Family Olympics

This weekend, our good friends came to visit for a few days.  They also have three children, about the same ages as our kids...so I know having 6 children...all 6 and under would be 'exciting' to say the least ;)  I knew I needed a plan...and a plan I had.

We had our first ever Family Olympic Games!

First we spent about 20 minutes designing our family flags.

Our flag said "All we do is win" with a flower on it.

Our friend's flag was a bit more creative.  One of the boys thought to draw the parade and an airplane?

Then we marched in our own Olympic parade...

and finished off by singing the National Anthem :)

Our "color guard"

I think Bryan is using his torch as a microphone. (didn't Brooke do a great job on their outfits?

Our family...ready for some competition!

The "other" family, hahaha

Our first event was a donut eating contest.  Each child (and then later, each adult) had one donut hanging from a string.  The first one to eat the donut without touching it with their hands wins!  Check out these great photos!!!

Getting ready for the game.  We made the kids start from the shade of the house and run up to their donuts

Hannah's first try

Where did Caulder's mouth go? hahaha!

Get it buddy!

London got disqualified pretty quickly!

I love this one of Nicole and Peyton

I think Nicole's lack of teeth worked out to her advantage...

Caulder getting smart and trying to use his tongue to hook the donut

Peyton, hahaha

Nate is taking aim!

Hanney- I think you missed the donut!

I can "hear" Nicole laugh in this photo.  She giggled the whole time!

Little Buddy did a great job!  His hand were always near the donut, but he never touched it, haha

I think Hannah is trying the tongue trick now, hahaha

Nate finally gave up and stuffed the whole thing in his mouth.

Now it's our turn!!!!  Jeremy and Bryan tied.

Then we had a typical speed race.  In heats we raced around the cul de sac. 

Peyton and Nicole raced first

Can you hear the smack talk?

Then Caulder and Hannah (Hannah almost beat Caulder)

They were probably saying "good luck, I hope you win" to each other.  These are two of the sweetest little people ever!

This is about the time that Caulder snuck past Hannah, hehe

Next was Nathan and London (Nate's pants kept falling down and he couldn't run :(  So...he got beat by a girl....but we demand a rematch!)

Pants on the ground, Pants on the Ground....my son's pants were falling to the ground

Last up was Bryan and Jeremy...they've got their game face on!

EVERYTHING is a competition to these two.

Sorry honey...but we all knew Bryan was a pretty fast runner.  I'm just glad neither one of you got hurt! haha

Yep...Brooke and I raced too, but that video recording has been deleted for security purposes, hahaha.  I almost lost :(  But...I was able to pass her at the last minute.

OK - the next event was also a race, but we leveled the playing field by making everyone hold a balloon between their legs while they ran.  Caulder figured out the secret and hopped across the line, finishing first!

Love this photo...you can see how much fun they were having!

Totally focused!

She is such a cutie!

We also had a hoola hoop contest.  This did not go well.  I'm not sure anyone could hoola hoop more than 5 seconds, hahaha. Peyton won this one though.  We also had a Three-Legged Race.  We might try this again sometime with different string. 

Sisters, getting ready for the three legged race (The won!)

"P" and "C" ready to take those girls D.o.w.n.

We had an egg toss that lasted much longer than I expected.  The race heat line up was used and the kids did great.  The eggs did not crack as easily as I thought.  I don't think any kids got egg on them.  Just Bryan and Jeremy, as they chucked the eggs across two yards :)

egg toss

I don't think this one exploded on him.  Great concentration Jeremy!

Finally, we had a water bucket contest.  Each child had a cup (oldest had the smallest cut).  They had to fill their cup with water from one bucket, then place their cup on top of their head and run across the yard and dump it into their team's bucket (while the cup was still touching their head).  This game went much better than I expected it to.  The kids had a blast (Caulder dumped his whole first cup on his, not yet understanding the point of the game, hahaha). 

If you enlarge this photo, you'll see Hannah and Nicole crashing :( hahaha

Hannah worked very hard at getting her water in the bucket.

London did a great job too!

Oh no!  It spilled out!

Caulder was also very good at getting the water int he bucket

Little buddy in on the action

hahaha, I think he got more on himself than in the bucket!

I drenched Jeremy with a bucket full of water - sorry hun!

We finished the morning with an awards ceremony
Gold Medals - Peyton (first in races) and Nicole (first in donut eating)
Silver Medals - Caulder (first in the balloon races) and Hannah (second in balloon races)
Bronze Medals - Nathan and London, just for trying ;)

Their medals

We had a super fun time at our Olympics.

Their "crazy" picture.  Apparently, Nicole was done having fun, hehe

The night before we also ate Torch cupcakes while watching portions of the opening ceremony.  The kids loved it.  They were cupcakes baked inside of  ice cream cones.  Pretty cute, huh?

torches up

Silly girl!

Animals!

Last week we went to Busch Gardens.  Nicole rode on the Cheetah Hunt roller coaster with me.  She screamed the whole time, and cried at the end :(  But...she didn't swear off roller coasters every again (in fact, she went a smaller...far more scarier one with me later that day).  She just said she wouldn't go on Cheetah Hunt again until she was a lot bigger.  (on a side notes...I really liked it.  It was long and smooth, only one flip upside down.  A great coaster for one who wants the thrill without the neck ache ;)

On our way to find my mom and dad the other two kids...we walked through the gorilla area.  It was early in the morning, so they were out.  Check out how close they were to us!!!

