For Those Who Like Food

Mediterranean Monday!
With two ethnic foods remaining, we decided to bring dad along for Woody's Oasis. Before we had kids Dave and I enjoyed going there. Now it was time to introduce the kids.
We chose meat grape leaves, chicken schwarma with rice, falafel, toubolli, greek salad and pitas with hummus.

For dessert we had baklava and fingers.

The kids were a bit squeamish at first about the grape leaves. I mean really, they look weird. But they taste oh so delish. The boy thought they were awesome. Little girl ate one, enjoying the filling but still not impressed with the leaf.

They loved the chicken schwarma. And were indifferent about the falafel. Little girl liked the hummus, the boy did not. Hubby could not get enough of the hummus.

Yum, Yum and YUM!
I feel blessed to have adventurous eaters. Ethiopian is the next food of the ethnic roster. Should be interesting.

Kids Olympics

With track and field debuting today, we headed over to our local track. Two other families joined us for our own Track and Field Olympics.
Stretching...

Little girl's long jump...

The boy's long jump...

DD with Discus

DS with Discus...

The boys 400 meter run...

The girl's 400 meter run...

High Jump...

Our Gold Medal Athletes...

Other events not pictured; shot put, javelin, relay hand offs and paper bag hurdles.
The sweetest moments for me were the girls cheering for their brothers and the boys cheering for their sisters during the 400 meter run. It was super cute.
We finished the morning with a picnic lunch and fellowship with friends. Good times.

Gymnastics

With competition for the women's gymnastics scheduled for the evening, we dedicated the day to the sport.
We read a book about Carly Patterson, checked out the mini animation and tumbled around the living room. We each made up a pretend balance beam routine performed on a string in the living room. Mine was fabulous although I was unable to land a cartwheel on my string. Deductions, deductions.


Then in the afternoon we went to my parents where the kids convinced me to do a back flip for them. The boy video taped for your viewing pleasure.


It was a fun day teaching the kids different things about a sport I love. For those who may not know, I was a gymnast in high school. No where near as talented as the Olympians but I enjoyed it just the same.

In the evening we had orange chicken with rice and noodles from the mall. The kids tried the egg roll but were not impressed. Orange chicken though, this they love.

Hubby is back from his latest travels so he watched the evening Olympics with us. I think I may be a little more reserved in my cheering with him present. But cheer I did.
Go Michael!
Go Team USA!
Keep up the awesome work and determination in Beijing.

Michael Phelps and Mexico Monday

The Americans were smokin' in the Aquatic Center. With an exciting night of swimming scheduled we hit the pool for a swim of our own, armed with knowledge we found on this site. The boy tried out the different strokes, while the girl worked on swimming for longer distances.



After our swim practice we splashed and played in the kid pad.
In the evening we cheered on team USA as they were absolutely VICTORIOUS in the pool. Three gold medals, back to back, all in record time. With Americans also taking bronze, bronze and silver in those same events. Since we had taken three hour naps in the afternoon we stayed up LATE watching all the Olympic excitement. Including the USA Men's Gymnastic team win the bronze. And Michael Phelps! Three for three and tying the record for most Olympic golds. I think it is fair to say he will be the sole record owner of the most decorated athlete of the modern Olympics by the end of Beijing. One thing is for certain, we are cheering him on every step of the way.
For dinner we decided to go Mexican. We located Mexico on the map, found their flag in our handy dandy flag book and headed out the door. On our way to the restaurant we tried to remember as much Spanish as we could. We have the basic colors, numbers to 10, hello and good bye. I knew the basic food words; carne, queso, and pollo. As we rounded the corner we saw the sign, Los Tres Amigos, which the kids easily translated. Then made the realization that we ourselves were three friends. Walking in they greeted the waiter with an ola. When ever we could we chose to say things in Spanish, which was very fun. As we waited for our meal we ate salsa, listened to the music and discussed the pictures on the wall. Leading to more cultural discussion, including clay roofs.

For our meal we ordered enchilada, taco, cheese quasadilla, chalupa, tostada, a side of rice and a side of beans.

Everyone loved everything! We seriously cleaned our plates.

For dessert we decided on Sopilla( spiced tortilla) and ice cream.

Our Mexican dining experience was a success.


As we left the restaurant the kids told our waiter, "Adios amigo."
And now I say to you, until next time, "Adios amigos!"

Olympic Link

Need a better way to explain the Olympic sports? Try these mini flash animations.
http://www.olympic.org/uk/sports/flash/summer/index_uk.asp#

Fabulous Four

What a stupendous night of Swimming!
I was literally on my feet, jumping up and down those last few strokes of the 4*100 relay. One of those true spirit of the games, moment of triumph. Love it!

Folk Fest 2008

I woke up yesterday morning with no real agenda for the day. During the morning news I learned that the Folk Fest was going on just minutes from our house. The benefits of living near a Huge Big Ten campus. It boasted music from around the world as well as an international food court. For that reason alone we decided to head over and check it out. We were not disappointed. The food court had ethnic dishes from China, Korea, Jamaica, Hawaii, Poland, Ethiopia, Mexico and Native America. After much thought we decided to try the Jamaican food.

We ordered the jerk chicken with a side of grilled pork. It came with vegetables, rice with beans and a sweet corn bread. Rather tasty but much too spicy for the kids. They sampled it like champs trying everything on the plate. The boy devoured the corn bread to help ease the heat. I had no problem cleaning the plate.

The kids were still hungry so we then decided to go for some Hawaiian. A sweet BBQ chicken sandwich on homemade bun, coconut coleslaw (AWESOME) fruit and chips. They really enjoyed this dish.

