Our Olympic Opening

I love the Olympics. I mean, I freakin' LOVE the Olympics! I don't really know why...maybe it is the sports, maybe the camaraderie, maybe its the tradition, maybe it represents our hopes of peace for our world. Whatever it is, we are glued to it for the next 17 days. 

So we decided to make it a big deal at our house and have our own opening ceremonies: complete with decorations, events, medals, and international cuisine. We started by creating our decorations.  

We made a border of flags that I drew and the girls colored, and then created an Olympic flag. 

Next we had to plan the events. We left this up to my 8 year old. She likes to plan and is extremely organized, so she fit the bill of our Olympic Games captain! 

We started with the trampoline jump which included a high jump and trick section! Check out my toe touch!! Yeah, I still got it!

Then we moved to the track and field events, where we had one of the youngest Olympian ever participating!

Finally, before we were driven inside by the heat, the gnats (welcome to South Georgia!), and the mosquitoes we had the soccer shoot out.

When we got inside, there was gymnastics, a scavenger hunt, and Wii Fit events! Then we had a medal ceremony, where we used every medal and trophy we have ever received from Honor Rolls, gymnastic competitions, dance, and honors days! Check out who was the Winner, Winner Chicken Dinner!!! 

Speaking of dinner: we had the traditional English Fish and Chips and then I prepared an English trifle.

For the fish and chips:

5 white potatoes

3 flounder or other firm white fish fillets

Flour

Salt

Pepper

Garlic Salt

Seasoning Salt

Butter

Milk

Olive Oil

Canola Oil

Peel the potatoes and slice into thin strips. Place on baking sheet. Drizzle olive oil and toss. Sprinkle with salt, pepper, seasoning salt, and garlic salt and bake at 400 for 20-25 minutes. 

For the fish, cut the fillets into 1-2 inch strips. Drag through a butter and milk mixture. Coat in a flour mixture of flour, garlic salt, salt, and pepper. "Fry" in a skillet with about 2 tablespoons (just enough to coat the bottom) of canola oil. Cook until brown on both sides.

For the Traditional English Trifle:

2 pints of strawberries

1 pint of blueberries

4 bananas

1 cup of sugar

1 angel food cake (just buy it out of the bakery)

Vanilla pudding, prepared as instructed on the box

Cool Whip

Slice strawberries and toss with half of the sugar. Toss blueberries with the other half of sugar. Slice bananas. Prepare pudding. Get everything ready to layer.

Cube angel food cake and layer half of it on the bottom of a deep bowl. Then layer strawberries, blueberries, and then bananas. Next spread half of pudding on top of fruit. Repeat layers and then top with cool whip. It was light and delicious!