Monday, August 8, 2016

Olympic Fest

Let the Games Begin!!!

On Friday, the 2016 Olympics in Rio began.   To celebrate this, the Julius family got together.  We started this trend accidentally back in 2008 when the Olympics were being held in Beijing.  We got together for a slumber party and to watch the Opening Ceremonies. The kids were small and it was only Chris and Emily.  So we ordered some Chinese, and watched the Opening Ceremonies.  Chris was small enough to sleep in a pack-n-play in their spare room.  Eric and Mike crashed before the Parade was over, while Kathleen and I watched the whole thing.  And a Tradition was born.


The morning of the Opening Ceremonies, I did my toes.  
Jamberry recently released some Olympic themed Jams, like this Rio Vibes, that also donated with each purchase to pay for Olympic women to get to Rio.  I was down with supporting that.  So I did.  

Then we had to figure out what Brazilian fare we were going to eat.  I decided that rather than try to duplicate some of the amazing Brazilian meat dishes, we should just go have lunch at Fogo de Chao.  
I love that place.  We have taken the boys a couple times.  But this time they were in school, so Chris and Sam had to miss out.   


We chose to go to Fogo with the kids that were available, minus the three oldest.   
So we have Sarah, Jacob, Kristin, and John.  


Here's our whole crew by the map of Brazil, or Brasil.  
We had a lot of time for photos, as the restaurant took over 50 minutes to seat us.  And that was With a reservation.  Eric had a meeting at 2, we'd booked for 12.  At 1 they sat us down.  We complained.  A lot.  

I didn't think to get any pictures of our piles of meat as we ate.  I guess we were just too hungry. 


In exchange for our trouble, they brought us free desserts.   
That was nice.  I love the Papaya Cream.  One waiter told us the papaya has some magic enzymes that help to break down the protein so we don't feel the bloat or discomfort.  I tried not getting the papaya once... I was miserable all the way home.  I eat it every time now.  This time Eric only got a chance for about 2 bites, before he had to go to his meeting.  Though Fogo took another 30 minutes to get our bill. It was the first time I seriously considered walking out on my bill at a nice restaurant.  Like Seriously Considered it.  Since we'd picked up Eric, he opted to call in to his meeting from the quiet of the car while we finished dessert and checked out.  They took So Long, that Eric was done with his meeting and picked us up out front by the time we got all checked out.  We should have left.  

How sad is that?!  It took us almost 3 hours, to eat at a buffet.  A good buffet, but still.  We won't be back at lunchtime, the service was Terrible.  


Meanwhile, when I got home, I prepared for our Party. 
For each of our Olympic Parties, we try to drink a Festive beverage from that country.   For example, when the Olympics were in Vancouver, we learned that they provide cranberries for Ocean Spray, so we drank Cranberry juice, as well as ginger ale, and Crown Royal, all Canadian beverages.  But Brazil took a bit more research.  They like fruit, and juice, and sugar, and all the permutations therein. We learned that their national drink is called the Caipirinha.  It is a lime beverage that uses an alcohol called Cachaca.  Cachaca is distilled from sugar cane, much like rum, but rum is sugar cane cooked into molasses first.  Cachaca is a fermented distilled straight sugar cane beverage.  And it will put hair on your chest!   


                             Sooo Mommy made Caipirinhas.  Very Limey, very refreshing.  
I found they needed a lot of ice.   The Cachaca was too strong straight up for me.  Eric thought they just needed a lot of stirring. 


One of the other things we made were Brazilian chocolate truffles known as Brigadieros.
These fabulous little carmelized chocolate balls are made with mostly cocoa powder and sweetened condensed milk.  It turns out Brazilians love sweetened condensed milk, they put it in all kinds of things.  


My Sam helped me roll up the Brigadieros. 
Since the colors of the Brazilian flag are blue, green, and yellow, I thought he'd have a great time rolling in sprinkles with me.  We chose to go with those sprinkle colors because all of them have no Red 40, which means they are just fine for my Sams!


The final product.  
It's not as fancy as pinterest, but they were really tasty.  
They were a big hit with the kids.  And the perfect sweet break for all the limey tartness we were having, and cheesy bread that we were enjoying for supper.  



The other drink I made was Brazilian Lemonade.  
I found a recipe online.  Turns out Brazilian Lemonade has no Lemons!  
It's Limes and Sugar.  Literally. They love them some Limes and Sugar! 
And sweetened condensed milk. 
It's pureed sliced limes with sugar water, and sweetened condensed milk.  It's so Refreshing!
When Eric tasted it, he said, "It tastes like liquid lime sherbet."  
It really did.  



We got right down to business with Olympic Opening Ceremonies as soon as it got started.   
6 kids, and all kinds of crazy!


My three patriotic sweetboys.  
The Opening Ceremonies started before I remembered to take pictures.  
So, as is usually the case with my sweetboys, if there's a screen, they won't look at me. 


I found these great Carnivale style flowers on sale, and picked one up for every child. 
The kids thought they made great swords.  Doesn't everything?


During a break of the Parade of Nations, we held our own Parade.  


Emily and I rock our festive Olympic nails!
Jamberry had some really cute Olympic themed nails. Even Chris put some on  his toes.  


Sarah didn't make it through the Parade of Nations. 
Kathleen was still awake, but she was having a hard time with a sweet little hotbox on her. 


Eric didn't make it through the Opening Ceremonies.  
His snoring was a only a bit disruptive though, not as bad as usual. 


Oh, and Jose Carioca is from Rio.  He's a Disney Character from Saludos Amigos.  
Though anyone from Rio is a Carioca. 
Kathleen and I wore this shirt the next day. 
We'll be supporting our Olympians and the Cariocas for the next two and a half weeks! 

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