Olympic Party - Part 2

For the actual Olympic events during Jaden and Cody's party, we divided the kiddos into two groups by age. Since our number of guests was so large (18 kids total), we knew that the division was necessary so the kids wouldn't be waiting in line so long for their turn. Plus we figured the kids would compete in the events a little better if they were watching their own peers. Jason led the group outside (what a gracious husband to take the humidity!), and I led the indoor activities. I had the younger age group (4 and under) first. They were so cute sitting there listening to my directions! :)

Our first event was the long jump. The kids began in a stationary position at the edge of the carpet rather than taking a running start. We figured this might be a bit safer. It was pretty cute watching these kids and their jumping postures!

Next we went upstairs for the balance beam. As you can see, our tape-on-the-carpet wasn't an actual balance beam, but it worked just fine for our purposes. :) We asked the kids to first walk straight along the balance beam...

...and then they could choose their own method of walking across the beam on their second go-round.  Cody tried this funky sideways heel walking.

Ryan pulled out some backwards moonwalking of sorts...

and Jaden did a little sideways jump-along. I was impressed that none of these little ones copied each other's movements!

Even our youngest two competitors-- Isaiah and Nathan-- participated in this event. Uncle Jon helped Isaiah do a pretty fancy cartwheel,

and Nathan was our first athlete to carry a pot of food with him along the balance beam. Impressive. :)

Our third event was the basketball shot. I gave the kids roughly 15-20 seconds to shoot as many baskets into the hoop as they could. Cody and Jaden definitely had the homecourt advantage on this one.

Nathan and our little friend Andrew worked together to make some good dunks.

The last indoor event was rhythmic gymnastics (this was my favorite idea from my cousins' Olympic party). I gave each child the option of dancing along with a slow or fast song (all of them chose a fast song, not surprisingly) and the option of dancing alone or with a friend. The kids also received a star-shaped patriotic wand as an optional dancing prop. Cody and Jaden went first since they are quite familiar with making up impromptu dance routines.

Our little friend Holden pulled out some hilarious break dancing moves!

Ryan chose to dance with his cousins, and the three did a free-for-all runaround!

These younger kids all had some great moves! Little Joshua was pretty talented with his handstand-cartwheels. It was great watching the little ones!

After this event, Jason and I swapped groups, and the littles went outside. It had been POURING all afternoon (up to the point that our neighborhood entrance was flooded and we were worried our guests might not even be able to make it to our house!). Thankfully, by God's grace, the rain stopped about a half hour prior to the party, and we could set aside our plan B of having all the events be indoors. It was SO nice to be able to utilize the grass and the outdoors for all of these activities. First, the kids did a shotput-type tennis ball throw.

Then, Jason led them in a soccer goal-kick event.

Their postures as they kick just crack me up!

Our next event was a hurdle jump in the front yard. I had seen this pool-noodle hurdle idea on Pinterest but wasn't sure how well it would work. This event ended up being most of the kids' favorite, even if the hurdles fell apart!

Jason had a few of the dads demonstrate the hurdle event for the little guys. We love these dads! :)

When it was the kids' turn, Jason said some kids went around the hurdles entirely. Thankfully, we weren't keeping any kind of score, and this group was too young to care about the competition aspect anyway.

Ryan and Holden

Jaden jumping with Joshua

Cody and Luke (with daddy Paul)

Nathan and Isaiah were the funniest. Check out Nathan just plowing straight through all the hurdles, destruction in his path! :)

Well done, fellow Olympian!

Following the hurdles, the young ones came inside for some balloon volleyball, which basically just turned into crazy playtime with a balloon. 

Here are some photos of the older kiddos doing the same events. They displayed some pretty cute stances in these activities as well, so I couldn't leave this bunch out. First, the shotput event....

The soccer shoot-out event was next. As you can tell, the soccer goal was much farther away for these older guys.

Love this little graceful Ella!

Jason was a wonderful leader for all these outdoor activities. Hurdles was up next. The older bunch understood the concept of jumping OVER the hurdles much better. These kids jumped high!

The next event was an older-kid only event-- javelin throwing. Jason decided to skip it for the young bunch after even the older kids struggled to throw the javelin accurately. Again, we had some great dad demonstrators. 

The goal was to toss the javelin through the hoop, but it was a little challenging. Perhaps I should have added a few extra hoops to give a greater chance of success.

Most of the kids' throws looked something like this. :)

After that last outdoor event, the kids came inside with me for long jump....

balance beam walking...

(or army crawling)

and basketball shooting.

These kids were quite a bit sillier and crazier with the gymnastic dance routines, but they had a great time! 

After all the events were done, it was time for the closing ceremonies!