Olympics Opening Ceremony

I am a self-professed Olympic nerd. It was a Phillips family 'thing' to watch the Olympics--we all enjoyed watching different sports, following our favorites, keeping up with medal tallys and such.  We moved to the Atlanta area in the fall of 1995, and one of the most exciting parts of the move was the ability to witness the 1996 Olympics up close and personal!! We attended a couple of different events, and those are memories I will keep forever. All that to say, I love the Olympics. I watch WAY more television when the Olympics are on than the rest of the year. This year, I am especially excited to introduce my children to the wonder of the Olympics. Georgia and Baxter spent a week at a local rec camp where they used the Olympic rings as part of their 'signage', so they recognized those. I have been showing them clips of gymnastics and swimming gearing up for this evening, the Opening Ceremonies!

First, we had new clothes to support both USA and the host country!

As a special treat, I made "Olympic Ring Fruit Pizza"--used store-bought cookie dough as the base, whipped topping/cream cheese/powdered sugar frosting, and a variety of fruit for the rings. It was delicious, and the kids loved it (Nathan and I did as well :-)

 The yellow ring is supposed to be pineapple tidbits, but I forgot those, so I used banana and a little yellow food coloring ;-) See original recipe here.

I have my own Olympic t-shirt! Gap has released "vintage" Olympic t-shirts this year; mine has the logo of the Los Angeles Olympics in 1984, which is the first Olympics I remember! I'm so excited about this shirt. I have a problem...

The kids were excited to dig into the pizza, each asking for a different fruit!

Brief aside: I am a HUGE Michael Phelps, and have been since I saw him during the opening ceremonies of the 2004 Olympic games, and was struck by how much he looks like my brother. His first event--in fact, one of the first big events of these Olympics--is tomorrow, the 400m individual medley. Very exciting! 

Photo source: www.michaelphelps.com