Laundrylypmics

With seventy eleventy kids around this house, there's bound to be a lot of laundry. This particular week (which was actually last week, but since I didn't get around to posting it then, let's pretend it's this week) the house seemed overrun by laundry, both clean, and dirty. I spent what seemed like all of 2010 washing dirty laundry, and had a mountain range of clean laundry (I've named it the Arthuralian Mountains) that needed folding and put away. I knew I would have to come up with something good to get the kids to pitch in and help me without the screaming, whining, and various other torture techniques they usually use to try to get out of work. Since the Olympics were on, and they were enjoying them, I decided that we would do the Laundrylympics. As soon as I pitched the idea to them, they were full on ready to help, and with enthusiasm too! Hannah helped me come up with events, and I got started making medals (I know Cricut time usually counts as procrastination, but this time, it was a legitimate thing!). I had the kids make flags for their countries, and we started by having Opening Ceremonies. They marched in with their flags as I played the Olympic theme song on my ipod. We hung the flags on the wall, and we were off to our events.



Our first event was Downhill Dirty Laundry Sliding. They split into teams, boys versus girls, then piled up their dirty laundry at the top of the stairs. I decided that they'd have two runs each to slide down the stairs and see which team had the most dirty laundry at the bottom of the stairs at the end of the event. The boys hurled themselves down the stairs the fastest (and head first), but forgot to grab laundry on their way. The girls went feet first, slow, and got every single piece of laundry to the bottom. They won the gold medal for that event.



At their first medals ceremony, I let the winning team choose their Anthem. They were dancing to "Only You" (the Dance Dance Revolution version) as they celebrated their win.

They had to prepare for the next event by moving the laundry from the bottom of the stairs to the laundry room. Next up was the Speed Folding event. We started by sorting their clothes into piles, according to who they belonged to. The corrupt judges (aka Derek) started a timer, and they folded as fast as they could until time was up. Aaron and Hannah tied for gold in this event with Isaac grabbing silver, and Sarah with a bronze medal.

Aaron's anthem was "Fireflies" by Owl City. They sang along with this one.

For the third event, we had a Long Distance Speed Skating Delivery. Which is just a fancy way of saying putting the laundry away. In this event, they used a laundry basket to haul laundry from downstairs (where they folded) to their bedrooms. The corrupt judge made sure that they didn't leave any behind, and timed them to see who put all of theirs away the fastest.This is Aaron struggling in the middle of his race. This event had by far the most injuries. The corners they had to rush around were sharp, and they ran into them with their hands. The EMT's on site (aka Wendy) were very good at patching the athletes back up and sending them back out to their events.


Isaac won gold in this event, with Hannah bringing home the silver, and Sarah with bronze. I'm not sure if Aaron got the 'special' blue medal this time, or if he ran off mad because he didn't win.


Our last and final event was Sock Match Curling. You see that green tub behind the medals stand? We had two of those full of unmatched socks. We dumped them in a huge pile, and let them sort through and find as many matches as they could and then 'curl' them together. Aaron whined and whined throughout this event, thinking that everyone else was beating him, and somehow cheating. He ended up with the gold medal anyway.


Not sure why Isaac is wearing a tiara during this medals ceremony. He's Isaac. Not sure why he does most of what he does.

And finally, here are pictures of my decorated Olympians.
Thanks so much for your help kids!