On Sunday, it was announced that our Family Home Evening activity on Monday would be a paper boat-making contest. I didn't know how to make a paper boat, and I didn't want to be the dead weight of the team (or, if we were doing it individually, I didn't want to be the biggest loser, not to be confused with The Biggest Loser). So I spent much of my Monday morning searching the internet for instructions on making paper boats. I found many websites that had picture guides to making the standard paper boat, but I was hoping for something fancier, or something that would give me the edge.
Turns out I didn't need anything like that, because I couldn't even make the lousy standard paper boat. I gathered all the scratch paper I could find and made at least five attempts at a boat. All were unsuccessful. And they were all unsuccessful in different ways, so it wasn't just like I kept getting to step 17 and then blowing it. I asked everyone around me for help, but apparently, I'm not the only one that doesn't know how to make a paper boat. (At one point, I said to Big Tuna, "How fast do you think a wadded up ball of paper would float down a stream?" He thought this was very funny.) Eventually I got frustrated and found other things to do, accepting the fact that I wouldn't have much to contribute to the activity.
When we gathered for the activity, my group went up to my apartment for constructing of the ship, rather than sitting in the hot sun, in plain view of the opposing teams. We couldn't agree on a plan of action, which I knew would be our downfall if something didn't happen fast. Then an idea came to me in a stroke of brilliance. I presented it to the team. They loved it, and off we went.
When the race began, some boats tipped over, some became waterlogged and sank, and some drifted slowly around the stream. Ours however, cut through the water and raced to the finish in first place. We were so proud! I, the girl who'd entered the contest so downtrodden, left victorious with my head held high.
Turns out canoe-shaped Tupperware containers wrapped in foil float way better than boats made out of paper.
7 months ago
3 comments:
holy crap did you CHEAT???!!!?!?!?1/
Here's what happened: At the very outset, one of the girls in my group started to ask if we could use other materials besides what we were given, and I hushed her, saying, "If we don't ask, they can't say no." Former Incredibly Hot Home Teacher (who was the judge of the competition), heard me and agreed with me.
There were still two girls on my team who were huffy about the Tupperware and made their own paper boat "to use when we got disqualified." In an attempt to appease everyone, we tied their boat to our boat and called it a tug boat. Did I mention we also won the "Most Creative" award?
So, did we cheat? Tell me this: was it the lady or the tiger? Tell me that, and then I'll tell you if we cheated.
What a funny story!
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