A Gold Medal Evening

So tonight brought an event that has been talked about in our home for quite some time now - the Opening Ceremonies of the 2008 Summer Olympics - and more specifically, the parade of nations with yes, you guessed it, flags from every nation. T has been seeing Olympic commercials for a couple of weeks now and always spots the flags in them. When we told him that the Olympics would start with a great big party that would have flags from every county, he could hardly contain his excitement. "Let's do it!" was often his response when talk about the event would occur.

However, before this international party could start, we had a party of a different kind to attend, that being the annual Summer Splash carnival at our church. This great event is not only a chance for the congregation of our church to have some fun together, but more importantly, it's a chance for us to reach out to the neighbors surrounding our church and offer them a chance for some great family fun, as well as catch a glimpse of what we are all about at Oak Hill. After eating some carnival food for supper, T and I enjoyed watching an Olympic-themed skit put on by Michael and some of our youth. The rest of his evening was spent playing a variety of games, with specific highlights including the cake walk (we won a plate of tasty cupcakes), a fishing game, a bean bag toss,
and a giant jumping house.On a sugar high with a bag full of treats and prizes clutched in his little fist, T lasted until the final moments of the carnival. Then, upon our return home, he was given the privilege of staying up late and watching part of the Opening Ceremonies. We first watched a bit of the artistic portion of the show (the lights, fireworks and drums were a big hit with T) but then fast forwarded through to the start of the Parade of Nations. T was totally in his element. He could hardly contain himself. At the sight of each flag, he would either shout out the name of the country (if it was one in his repertoire) or he would quickly ask, "What country is that?" Here's a list of the countries he accurately labeled so far - keep in mind, he was only able to watch about half of the parade before we had to call it quits, lest he turn into a pumpkin: Greece, Malta, Macedonia, Malaysia, China, Jamaica, Israel, Japan, Denmark, Barbados, Brazil, Panama, Cuba, Nepal, Canada, Djibouti, Spain, Dominican Republic, Dominica, Iceland, Finland and Belize.

This is the reaction we got when we told T it was time for bed.However, I am quite certain that he will not let us forget that we promised that he could finish watching the flag parade tomorrow :)