Backyard Olympians: Olympic Torch Chicken Wraps

Thatboy is REALLY not a sports person, except for some reason the Olympics.  He looooooves the Olympics and when they're on he basically doesn't sleep - just watches them for hours.

As you may or may not have heard, the Summer Olympics which would be happening right now, are not happening right now.

So we decided to have our very own Olympics, right here in our home. 

We divided the house into two "countries" and competitors from each country designed their flags which were hung on the Olympic grounds.

Since the weather was supposed to be exceptionally warm that day, we started with our Track and Field events.  Our first event was the 1k.

Each country picked an "anthem" and we held a medal ceremony after each event, playing the winning country's anthem.  Thatkid won the 1k, so he was awarded the gold medal. As a nice way to start the day, Thatbaby had earned a medal of his own.  By completing the 1k, he also completed the Trolls Virtual Kids race.  

Next up was the discus throw.  Which was easy enough to replicate with a frisbee.

And then came the javelin, a pool noodle subbed in for something pointier and more dangerous.

Since we didn't want a million running events, we subbed in some of those with more traditional races, like the 3 legged race.

And the egg/spoon relay

Next came the long jump

And we created our own hurdles by saving our weekly produce delivery boxes.

Our final event of the morning sounded good in theory, but didn't actually work out with a 5 year old.  We tried for "water balloon volleyball" which was tossing a water balloon back and forth between two towels, with each country holding one of the towels.  Unfortunately, both the tossing and catching proved to be a little much for Thatkid and we never got past the serve.

Since I didn't want to deal with an actual Olympic torch, I made a bunch for us to eat! 

After nap we were back at it with balloon tennis.  Each competitor got a tennis racket and a balloon and the one who kept their balloon in the air the longest won.

We had originally planned on using their bows and arrows for archery, but turns out Thatboy had thrown out all our targets, so I quickly improvised with water gun archery.  The boys had to shoot ping pong balls of golf tees with their water guns.  Thatbaby stole the show with this one.

Next up came the gymnastic events.  We began with rhythmic gymnastics where competitors from each country created and performed their own 30 second routine.

And then the balance beam - which was surprisingly one of the most challenging events.

We finished up with Olympic Ring tossing.

After the final medal ceremony, we headed inside for another Olympic torch snack.

We had a rather original closing ceremony.  Since it was so hot, we decided to end the day with a water fight between the two countries.

We retreated back to the Olympic village for some pulled pork sandwiches and Olympic onion rings.

I'll admit it was a hard to think up themed "Olympic" food when the Olympics are in your backyard.  It's not like I could just make food from the country where the Olympics were being held, although I did in the way with the pulled pork - totally a backyard food.  

Doing an internet search wasn't really all that helpful. . .until I happened across an article which mentioned that this "Blooming Quesadilla" looked like an Olympic Torch.  Bingo Ringo.  The idea is very simple - chicken, cheese, and taco sauce wrapped in a tortilla.  What makes it fun is that they're stacked and baked in a circular ring.

Olympic Torch Chicken Wraps (adapted from Tasty.co)

2 chicken breasts, cooked and shredded

1/2 onion, chopped

1/2 red bell pepper, chopped

1/2 cup taco sauce

10 flour tortillas

1 cup cheddar cheese, shredded

1 cup monterey jack cheese, shredded

1. Preheat oven to 375.  Combine chicken, onion, bell pepper, and taco sauce in a bowl.  
2. Cut each tortilla in half.
3. Add 2 Tbsp each of cheddar, monterey jack, and chicken to each half.  Roll the tortilla into cones, starting at the cut edge.  Create a ring with half of the tortilla cones, with the points in the center.  
4. Sprinkle half of the  remaining cheddar and monterey jack over the layer.  
5. Repeat with the second half of the cones to create a top layer, finishing with the rest of the cheese.
6. Bake 20 minutes, until the cheese has melted.