We are the proud parents of Olympians!

We arrived on time, and waited for the festivities to start. And waited and waited and waited. The girls were eventually told to go into the gym to get their tee-shirts on and get ready. Then we waited some more. Eventually one of the teachers came out to welcome us to the event. We were surprised to hear that this was the first time they had done an Olympiad at the school. It seemed so well organized, except for the waiting part, but hey, we're in France. Soon after the children came out wearing tee-shirts that were decorated with the country flag of "their" countries. All of the children in the school took part in the event. That means 3 classes of about 25 students each, organized into 10 teams. There were 5 groups made up of 2 teams, and each team in a group competed against the other team in the group. It seemed a little confusing at first, but was VERY well organized.
Miss M got to carry the flag for the United States. Can you find her? Once all of the children had paraded around the field, the torch bearer and Olympic flag bearer did their jobs.
Here they are - the Misses and part of their team. Miss M was very proud, and took her job very seriously.
Here are the Misses showing off their tee-shirts.
Here is Miss S getting ready to throw her bean bag during the first of the 5 events in which they would compete. That is Miss M with the number 7 on her back. In this event, the children threw the bean bags onto the mats. Their team helper (the lady in the red jacket) then recorded how far they threw it. I think each child had 3 tries.
The second event was a relay. The older kids did very well, but the younger kids were easily distracted. There were adults ready to help at every stage of the race though. The lady in this picture is the teaching assistant who is assigned to the Misses' classroom. They all did a good job, and had fun.
Team USA dominated in the tug-of-war. They won all 3 of the matches with no problem.
Here is Miss S showing that the running long jump is no problem for her. She landed perfectly with her two feet together just like she was supposed to.
Miss did just as well. They were the only two on their team who jumped like they were supposed to. The other kids all sort of ran across the mat. The grass was wet, and the mat was getting slippery, so the boys started landing on their bottoms to see how far they could slide. Not quite the point of the activity, but LOTS of fun!

Kicking came next. Unfortunately Miss M only hit one of her 3 tries, but she had fun trying.

Miss S knows she had a good shot with this one. I don't know whether to sign her up for soccer or dance or both!

After all of the sports activities were finished, the groups donned their decorations and did a dance for us. They all did so well. Miss S had been practicing at home, so we had an idea of what they were going to do, but it was so cool to see. Each group had arm bands with one of the colors of the Olympic rings. Team USA was in the group with the black bands. The dance was done in a set of 5 circles, and it was well rehearsed.

Here are the medals that were awarded at the end of the morning's festivities.

Team USA receiving their medals.

Proud girls with their new medals.

Look what we earned!

Every child received a medal, and our girls were so proud. They kept saying things like "I got a medal because I ran fast," or "I won a medal for doing a good job today." We are so proud of them. The past two years have presented all of us with all kinds of challenges, and here are my 2 children taking part in an event in a language that they didn't even know at this time in 2006. They have grown up in so many ways. At one point during the Olympiad, I was watching them concentrating on an activity, and saw the pleasure in their eyes when they succeeded, and I started to cry. How lucky I am to have them in my life!

And I know that they will never read this, but I want to thank the teachers. They put a lot of work into this event, and it showed. They made all of the flags as well as the torch, helped the kids make their tee-shirts, and practiced and practiced the dance and the games and the dance with the kids. I am sure that there is more that they did than I even realize. They have done so much for us to make the Misses' first year in a French school a success.