Olympic Party - Part 1

Jaden and Cody had been counting down to this day for weeks. When the hour of their birthday party finally arrived, these boys were quite happy! (I've already decided who my two favorite Olympic athletes of the summer will be, by the way!)

Before the big Olympic party started, we had to take a few birthday boy photos... 

When the guests arrived, we ushered them into our dining room to make two Olympic crafts-- a personalized flag and an Olympic torch.

Papa and Grammy guided all the kids through the craft-making process. They started by rolling a paper towel tube in aluminum foil for the torch.

Then, the kids dipped scraps of tissue paper in glue and stuck them at the top of the torch to look like flames.

It was an easy enough craft that the kids could just jump right in whenever they got to our house. 

The birthday boys willingly moved to a new table when our dining room got too cramped.

Aunt Kim worked with Cody and Jaden to make their flags. Each child wrote his or her name on the flag and then decorated the flag with crayons, stickers, or paper scraps.

This table got very full with 14 kids moving through the craft process!

As the kids finished their craft, we led them into the living room and gave them a small snack of trail mix and water. We figured that a little tide-me-over snack might be helpful with our later dinnertime. Plus, we knew the kids would be better behaved if they had a snack while they waited for others to finish the craft. It worked! Everyone sat nicely and fairly calmly. :)

As you can see, our age group of kiddos spanned across quite a few age groups (1 year old to 7 years old). When I was planning for this party, I realized that some of the kids (my boys included) probably had no idea what the Olympics even were! So, I assembled some pictures into a powerpoint and gave the kids a little Olympics 101. (What can I say? Once a teacher, always a teacher!)

The presentation was very brief but gave the kids a visual of various Olympic events, the parade of nations, the torch lighting, and the medal ceremonies. 

Then, we took a group picture of all our Olympic athletes with their name-flags. Believe it or not, this photo is actually missing 4 kids-- our two and under crew. We had a nice crowd!

Jason then assembled the kids into a line to prepare for our parade of nations.

The competitors marched into the house...

through the living room, behind the table, and into the kitchen-- all the while proudly waving their flags. The adults were scattered about the house, applauding enthusiastically. Of course, the Olympic Fanfare was playing in the background.

Eventually, Jason halted the athletes so that he could announce their names one by one. Many of the kids seemed a little bit shy about getting so much individual applause, but we could tell that they were quite proud too. :) 

The last part of the Opening Ceremonies was the torch lighting. The parents helped all the kids exchange their flags with their torches, and we were ready!

I had found a perfect video on youtube of the torch lighting from the 2014 Sochi Olympics. It was a short video with the perfect amount of anticipation time. We displayed this video on our TV and had the kids hold up their torches when the torch was lit. 

At the end, we led the kids in a chorus of, "Let the Games begin!!"