Opening and Closing

We started today with the opening of our new "Toy Box" series, and we closed with the Closing Ceremonies in Paris.  

This morning, we had a good service at KidPak, although there was a bit of a setback to begin with concerning cast members here or there.  it's been rough with sickness or sudden alternate plans, but after four re-writes of the script, we finally got our act together - literally - by the second service.  The first service featured our famous "Wisenheimer" invention asking the question, "What toy are you most like?"  The second service was a full cast sort of thing with Buzz, Woody, Jessie, Bo Peep, Rex, and those sheep Billy, Goat, and Gruff.  They did well, and the kids enjoyed not only the skit, but the games and the message of course.  Maddie took a lot of great photos of this morning's service, some of which I'll share below:

 

The rest of the day was a bit restful, and also the conclusion of the Olympics pretty much.  I mean, it was literally the last day of the Olympics in Paris, so there's that.  But we were watching some of the games that I had on my list to watch and hadn't gotten to yet.  One was a handball game where I learned how foursome the Danish are at handball.  It was a final game for the gold medal, and they obliterated their opponent, Germany.  The other thing we watched was something on Mom's list, some rhythmic gymnastics.  That was actually pretty cool to watch.

We were doing a bit of cleaning up today, although not as much because we were pretty tired from this morning - and I had a difficult night last night with sleep.  But Maddie and I played some LEGO Star Wars for a short while, and then we were watching the Closing Ceremonies, which were a marked improvement from the Opening Ceremonies.  

The bit about bringing the rings together was classic Olympic Ceremony stuff, with large groups of choreographed acrobats and dancers, plus huge props and lighting.  The rings were assembled by 'golems' from all over the world, all directed by this golden bug guy.  Of course, that would be the Philistine description of the creative portion.  More sensible and cultural individuals would talk about the dystopian world that existed before organized sport, and the subsequent gathering of like-minded individuals inspired to unify in enlightened peace through games.  Or something like that.  Anyway, it looked cool.  Then after there was the random concert with about three random songs, and then there was a Hollywood actor jumping off the top of the stadium with a chord, which led to an entire other long movie segment that introduced the next Olympics, which are in Los Angeles.  Oddly enough, it should be possible for us to go to that, which might be cool.  We'll see.  I remember the last Olympics in Los Angeles vividly, pretty much my first Summer Games memories.  I remember watching Mary Lou Retton jump on that vault the second time for a perfect score, and I remember Lionel Richie singing "All Night Long" for the Closing Ceremonies.  I remember the weird statues in front of the stadium, and I think there was a guy with a jet pack during the Opening Ceremonies.  Anyway, it was a fun early memory.  The Communists weren't there, so we picked up a lot more medals.  We'll never have a year like 1984 again.

Anyway, it was a good day today.  We read about a stormtrooper that escaped the Death Star II, a small short story from our "ROTJ" booklet.  And then we said our prayers - it was time for bed!  I'm pretty tired tonight, so let's get some sleep!