The End of an Era--15 Years.

Today is an historic day-- the last Silverstein Family Pentathlon, running annually on or near MLK Day for 15 years. It started out back in 1996 as an article Mark read in Family Fun Magazine: five games, five snacks, special rules. Mark decided to play the five games that first year with the two kids because I was going to be gone all day at school at a special rehearsal for the musical, building sets and making costumes. Evey turned out to be the big winner that year, and the winner gets to pick a restaurant for dinner at some future date. Evey, age 11, picked pizza and ice cream for the dinner. Over the years, Evey won 3 times; Lowell won twice; Mark won 3 times; my step-sister Cindy won once; and I have been the big winner overall with FIVE wins, including last year. So far only Evey has won two years in a row, back in 2003 and 2004. Maybe I'll tie that record with a win this afternoon.

At the first game in 1996, there were just three players: Mark, Evey, and Lowell. For the next 10 years, it was the four Silversteins. Beginning in 2007, we had to get more creative. At that point Evey and Lowell were no longer available or interested in playing, so in 2007, Mark and I invited 11 year old Emily, the daughter of friends, to play with us because they needed a baby-sitter that particular day. So it was back to just three players that year. The next year, we extended the invitation to my step-sister Cindy and my sister-in-law Denise. That was a great year, and Cindy won! Last year, for the first time ever, we had so many people asking to play that we had to expand to two tables of games. At one table was Mark, Denise, my nephew Logan, and Denise's neighbor Ava. At the other table was Emily, now aged 13, Cindy, her boyfriend Ken, and me. Each table declared a winner and the overall winner, ME, had the most grand total points of all 8 people. It was great.

This year, Mark was hoping the whole thing would just go away. He's very much finished with the Pentathlon, but I wasn't and neither were some of the others. In fact Cindy and Ken started asking about it back in December! So we have recruited 8 participants for today: Cindy, Ken, Denise, Logan, Mark, me, and new-to-the-games, our good friends Saul and Phyllis. Still, I have conceded to Mark that this will be the last one. If our plans work out, we should be living in a new house in Poinciana, Florida by this time next year. At that point the pentathlon will become a thing of the past.

Each player gets to assume a persona and mascot, much like professional wrestlers. Both Mark and Lowell were into wrestling over the years, so maybe that's how it got started. Mascots and names are definitely not in the original rules. Mark has been "Snake" for the last 15 years and brings a stuffed snake to the table. Evey was "Cat Princess." Lowell was "Air IBC," and I have always been "Mad Dog Mom." When Cindy came the first time, she announced she would be the "Queen of Scotland," so she wore a crown from Medieval Times. Denise brought her favorite rubber bat and played as "Batty." We create a special score sheet with drawings of these mascots at the top along with the names. I have even saved all these score sheets in the bag with the games. I can't wait to hear what the mascots will be for the other players today. Logan and Ken are returning this year, but the mascot thing caught them unawares last year, so I think they might be bringing a new persona this year. I warned Saul and Phyllis last night to come prepared!

The games are Dice, Dominoes, Pick-Up Sticks, Monopoly, and Scrabble. Each game has special rules, time limits, and scoring. The winner of any individual game may not be the big winner overall; scores are tallied at the end for a grand total. In fact, the first year when Evey won, she had not won a single individual game, yet she had the highest grand total at the end.

More importantly, each game comes with special snacks to match. Dice has sugar cubes in tea. The sugar cubes are often decorated with food coloring dots to look like dice, but lately we have skipped that part. Dominoes is played while eating graham crackers covered in peanut butter with chocolate chips arranged on them to look like dominoes. This is often everyone's favorite snack. Pick-Up Sticks uses stick-shaped items like Pixie Stix, Twizzlers, and Pretzel Sticks. During Monopoly we eat chocolate gold coins. Scrabble includes a trail mix type snack bowl with M&M's, Cheerios, Peanuts, Raisins, and Gummy Alphabet letters in the initials of all the participants. This letter-filled snack bowl used to look better when there was still Alpha-Bits cereal on the market. We're not sure why it is gone, but Cheerios have become our substitute.

Last year I was already on my diet at this time. It's been a year! Wow! I looked back at the food log and noticed that I ate 1,100 calories of snack foods during the game plus three meals. Hm...it was definitely not a low-calorie day. At this point I have already consumed a breakfast of 350 calories. Dinner will be a Hungry Girl French Toast recipe with green beans, about 400 calories. So even without a lunch, my day will easily have 1750 calories in it, mostly snacks. Oh, well...it's the last of the Silverstein Family Pentathlons. I'm just going to relax, enjoy myself, and try my best to be the winner two years in a row! Go Mad Dog Mom!!