Olympians

In February we did some fun things to commemorate the 2014 Olympics.  In conjunction with the Opening Ceremonies, we had a Culinary Tour of Nations, made up of exotic and not-so-exotic foods from countries participating in the Sochi Olympics.  I knew the kids would like the desserts I'd gathered, so I tried to motivate them to try a variety of foods during dinner by telling them that they'd get one dessert item for each type of dinner food they tried.  Dinner consisted of naan (India), waffles with real maple syryup (Canada), chips and refried beans (Mexico), hummus (Lebanon), Greek yogurt (Greece), tofu (China), sushi (Japan), apples (USA), bananas (Brazil), pineapple (Peru), olives (Turkey), coconut water (Philippines), and Pellegrino (Italy).  Cat was the most adventurous, trying almost everything, but Jack and Eliza got out of their comfort zone too.  I couldn't get anyone to eat the tofu, though, haha.  Maybe if I'd cooked it?

Dessert treats included Haribo coke bottles from Germany, Swiss chocolate, and Swedish Fish.  Yes, I know Swedish Fish aren't actually from Sweden, but I gave them their own Swedish flag anyway.

Later on, as the Olympics were winding down we had a Family Mini Olympics, similar to the our Summer Games of 2012.  This time, we based our games on actual winter Olympics events, though.  We ended up dividing up as Boys vs. Girls and everyone had a fun time.

Just as a way to share something Russian, I brought out my Russian nesting
doll and the teams competed to see how fast they could reassemble her.

Ice Hockey

I froze an inch or so of water in a 9x13 pan, with some re-shaped paper clips
in the end as goals.  The puck was a coin and the sticks were made from
popsicle sticks that I cut apart and glued together in an L shape.

The hockey got pretty aggressive (not so surprising, right?), so the popsicle stick
hockey sticks came apart and we decided to use spoons instead.

Figure Skating

Curling

Bobsled

Cross Country Skiing

Looks like the Russians and the Americans will need to have a re-match in 2016.

It was fun searching for ideas of Olympics-themed activities for kids.  I mostly used the ideas found here and here.  Gotta love Pinterest...

The funny thing about looking back at these pictures is that we spent about the same amount of time doing our family Olympics activities as we did watching any Olympics.  We watched most of the Opening Ceremony and then just a little bit one weekend later on.  But it's fun to get excited about it anyway, right?