The Olympic opening ceremony is tonight!

Who is excited? I am soooo excited. This will be the first year our son (6) will "get" the whole Olympic "thing." We have been making Olympic themed crafts and he keeps asking how many more days till Friday. Well it's FRIDAY!!!! And we here at MAD have a few more fun Olympic ideas to share with you to make the opening ceremony that much more exciting!

The opening ceremony can get a bit boring after awhile for smaller children so why not give them this super cool Olympic Bingo from Thirty Handmade Days. And while you watch you will need refreshment of course. So why not whip up some of these popcorn torches and ring cookies!

These torches are so easy to make! Simply roll up a paper plate and wrap tin foil around it. Next line the inside with red tissue paper and fill with popcorn. Our Fun Tester has already eaten a torch full today and can't wait to refill it to watch the Olympics.






Now on to our next event, Olympic rings made from cookies. We just bought a package of round cookies, mixed up food color and frosting and there you have it, yummy Olympic rings! Now before you call foul, I know the first ring in the top row is black, BUT food color does not mix to make black and I was not about to run to the store to buy a small expensive tube of black frosting. Yes, I am cheap and thankfully the Fun Tester didn't mind a little improvising.

I don't know who is more excited about it getting to 7:30pm, the Fun Tester or me! All I know is we are going to have a great time together!

Olympic Medals Craft

What Olympics is complete without medals!?!? So today we made our own out of things we had and so can you. Use your imagination and use things you already have at home. No glitter? Use crayons. No yarn, use a shoe string. Ask your children to find things to make the medals out of and you might be surprised how creative they can be! Here is how we did ours....

First you need something round for the medal. We used lids from baby formula cans, but you could use paper plates or lids from play-doh cans.

After using a hole punch to make our holes we added a little glue and glitter. They're medals so they had to shine! We had some plastic numbers that we covered in glitter and glued on for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd. A quick piece of yarn and our medals are ready for awarding!

Olympic giveaway

Here is your chance to win some Olympic swag from She Scribes. One winner will receive everything pictured which includes:

• 2012 Olympics NBC Duel Flags Pin
• Trophy Cap
• 2012 Olympics Team USA Backpack
• ¾ Sleeve Raglan T-Shirt
• Olympic Calendar

How neat is this! So pop over to the She Scribes blog and enter for your chance to win!

Hold your own animal olympics

This summer the Olympic Games are once again being held. Why not get in on the action by holding you own animal olympics! No I don't mean actually make your guinea pig lift weights, I mean learn about animals and try competing using their skills!

Can you walk like a bear? Can you leap like a frog? This is a great way to get kids physically active and have some fun! So check out the Animal Olympics and go for the gold!

Olympic rings craft

Designed in 1912, when the present day Olympics were established, the Olympic rings represent the five parts of the world who support the Olympics. The colors blue, black, red, yellow, green on a white background representing all the colors on the flags of the supporting nations (at that time).

Who can celebrate the Olympics without rings?!? So here is our version of the rings done with pipe cleaners.

Now just tape them to the wall to get ready for the opening ceremony on Friday night!

Olympic torch craft

Before the Olympics can begin, there has to be the running (or in the case of our youngest Fun Tester, the sitting) of the torch!

The torch is a tradition started at the Berlin Olympics in 1936.  The torch is lit at the site of the Ancient Olympics – Olympia (Greece) and relayed to the site of the current Olympics over the course of several months.

The torch is carried by athletes, politicians and ordinary people. In fact, we here at MAD are proud to be related to one torch bearer, my uncle Mr Scienski.

Now it is time for you to grab a paper towel tube and wrap it in tinfoil. Stuff some tissue paper in the end and you have your very own torch. Now, make the kids run around the block in honor of the Olympics (and maybe even wear the out for bedtime.)

The Olympics are almost here!

The 2012 Olympics in London are just days away! Who is excited? I am so excited this year to share the Olympics with my son who is 6 and will be able to understand it all.

We started out by checking out the Official London 2012 Olympics site. The site has a count down clock which helps add to the excitement of it all! You can even watch the torch relay live! I personally love the opening ceremony and can't wait 4 more days.

Some of the other nice features on this site are the sports and countries sections so you can see what is going on and learn about who is participating. And of course the best part is the schedules and results section so you can keep track of who is winning what!

Hold your own animal olympics

This summer the Olympic Games are once again being held. Why not get in on the action by holding you own animal olympics! No I don't mean actually make your guinea pig lift weights, I mean learn about animals and try competing using their skills!

Can you walk like a bear? Can you leap like a frog? This is a great way to get kids physically active and have some fun! So check out the Animal Olympics and go for the gold!