Let the Games Begin!

Tucked into the back of my tiny little brain, an idea for an Olympics themed party fluttered around for weeks.  In my tiny little brain, the party was just going to be a small gathering of family and friends to watch a few competitions and eat a lot of food. 

In true Katie and Steve fashion, we didn't even really start talking about this party until the morning of July 14th.  I made a phone call to my sister-in-law to see if they were interested and available.  Her family was in, so it was time to throw a party together.
First, I called my mom.

Me:  Do you want to come to our Olympics party?

Mom:  Sure.

Me:  It's going to be at your house.  Are you free the weekend of the 27th?
(I love my mom for so many reasons, but one of them is that she is so go-with-the-flow.)

Mom:  Ok.  What's the plan?

The plan?  Oh, we need a plan.  So Steve and I started planning.  Give us a theme, and we go c.r.a.z.y.

The plan in a nutshell:  Eat and Compete!
The plan in a little more detail:
Friday night:  grill out, opening ceremonies, pool competitions/party, cards
Saturday:  5K, track and field events, miscellaneous events
Sunday:  just wing it

So detailed, huh?

Here we go...

A homemade torch and torch cupcakes replaced the real Olympic flame.  Burning down the entire (really dry) town would have ruined the weekend for sure.

Isn't Steve so darn creative?  It's amazing what he can do with spray paint and pool noodles.

Steve made the hardware for the kids too, but it just wasn't feasible to give them out for every event.

Candy wrapped in gold, silver, and bronze worked though.

The competitors...

Team B.N.

Cool Runnings

Team B.  Go Cubs!

Team A.  Soccer rocks!

The Team U representative...sorry I missed all of you!

Team United.

Team M.E.

Made in the USA

Team I

 My grandparents are the best!  It's a good thing they don't even know what a blog is because Grandpa would be so embarrassed.  Shhh...don't tell.



Team Green...can you believe you had the Olympics at your house and you didn't even need to place a bid to host it?  Thanks for opening your doors to all of us!

I was a little high-strung about getting everyone fed and to the pool on time, so I unfortunately didn't get some of our lovely competitors in front of my lens. Sorry to all of you that I missed! Due to a streak of perfectionism that runs right through me, I have a tendency to freak out when we host things.  Deep breath!

Thank you, Mr. Ralph Lauren, for giving us the inspiration for our team name.

And I was worried that we wouldn't have enough food...we had at least enough to feed the entire town.

Uncle D. did a quick head count and said there were 50-some people there to eat.  Impressive since most people didn't even know about the party until about a week prior. 

Now it's time to compete...