___: Raingutter Regatta

Last night I had a baby shower to go to, so Michael took all 5 boys to Kolby's cub scout pack meeting. It was a special pack meeting because Kolby had his first ever "raingutter regatta" (like the pinewood derby, but with racing boats instead of cars). Kolby had fun spray painting his boat all by himself over the weekend (Does this color scheme look familiar? He used the leftover orange, yellow, and bronze spray paint from the Thanksgiving decorations I've been making), and he named his boat "Fire Eater" after a character in a book we've been reading.

Kolby got the little kit for his boat from his cub scout leader, and it was sitting on the counter by my bedroom door waiting for him to put it together. Apparently one of Kolby's little brothers took the pieces out of the box and stuck the boat together, but that wasn't too big of a deal since it was just the base, the stick that holds up the sail, and the sail. Anyway, it was already assembled, so all Kolby had to do was paint the boat.

Unfortunately, Michael told me after they got home last night that Kolby's boat was missing two little pieces that stick to the bottom and act as ruters or weights to keep the boat from tipping. (I guess those pieces were probably in the box, but since one of Kolby's little brothers got into it we didn't know anything was missing). Oops. Luckily Kolby's scout leader had extra pieces and they hurried to add them before the boat races. But another thing that Michael found out that we didn't know about was that people usually add a little glue at the edges of the sail so it doesn't just spin around when the kids try to blow the sails during the race. And I guess there wasn't any way to do that there. (I had thought to add glue to the bottom of the stick where it attaches to the boat, but unfortunately hadn't thought to add glue to the sail).

Luckily, Michael said Kolby was a really good sport about it. Poor first child, having to live through his parents' mistakes, first with the pinewood derby car that was one of the slowest on the track, and now with an incomplete raingutter regatta boat. :) Oh well, I guess we'll know better for next year. At least Michael said that all the boys took turns racing against each other, so it sounds like it was still lots of fun for them. And Kolby sure was proud of his painting job on that little boat. I guess that's what's important.