4th of July Olympics 2008

Oh Yes, folks, the 4th of July celebration at the Barlow household was one to remember! Stealing the Edington family tradition of a family Olympics proved to be successful and an absolute BLAST! What was even better was having Tyler's cousin Abby and all her wonderful family to visit us for the weekend. Tyler told his family a couple months ago to plan on participating in some fun in the sun on the 4th and it did not disappoint. I was a little bummed all my family missed out on it (Thanks for making it to dinner and bringing no-bakes, Mom!), but the Barlow clan brought their A-game, for sure :) It was all in good fun and kids and adults all participated. Don't get me wrong, there was pa-lenty of trash-talking, but I could hardly expect anything else with the competitive blood that runs through the Barlow veins.

We prepared for the games by hitting up Oriental Trading (Love it!) and Wal-Mart for our supplies and Friday morning we set up for all the events. Friday morning some of the family headed over to Sunset Park for a tennis tournament (Gold went to Jared on that one) while the rest of us pigged out on Dunkin' Donuts (Gold probably went to me there . . . and I wonder why I'm still packin' pregnancy pounds!?) Tyler made one more trip to Wal-Mart ("the whore of stores" he likes to call it) and to Sam's Club for the rest of the days' stuff. John and Abby and their girls were a huge help to get us all together and decorated (of course, "Presentation IS everything!") At 1pm the family started arriving with their family flags in tow and we lathered the kids in their sunscreen. I had gotten little foam coosies from Michael's Craft Store so each of the kids could decorate one with their names on them. That way throughout the day we didn't have to have a billion half-drunken cans of soda out with no owners around to finish them off. They were fabulous, if I do say so myself, and I'd like to give Uncle Chuck a little shout out for the idea. Plus, when it's a 110 degrees outside, the coosies did help to keep the drinks cool. The opening ceremonies were great (and short) as the families showed ofd their flags and marched into the back yard to the Olympic theme (which Tyler had downloaded from itunes.) Kenzie sang the National Anthem solo and then we headed out front for the games. Here's a quick review of the next few hours:

Cul-de-sac Dash: Brandon smoked his brothers. Tyler pled flip flop failure. Kenzie redeemed our family name by narrowly beating Conner (a 6 year old!). I raced and lost miserably to Mindie and Abby, but did not pee my pants or blacken my eyes with my ba-zoobs.

Balloon toss: Jared and Mindie, Kenzie and Abigail, and Brock and Andrew won gold for their respective age groups. The best part of that game was popping the water balloons on us as we were about melting 15 minutes into the Olympics.

*Retire to the back yard*

Golf game: Tyler set up his golf mat and the men chipped a plastic golf ball over the swimming pool (ideally) and then had to put it into the green. Lane, who showed up later in the afternoon competed and took gold there, and then later in the afternoon Tyler had the kids play a golf game where Lizzie and Hayden (a family sweep!) The women didn't really compete in that one because we had a hard time chipping it up in the air, but Abby finally did it and should have gotten another medal.

Duck Derby: This was a blast! I'd ordered 3 dozen patriotic rubber duckies and we let them loose in the pool. The object of the game was to collect the most ducks whilst floating in an innertube. Perhaps the best part was just watching the brothers tip out of the tiny tubes before finally wedging their fannies down in enough to not loose their balance. Brandon, Caylee, and I all won our race. Jared and Mindie went head-to-head which resulted in Jared tipping Mindie over, but when I asked Tyler if he wanted to play against me he couldn't because he was cramping! He had two cramps and had to sit out for a bit.

Watermelon Eating Contest: Okay. I have never done this before, but it was so fun! Who cares if you breath a little watermelon juice up the nose, it's sweet and sticky good times. Caylee and Brevin did me proud with their rip-roarin' munchin' and then Kenzie even competed. "I'll compete for a gold medal even if I don't like watermelon." Thatta girl! Brandon nuzzled the heck out of his piece beating me, Jared, and Grandpa Bruce.

Basketball: I didn't even know this was happening since Briggs finally woke from his super long nap. He was wonderful all day! Jared and Conner took the golds in that event.

. . . will finish later, Briggs needs to eat!