Big Daddy Sleeping

Check Out those hands!

And those feet!

Nicole thought it was pretty cool to be so close to the gorilla

A few days we had a picnic with my friend Abby.  While eating under a tree...we kept having little seeds fall on us. When we were almost done eating, I looked up...and saw this...

It was a family of raccoons in the tree above us.  They were so cute!  However, if one would have jumped on our head, we would have freaked out...and my friend may have gone into labor ;)

After we left, they came down to eat our scraps

Last month we went to the Florida Aquarium to visit some friends.  While there we saw some penguins, touched sting rays and saw giant alligators.  It was a nice trip.

Nicole and Hannah in front of a tank

Loving Sisters

A cool school of fish that were swarming in circles.  The girls watching them forever!

Smile sting ray!

This is what I looked like after spending the day at the aquarium :)

 Oh yeah...Hannah got to ride on a motorcycle/moped with Jeremy the other day.  Mommy didn't like it...but Hannah and daddy both did :)

My little daredevil Hannah, on the back of the bike.

Then riding in front.

GeoDrawing Camp

Last month, I was asked to leada 3 day Geography/Drawing camp with 40-something 6-8 year olds while their parents receive training for Classical Conversations.  I was a SO excited...and a bit overwhelmed.  I prayed a lot leading up to the camp because I knew I couldn't handle so many kids alone for 6 hours over 3 days.

However, the camp turned out wonderful!  I think the kids had a great time...I had fun...and my teenage helpers were wonderful! 

For Geography we learned about : The Continent and Oceans, the "Great Circles" (equator,  tropics lines, Arctic circle, etc), we learned about the compass and how to read a map (using this).  We did LOTS of world map tracing, and Africa and S. America Tracing.  I read books like "Bringing the Rain to Kapiti Plain", and  "J is for Jambo (a Swahili Alphabet book)".  We learned a worship song in Kitubi, a language spoken The Democratic Republic of Congo, Yesu Azali Awa.  We played map games with my giant shower curtain world map.

For Art we learned about : The 5 elements of drawing and used books like "Not a box", "Ish", "Dot", and "The Pencil".  We drew a mirror/line drawing of King Tut and Masai warriors with abstract robes as well as "Not a box" pictures.   We also "traced" the world with play dough, drew the world on balloons (this as NOT a hit like I thought it would be) and learned about missionaries from Africa and S. America.

Masai Drawing

Masai Drawing

Masai Drawing

Play dough map

outline Africa with Play dough

It's Not a Box!  It's a horse!

It's not a box, it's a submarine

Free Hand Drawing of South America in the "art book"

I can't remember where I found instructions for this guy....

This was My "Not a Box" man that I drew step by step on the board.

This was what the kids drew...pretty good, huh?

Another Not a Box man.

Last Not a Box man:)

It was great fun.  I hope they ask me to do it again :)

As the Deer Pants for water...

So, one fun thing about our new house is all the deer we get to see. After the tropic storm passed through, they really came out a lot.  Jeremy caught some cool pictures of the deer one night.  I want to remember this beautiful place :)

Swimming and Snorkeling

We have really enjoyed living in a neighborhood with a community pool.  I have never lived anywhere with very quick, direct access to a pool.  I'm glad we don't have our own pool to take care of...I think we'd be lousy pool owners...but it's great to have one nearby to use.

We try to go swimming 3 times a week, sometimes more. 

I am excited to say that Nicole has learned to swim this summer!  She has never taken any swim classes and she's doing great.  It started by her being able to touch the bottom of the pool and just sort of bounce around...to diving for rings and sticks that sink to the bottom, to full fledged swimming.

And now...she's snorkeling!  She's having a blast!  She loves to swim all around the pool and not have to come up for air.  One day, she seat in one place and watched some teenage girls "do gymnastics" underwater.  Nicole had her mask on, her snorkel in her mouth and she was set. 

Hannah doesn't try to swim at all right now (although I think she was swimming last summer).  She won't get in the pool without her little floating ring.  As annoying as this is at times...it's also fine because she will have hours of fun without my help.  So...I'm not to worried that she won't play without it...at least she's in the water playing ;)

Nate loves the water too and has a cool pair of floaties called Puddle Jumpers.  He just swims all over the place and has a blast up at the pool.

Just another cool thing about our new house and where we live.  We love this amenity.

Mud Pies

We have had a lot of rain lately.  We were hit by Tropical Storm Debby several weeks ago which really began the onslaught of rain this summer.  It has been needed though!  Our lake behind our house was getting VERY low...it's now VERY full :)

The kids love the rain.  Unless it's lightning out, they almost always end up on the back porch, and eventually in the yard with their bathing suites on...covered in mud.

This was the case a few weeks ago.

They even delighted in the holes Lucy dug for us in the back yard, which quickly filled up with rain water...and then mud :)

Check out Nicole's face !

Nate loves to play in the mud.

I think Hannah is the one who started the mud sitting :)

I love to see my kids get dirty and play outside.