What better way to learn about the Olympics that to host our own mini Olympics. We focused our crafts on props for our olympic games.

We cut out the centre of paper plates, painted them and made our own olympic rings.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We each chose a country and pasted their flag onto a poster which we would use to tally our medals at our mini olympics. We made a flag for each of our chosen countries.

We learnt about the round shape of the world, pinned up an atlas and found the countries we had chosen on the atlas.

 

Great fun was had making medals out of crazy dough. It was a neat way to reinforce number recognition for Camryn. And Eryn was in her element when we painted the medals in SHINY gold, silver and bronze.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And so when Craig was here in Cape Town for the weekend, we decided it was good timing for our own mini olympics. Lee-Ann joined in the fun and games and we had a great memorable olympic games, an event I think the children (and the adults) found very special.

Let the games begin…

 

 

We started off with an opening ceremony, more like a country march with our flags while cammy played the drums for us.

 

 

 

Lee-Ann promised a dance for the opening ceremony but some how she managed to get out of it! Instead she became all patriotic and wore her flag in her hair for the rest of the evening!

 

 

Due to our stadium being slightly below olympic standards, we modified our events somewhat:

1st Event – crab walking

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then came the crawling race

 

 

Wow, this is rather painful on the hands and knees for us oldies

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Egg and Spoon Race

 

The best part of this race was that we used Lindt chocolate for the eggs and got to eat them afterwards.

 

 

 

 

 

Balloon Hopping Races. We must get those lines repainted on our track as Craig seems to be battling with his direction…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tummy balloon races look easier than what they are…

 

Especially when one partner is somewhat shorter than the other. Well done Lee-Ann for improvising.

 

 

 

 

We did target shooting slightly different by aiming our bean bags into a potjie pot.

 

 

 

 

 

 

And of course the girls won that!

At some point, Eryn got a little distracted from the javelin competition that was at hand. Playing with Tom our black Labrador won her interest for pretty much the rest of the olympic games.

 

On the other hand, Camryn had obviously been practising his javelin throw because he showed us just how it was done:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lee-Ann throwing a decent distance with her javelin even though her style is not quite as dramatic as Camryn’s

 

 

 

 

 

 

And it was quite clear that a certain little man had been watching the discus throw on the olympics channel too.

 

 

 

 

 

 

And some of the adults attempts:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And to finish off our games, we did some goal scoring.

 

Here Lee-Ann is finally getting a turn. We had to make Camryn sit on the chair and wait his turn as he kept hijacking the ball. Please note his not-s0-impressed face.

 

 

 

Thank goodness I have been honing my soccer skills as my hubby took this pretty seriously!

 

 

 

 

And we even concluded our games with a medal ceremony much to the children’s delight. We had Chariots of Fire blaring in the background, a not-so-sturdy podium and medals to present to the children.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And we finished off with a group photo (after a few failed attempts at camera setting)

 

Eryn giving her brother a well done hug, and mom trying to keep both children from falling off the podium.

 

 

 

The girls super proud of shiny gold medals.

 

 

 

Of course Eryn collected all the medals afterwards – they are all shiny!

 

 

 

 

 

 

And after a great evening filled with fun and games, we ended it off perfectly – bubbly, chocolates and laughter. Maybe not quite in the same fancy surroundings as in true olympic style but we were comfy and that’s what mattered.