{"id":10327,"date":"2013-04-06T21:08:27","date_gmt":"2013-04-07T02:08:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/familyblog.datdec.com\/?p=10327"},"modified":"2013-04-06T21:17:45","modified_gmt":"2013-04-07T02:17:45","slug":"cardboard-boats-and-birthday-cakes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/familyblog.datdec.com\/?p=10327","title":{"rendered":"Cardboard boats and birthday cakes"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today Eve is 6 years and 6 days and we are officially done celebrating this birthday! <\/p>\n

We had a fun and exhausting day today. I was talked into entering a cardboard box boat competition at the aquatic center. It was part of their annual Spring Fling to celebrate their 4th anniversary. It sounded like fun and I hoped the kids would enjoy it. We got to the aquatic center at 9am and were given a plastic garbage bag, a box cutter, scissors, packing tape, and a long list of rules. Oh, and plenty of cardboard boxes! Off and on over the next few hours we built a cardboard boat! We took breaks for snacks and for rubber duck racing. <\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>

The whole project wasn’t quite as exciting for the kids as I was hoping. They did a lot of waiting around while engineer daddy did his engineering.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Trying<\/a>

Trying the boat on for size.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Measuring\"<\/a>

They didn’t provide us with any measuring devices (and we weren’t allowed to bring anything of our own!) so we did the best we could. Fortunately Eve just had her well child visit and we knew just how many inches tall she is!<\/p><\/div>\n

\"ducks\"<\/a>

As usual I didn’t know the schedule of events, so the kids had about one minute to decorate their ducks before the big race!<\/p><\/div>\n

\"duck<\/a>

There were lots of ducks racing so they did them in groups. Lex and Eve’s ducks were in the final group. We had no winners in our family.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"boats\"<\/a>

The boat is coming along nicely.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"cake\"<\/a>

First cake of the day. They had three different cakes, so Alan and both kids got a piece and we all shared.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"sides\"<\/a>

We decided to give our boat higher sides. Alan did some calculations about displacing water and such and the short sides were a little too short for comfort.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"decorating\"<\/a>

Now, for the moment she’s been waiting for, time to decorate!<\/p><\/div>\n

\"instructions\"<\/a>

Look how closely they are paying to Alan’s attempt at giving them rowing instructions. It was loud and busy in there. We were all tired by this point!<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Smiley<\/a>

Smiley kids.<\/p><\/div>\n

After we got the boat done we had about 45 minutes left until race time, so Alan and the kids changed into bathing suits and went swimming. I stayed dry. I don’t enjoy swimming when it’s so crowded. <\/p>\n

\"final<\/a>

Suited up and ready for a dry run.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"race\"<\/a>

Listening for final instructions.<\/p><\/div>\n