There are 7 cousins in my kids’ generation level on my side of the family, ranging from age 8-22.  I count it as a tremendous blessing that I am close with all of them and they adore each other!  But that doesn’t come without effort.  Some of our best memories involved some prep work, but have proved immeasurably worth it in terms of family bonding.   There is no specific tie-in to “parenting with Scripture” here except to say that I’m thankful to be an aunt to these 5 amazing kids/young adults and take seriously the opportunity to pray often for them, engage them wherever there are in life, be available to them, create memory makers like Cousin Olympics, and love them no matter what!

So, what exactly is Cousin Olympics?  Every two years near the time of summer or winter Olympics, we plan our own crazy version called Cousin Olympics!  We started this before the youngest cousin was even born and it’s a hoot to go back and look at pictures and videos of the kiddos through the years.  They love laughing at whatever they were wearing, hair styles, etc. from the old photos!

Pictures speak louder than words so I’ll explain along with each snapshot…

The rings, podium, medals, and cupcakes were ideas from Family Fun Magazine.
http://www.parents.com/fun/parties/ideas/olympics-party-games-ideas/
My daughter (almost 10) made the score board.  Great hands-on activity for using rulers and math to figure out spacing for the chart.
The torch is just a white piece of cardstock rolled into a cone with flame colored tissue paper tucked inside (tape to secure).

We made our medals out of clay rather than the paper plate Family Fun version.

GAMES
These came from either Family Fun or Pinterest.
Though these did produce some fabulous Kodak moments, I’ll spare all the cousins the Internet embarrassment!
Ping Pong Precision Pitch –
http://www.parents.com/fun/parties/ideas/olympics-party-games-ideas/?page=2
Cheezy Toss –
http://www.parents.com/fun/parties/ideas/olympics-party-games-ideas/?page=3
Freestyle Shake-a-thon –
http://www.parents.com/fun/parties/ideas/olympics-party-games-ideas/?page=4
Stumps Tug-of-War –
http://familyfun.go.com/earth-day/earth-day-games/outdoor-games/stumps-tug-of-war-707891/
Shake That Head and M&M Smiley Face –
http://calebandshelley.blogspot.com/2011/01/new-years-minute-to-win-it.html
This Blows With Straws/Balloons –
http://happyhomefairy.com/2011/06/06/minute-to-win-it-games-for-summer-fun/

Scoring was tricky because the older four have a much easier time at most activities than the younger three kids.  One of our math-minded family members figured out a way to give a “handicap” and we ended up perfectly with the younger three getting the gold, silver, bronze, and the older four getting gold, silver, and a tie for bronze.  One of the teens pulled up the Olympic theme song on her iPod and had it playing while they took their places on the podium for pictures!  Yes, this is totally cheezy for the older ones but they still are great sports about it because it’s part of our family tradition.  After our evening ended, I love that a couple of them posted on Facebook, “You never outgrow Cousin Olympics!”