I didn't know he was Canadian!

The 2010 Olympic Winter Games began with the opening ceremonies on Friday night. This, of course, was the perfect excuse for me to throw a party! I love planning a party. I get really stressed out about them, but it usually turns out perfectly, and this soiree was no exception. We gathered all the Peeps, ordered pizza, and I baked the perfect international dessert: funfetti cupcakes! I had the perfect idea several weeks ago to bake a cupcake for every country with a team participating in the games. However, we were only going to have about 15 people at the party -- tops-- so there didn't seem to be any way that 84 cupcakes could be consumed in one night. I worried and stressed over what I was going to do all the way up until Friday morning, just before the Wal~Mart trip to get all of the supplies. Rob-Bob had the perfect idea: "let's make mini-cupcakes instead." Brilliance. So, we went to Wal~Mart to gather supplies, and then, because I was lucky enough to only have one class on Friday afternoon, I spent most of the morning and lunchtime baking and icing (with Rob's help, of course) 96 cupcakes. I'm not sure exactly what constitutes baking with wreckless abandon, but I'm pretty sure that qualifies.
Anyway, we'll skip all the craziness of getting all those baked goods to Your Dream Hometown, and run ahead to the perfect party. There were a dozen of us, counting the sweetest little boy in the world, 4 pizzas, and all those cupcakes. Here's the brilliance: They were iced in the 5 colors of the Olympic rings (red, green, blue, yellow, and black -- or chocolate, in this case) and 83 of them had tiny toothpick flags from all the participating countries. (Unfortunately, the USA flag was lost in the great move.)


The unexpected fun came when everyone began to wave the flags from the cupcakes they had eaten as their country's team was announced. This is Elijah proudly welcoming Finland to the 2010 Winter Olympic Games.


We talked about our favorite Olympic-themed movies, enjoyed the ceremonial performances, and most of all constantly commented on how many famous Canadians whose nationalities we were unaware of. We didn't enjoy Peter Pan and the virtual prairie. We were intrigued by the fiddling devil in the flying boat. We hadn't realized how popular tapping was in Canada. We were all horrified and appalled by the number of times they aired the video of the terrible accident which brought about the death of the Georgian luger, Nodar Kumaritashvili. Rob-Bob particularly enjoyed the video of the new version of "We Are the World." Everyone else at the party talked about their favorite artists from the original, but as I would not be born until 3 years after its release, I didn't take part in that discussion.
As you can all see, the party was double-cool with knobs, and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. It was too bad for poor Canada that the fancy structure that holds the cauldron failed to erect one of the pillars, and everyone had to stand around awkwardly and hope it would raise. The commentators did not help the situation, as they continued to talk about how "everything [had] gone off without a hitch. Until now." Fortunately, everyone was so excited about seeing The Great One bear the torch that his quick trip to the outside version of the cauldron (which was intact with its four pillars) made up for the mishap inside the arena. Besides, it's not like it was anywhere near the caliber of Dan Jansen's tragic crash at the 1988 Olympics (another event that I was not around for). Ellen didn't even cry about it. By the time the games are over, practically no one will remember it even happened. (Except these guys.)
This party went so well, that we're going to have another one for the Oscars in March. I'm ambitious, but I'm not stupid enough to believe that I could actually sculpt an Oscar out of cake and create some sort of icing that actually looks shiny and gold, so you'll just have to wait and see what kind of brilliance we come up with for that one. Until then, enjoy the games, and stay tuned for the many words I have to share on Student Teaching and job hunting.