The Olympics: Opening Ceremonies and Sprinting

I took the kids to Becky and Brian's house the second week of August so that we could participate in the Games of the Second Weidner/Johnson Summer Olympiad.  Warning: this is going to be a very long post with lots of photos.

The kids spent the morning making flags for the march of nations, but then they all decided that they wanted to be part of the United States.  So the flags are supposedly flags for different states within the United States.  Amelia's was called AmeliaLand and was shaped like the letter A.  Noah was in a mood about something and declined to participate in the parade.

Then we had the torch relay, which the kids ran awfully quickly.

Next up was the torch lighting ceremony, where Brian actually lit a small fire in the grill:

The first real event was the relay race.  We had to do it four times so that every kid got a chance to start it off and end it.  It was interesting to see how each kid had a different starting position.

The handoffs were really fun to watch.  Usually the running child would come to a complete stop and hand the baton to the next child very very carefully.  I really liked how Natalie handed the baton off to Megan and then kept running with her.

Next up was the run-around-the-house race.  The kids all took their starting positions facing the right direction this time - Natalie's starting position in the Games of the First Weidner/Johnson Olympiad  still makes me laugh!

We had a little false start, when Amelia and Noah didn't realize that Brian's gun-sounding-noise meant that they were supposed to start running.

So we lined everyone up again and restarted the race:

Amelia was the fastest, which since she's the oldest and the tallest, wasn't much of a surprise.

Nathaniel wasn't interested in participating in most events, but he did chase after the big kids when they ran around the house.  I love how he is carrying a sword while he runs.  He's ready for anything!