A beautiful day for a picnic

Sunday was the DIS Spring Picnic! Just before noon, the Hellesens and I loaded up the car with a picnic blanket, some games, and food (a meat dish for ourselves and a dish to share with others). It was a beautiful day and we arrived to find lots of other families already spread out on the lawn. The park that DIS had chosen was right on the shore, and we watched sailboats glide along the water as we set up camp. We happily accepted the free hotdogs that DIS provided, and then put out our dish on one of many long tables filled with breads, pastas, salads, and dips. We filled plates for ourselves and sat down to eat.

By the time we finished our meal, the whole lawn was filled with people! It was a very cool scene: the host families that DIS has recruited are an incredibly diverse group. There are families with very young kids, no kids, grown children, teenagers, grandparents, single parents, and everything in between.

Suddenly, a DIS staff person came over and announced that it was time for the games to begin (we hadn't even know there were going to be games, and as a pretty competitive family, the Hellesens were very excited)!

The first game was a two-part race: first a 3-legged race to one end of the field at which point you untied the rope binding you to your partner and did a wheelbarrow race back to the starting area. Mira and I teamed up! We were excited and confident until Lars and Kasper decided to also compete. Uh-oh. Helle came over and whispered, "You girls had better beat those boys!" Gulp. 

The whistle sounded and Mira and I ran off saying, "One. Two. One. Two." and taking giant steps. We suddenly realized the boys were nowhere to be found!

As we neared the half-way point of the race (where we were to untie our rope), we heard someone say, "Hey! You can't do that! That's cheating! You have to tie yourselves back together!" and suddenly saw Kasper and Lars bolt past us... each on his own set of legs! Their rope had come undone and rather than fix it, they just ran to the end. 

the boys get an unfair head-start on the wheelbarrow part of the race

Mira and I remained focused and began our wheelbarrow-walk!

If you look closely in this photo, you will see that Kasper is on the ground behind us! Even though they cheated to get a head start, the boys still couldn't keep it together!

The boys claim that they had such a hard time because they were laughing so hard, but I have to say that Mira and I were laughing pretty hard too! They were just no match for this team of sisters!

The next activity was limbo, which has always been a game I am very good at (remember, I am a "snake person") :-)

Go mira!! 

I was one of the last four people! Helle, who took these photos, told me soon after the activity was over, "That does NOT look healthy!"

But alas... I couldn't hold my ground! (please note how low that pole is in relation to the girls' hips!)

The funniest part of limbo was one of the other contestants during the second round. By the time we were down to the last 6 people, a large crowd gathered to see a 6 foot tall American student with a beer in his hand bend his way back again and again. He was one of the final four contestants! It was really AMAZING (and kind of freaky) to see him bend alllll the way backwards and shuffle under the pole. 

The final activity was perhaps my favorite! We were divided into 7 teams of five people and told to line up. The race involved standing single file and passing a medium-sized watermelon over and under our heads until we reached a table cloth, at which point we had to smash the watermelon and then eat it as fast as we could. My team was made up of Mira, two other DIS girls, and me... we were down a person and we were all girls (not to be sexist, but guys do tend to be better at competitions involving eating). I immediately realized we needed another person (preferably a boy) to be at all competitive in the game. As the girl running the game gave a countdown, I begged Kasper to come join us. At the last second he ran over, joined the back of the line, and we began!

Over... under... over... under.... 

 We got to the table cloth and Kasper SMASHED the watermelon... it broke through the plastic leaving shards of melon on the grass.

We were practically inhaling watermelon  

DONE! We called and an official came over to check. "You still have some red part of the melon left on the grass," she said. Before I could even object that it was unsanitary to eat off the grass, Kasper was shoving the melon into his mouth. I took a final bite... DEFINITELY DONE!....

Kasper, eating like a champ... I wish I could have shown you his face during this process. He looked like he was actually in physical pain.

VICTORIOUS! The winning team!!!

Kasper got the last cookie of the day as his prize for basically leading our team to victory. Overall, I was VERY proud of team Hellesen! In addition to wild success, I also haven't laughed so much in a longggg time!

Back home, Mira and I played Just Dance for a record 1 hour and 20 minutes (I cannot begin to tell you how sore I am today)! Then, as the sun was setting, we went outside to jump a bit on the trampoline and play with the dogs. 

Junior!

love this picture: our house, Junior in the yard, Mira and me on the trampoline

In closing I will add that today (Monday) has been a VERY up and down day... however an evening of watching Lars' soccer game, biking, and chasing sheep around a field in Ebjy with Mira, and now looking through these pictures and writing this post is helping me attempt to put things back in perspective. It hit me when I was picking which trampoline pictures to post here that life inevitably has its ups and downs (even in Denmark). ;-)