There was an abundance of music at the Folk Fest. With 5 stages there was lots to choose from. We listened to the some Polka music while we ate. Some of our favorite music were these impromptu set-ups on the side of the road.



The Apprentice tent was a huge hit. Featuring a variety of learned crafts, we got to watch the artist in action. Here is some embroidery...

A wood worker making a unique bird...

Lace work...

Whittling, the process of how it goes from block of wood to a duck.

Not pictured but also observed; birch bark biting, birch baskets, carving stone and braiding.
The kids enjoyed the Children's activity center. Where they made a leather key chain, pounding different shapes into the wet leather.

Here is the boys finished work. He designed a castle with a surrounding path.

Then they made a stain glass picture by cutting out shapes in black paper and filling in the holes with colored tissue paper.

Then they chose to make flowers out of tissue paper. They turned out really good.

Also in the children's area was a platform with jump ropes and hop scotch. The kids loved it. Here little girl is trying to jump rope.

For awhile two grown men were turning a large rope for the kids to run through or practice jumping. The boy had fun doing both. (Also, not pictured)

Our last stop of the festival was the balloon man. DD got a walking dog, the boy a sword and belt. Fencing anyone?

Hope you enjoyed are recap of the Folk Fest.

Olympics Opening Day

Wow! That was the BEST Opening Ceremonies I have ever seen. Every detail of it was AMAZING!

Leading up to the Opening Ceremonies we had a fun day of preparation and exploration.
First we decided what teams we were going to follow during the games. We will all follow USA and China, to make it fair.
To decide on individual teams we looked over some flag stickers I got with my Rainbow Resource order. This helped narrow the selection. We called out different countries we were interested in, discussing who we thought would have the most medals. When the boy decided he wanted the history of the last few games. After a quick Google search we determined that Russia and Germany were two countries with strong Summer game performances in the past three games. With that knowledge, the boy chose Russia and the girl agreed to take Germany. I decided on Japan.


I printed out blank flags of China, USA, Germany and Japan. I had to make Russia, thankfully it is a very simple design. In preparation we colored all the flags, found the countries on the map and colored our maps as well. We talked about the Olympic rings, the torch and found our names in Chinese. Here is my name, I think I will stick with English.

After some errands in the afternoon we found ourselves at the Oriental Mart. Interesting place I tell ya. Live crab, a large variety of fish, squid, octopus and other bizarre things. We decided on a spice pack to make a curry dish and many oriental candies and treats. The ice cream marshmallows were very yummy. We will sample the others throughout the week.

For dinner we went to China King Buffet. All you can eat Chinese food. We passed on the squid but loved the pineapple chicken. Here is my plate, from top right around clock wise. Crab dip, chicken wrap, sweet and sour chicken, lo mien noodles, broccoli, rice, pineapple chicken and terriyaki on a kabob.

The kids did really well with their chop sticks.

Even little girl with the noodles.

After dinner we settled in at home to watch the Opening Ceremonies. As mentioned above, AMAZING! The kids both had ambitions to stay up until midnight. Little girl crashed out at 9pm.

The boy made it a good share through the parade of nations. Finally, exhausted he succumbed to sleep with the request that I wake him up for the torch.

I tried to rise him when the United States team arrived but he did not budge, at all.
I kept my eyes open as long as they would allow but I too drifted off. Only to awaken to the cheers for team China. I acknowledged them and went right back to sleep. Only to wake up again at the finale of the torch lighting. As NBC said "Goodnight." I carried my little ones to their beds and said "good night" as well.
What a swell first day.

Our Olympic School Plans

With the Olympics Opening Ceremonies tomorrow our family is a bit excited about the coming weeks.
I LOVE THE OLYMPICS!
Since there are so many wonderful learning opportunities related to them I decided to start "school" yesterday with learning focused around the Olympics along with Determination from the Konos curriculum.
Here are some things we will be doing:
*Geography
What better way to introduce different countries? As the different countries are announced during the Opening Ceremonies we will find them on the globe and world map. As different athletes are highlighted throughout competition we will locate where they come from.
*Cultures
Especially Chinese culture as different aspects will be covered ongoing throughout all of the Olympics experience. I am also looking forward to the different athlete bios they do, highlighting different athletes, they often take you to their hometown and share their part of the world. Great conversation starters. The kids will also discover their names in Chinese.
*Ethnic Foods
We will be eating Chinese food tomorrow night to kick off the Opening Ceremonies. Then throughout the next couple weeks we will choose foods from all over the world. I hope to have Thia dishes as well as Mediterranean, German, Ethiopian, Italian and whatever else I get brave to try. For some I may need to go to a local restaurant, others I will TRY to make myself.
*Sports
We will read books about different athletes and how they achieved their goals. Learn the basics of as many sports as we can, including trying them out. Next Friday we will have a Track and Field day with a few other families.
*Writing
Making a notebook about all the things we are learning. Including highlights of the different sports. Some things will be dictated. Some will be copy work. Other things will be free writing.
*Reading
I have ordered many books from the library and most I will read to the kids but some such as the Magic Tree House Ancient Olympics will be read by the boy.
*Bible
1 Corinthians 9:24 “Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize”.
*Character
Determination will be the underlying theme . These people have definitely worked hard to accomplish a goal.
*Following a Team
We will each pick a team other than the USA to follow and root on. We will learn about the country we choose and follow their athletes; keeping track of their medal counts.
*Math
Learning about the different measurements; meters. Number placements; first, second, third, etc. Following schedule both the days of the week and time of day. Medal counts, may include some graphing.
*Health
Eating healthy, taking care of our bodies and exercise.
*History
Looking at athletes of the past as well as grazing the surface of ancient Olympics.
and most of all we will have fun! I can't wait for the games to begin.