Olympic Party - Part 3

Our Olympics party could not be complete without a closing ceremony. After the final events, we gathered all the athletes in the living room.

We called each child up to the "podium" one at a time and gave out gold medals for some aspect of the child's participation. We tried not to award medals for specific events and focused more on the creativity each child added to the events (best cartwheel on the balance beam or highest jump over the hurdles). For some kids it was a simple as smiling through every event or waiting patiently for your turn without complaining. All of the kids were very good-natured and seemed to support one another well. 

Isaiah

Holden

Cody

Jaden

Luke

Emme

All throughout the closing ceremonies, Mom and Dad were hard at work in the kitchen.

Dad cooked up his special recipe of Spanish rice (yum!)...

...to go along with our taco buffet.

Mom assembled various types of fruit into Olympic-colored rings.

We love having family around for these parties! Not only is it such a gift to have them share in our boys' special celebration, our family is also a wonderful help! We didn't get pictures of everyone who helped out, but it was so nice to have family stepping in wherever there was a need-- in ways I'm sure that I didn't even notice. In addition to assembling all the food, Papa and Grammy kept little Nathan out of the big-kid mischief. :)

Aunt Kim took quite a few pictures for us and organized the gift bags by making sure everyone's star baton, flag, and torch were in the right place. The gift bags also contained our "Go for the Gold!" candy and a patriotic bead necklace.

Aunt Chelsea (I think in addition to Uncle Matt) was another one of our designated photographers for the evening. They captured some wonderful moments, and I loved not having to think about taking pictures!

After everyone had eaten, we brought out the cake and sang happy birthday to our two special boys.

We sang twice-- first to Cody,

and then to Jaden.

Most of the kids opted for a torch cupcake, so the adults got to enjoy the cake.

The Olympics party was a success! All the kiddos seemed to enjoy themselves and no injuries were reported. :) We may have to throw another Olympics party when the Winter Olympics roll around just for the fun of it.

Happy 4th birthday, Jaden and Cody! We loved being able to celebrate YOU and the blessings that you are in our lives.