Our Own "Winter Olympics"

So the first week of Winter Break was pretty long . . . I was missing our cool winter activities that we couldn't do because of the lack of snow and cold enough temps during the day (the nights have been plenty cold - including some single-digits).

Anyways, I started thinking that I should get a group of families and friends together and rent the Field House in town.  It just opened (it used to be the old pool) and so my family had never been and I thought it would make for a fun experience.  But . . . I didn't just want a bunch of kids running around crazy for 2 hours and so I decided to organize a "Winter Olympic" themed activity.

I wasn't sure I'd get enough families to commit (I needed 8 others so our price would be $20/family) - but it came through at the very end!  In fact, I had a group show up that I wasn't counting on and that brought it to exactly 9 families and so it was perfect.

Unfortunately, since I was in charge and running it, I didn't get any pictures myself.  My friends did send me a few from their phones, though.

We started out with a Captain's command game - just to get the kids together and moving.  Then we did the Olympic torch.  All the kids lined up and then ran half-way around the field with the torch and then passed it on.  It was fun to watch!

 Most of the kids all lined up and ready to run!  Miles started it off!

 Go, Lucy, go!  They ran around Csilla.  :)  Csilla was a great help and support for this activity and I'm glad she was there!

Emmy later told me, "It was fun to run with the torch, but also a little embarrassing."  Haha, good!

Then we named the three countries and its team members:  Finland, Sweden, and Norway!  I had made the teams up already and assigned point-values for the different ages of kids.  Thus each country had the same (or within one point) value, hopefully meaning the countries would be "even" in terms of ages and abilities.  (Which I think it was for the most part!)

Half of the fun is being with your friends - so I managed to group up many of the kids with one friend.  Here is Lucy with her friend Lila - go team Finland!  (We marked their cheeks with the first letter of their country.)

Okay, then on to our first event - Mogul skiing!  I used the 3 lines on the field for the three different countries and each team member had to jump over the line with both feet at a time (basically hoping side-to-side, but going forward . . .).  They had ski poles with them, too.  If they touched the line, 2 seconds were added to their country's over-all time.  It was a relay and so as soon as one kid finished, the next one in line went.  The kids looked awesome and funny!  :)

After moguls we did Bobsled.  We had three "bobsleds" and the teams broke up into three relay-groups and each group had to pull the bobsled down and back.  The kids enjoyed this one, too:

(Peter pulling Braden)

After bobsled, we did the biathlon.  I had brought three pairs of skis with boots on and the kids were going to have to hop in the boots/skis and "ski" down the field and then shoot using nerf guns.  But we weren't allowed to use skis on the field and so that kids just ran down the field, grabbed their nerf guns, and had 5 shots at cups.  For every cup knocked down, the team would earn a bonus point.  Miles said this was his favorite event.

Shoot, Emmy, shoot!

After the biathlon we had our slalom skiing.  We set up 10 "poles" or towers (made from lego container boxes that were about a foot high) along one line and you had to take the ski poles and weave in and out of the towers.  If you knocked down a tower, 2 seconds would be added to your finished time.  There were several close calls, but no towers were knocked down!  Jonas said this was his favorite event.

We were going to do "figure skating" next, but we were running out of time and so we nixed it.  But the kids were going to have to put wax paper on their feet (held up by a rubberband) and perform a little routine (skate forward in a circle, full turn on your right foot, skate backward in a circle, full turn on your left foot, some jumps, etc.).  Maybe next time!

So our last Olympic event was ice hockey.  I had enough hockey sticks and we used Csilla's trainer tennis ball (an extra-large tennis ball).  Two teams went first and had 5 minutes to play.  Whoever scored the most, won.  Then the losing team played the third team.  The winning team from that went and played the first winning team in the finals.  :)  It was fun and the kids played pretty decently!  This was Lucy's favorite event!

Then Csilla had worked her magic and we were allowed to use the "human bubbles" to let the kids roll around and pummel in to one another -for the last 20 minutes.  These bubbles can be rented, but you only get 10 of them for 1 hour for $200.  That's why I didn't do that . . . The older kids went first and then the youngers.  They got about 10 minutes each of play-time and they had a lot of fun for sure!

Fun - and totally funny when kids got stuck upside down and couldn't right themselves.  :)

Then it was on to the medal ceremony!  Team Finland won with 48 points!

Lucy, Lila, Kyle, Jonas, Ivan, Tyler, and Camden - all gold-winners!  I made medals for gold, silver, and bronze.  Gold got butterfingers.  I told them they had to bite them like the real Olympic gold medals.  :)

There was actually a tie (so crazy and I didn't fudge numbers to make it so!) for second - Norway and Sweden, of course (with 41 points each).  Silver medals were York patties and bronze medals were Reese's PB cups.  So the rest of the kids got either one of those.  :)

 

Here was the whole group - plus a few extra little kids that were hanging around and watching their siblings.  :)

Everything worked out pretty great and the kids all said they loved it.

At least we could pretend to ski and sled for a couple of hours!  :)