltimore.  Thank God I did not break down there!  

     I love my mechanic because he tries to prevent things like this from happening to me and I had literally just gotten the car back from him last week.  We had a nice laugh today about how he missed this one!  Apparently my car did not create the typical signs of a failing alternator.  When he was recreating the situation  in the car by driving it (it was randomly starting and working in short bursts), he too had to call a tow truck because he got stuck when it died. He luckily figured out the problem in his time waiting for the tow truck.  I think I still had a better wait than he did though,  I got to eat fresh Krispy Kreme doughnuts!

                 I like seeing my repairmen to catch up on their lives, but it sure is always quite an expensive conversation!  Maybe I should just start calling them once a month to prevent my seeing them.

   

A Day of Cakes

While Christopher was making his cake, Elizabeth decided to make her own cake.  She chose to make a Gingerbread Cake. I let her make the cake entirely by herself-no help at all.  It definitely took a lot longer to make than I would have taken, but with food its all about the results, not the process.  So how did it taste?  Great!  I am proud of her for making her first solo successful dessert.  She's turning into quite a little cook.  I would post a picture here, but there's not cake left to take a picture of! 

Crazy Cake

Today Christopher made a crazy cake for Boy Scouts.  Here's the basic idea of the event: the boys bake a cake then decorate it.  Let them be creative, and see what happens.  Then they "auction" the cakes off, but only the boys can bid.  The max bid is $20.  He got to decide what he was making, so with all the Easter stuff in the store, he went with a "dirt cake" in an Easter basket (bucket). Here is the picture of his cake that he made which went for the max bid of $20.  Congrats to him for being creative!  Well, I'm sure all the candy had a little to do with it!  

   

Here is the description of his cake that was on an index card for the viewing table.

Easter Bunny Basket Cake

Created by Christopher 

A Crumbled white cake is mixed with a crumbled chocolate brownie cake.  Resembles “dirt”.  “Dirt” is filled with jellybeans.  It’s all ready to start your own Jellybean garden! Basket is filled with “grass” icing , more jellybeans and a few surprises from the Easter Bunny.

The second picture is of the cake that he won, he paid $2 for the one he bought.  It spells CIA, the picture didn't take too well because of the foil it's sitting on.  The theme was supposed to be "When I grow up", but they said to just let the younger boys be creative and if it happens to fall into the theme, then great.   I guess Christopher wants to be the Easter Bunny when he grows up!