Weekend Full of Fun

This was one of those weekends that had to be carefully choreographed to make sure that everything happened with the right people at the right times. Friday evening Kurt took the girls to a father daughter dance at school and Ryan and I had cookie duty. We went to pick up our first re-order and then got ice cream on the way home. The girls all danced their hearts out and were all very excited to wear pretty dresses and real flower corsages!

This is Sydney with some of her class mates. Kurt thought it was too funny that their were 5 girls at the dance all wearing the same dress. (I wonder if they all got theirs off the clearance rack at Kohl's?)

Saturday morning was supposed to be the beginning of cookie booths,but my girls all seemed to have other plans. I ended up cancelling it, because everyone else seemed to be fully booked as well. Most of our day was devoted to the Odyssey of the Mind competition.

This is our team. Their task was to build a balsa wood structure to hold as much weight as possible. Then the team created "shockwaves" by pulling spacers out so the weights slammed down on the structure. While this was going on, they were performing a skit that was supposed to tie into what was happening with the structure.

.The kids chose a dinosaur theme and made their own costumes out of green clothes, cardboard, spray paint, and lots of bungee chords. The boys danced around being dinosaurs and going extinct while the girls handled the weights and spacers. Then the judges quizzed them and talked to them about the structure and the skit. They are all very into making sure the kids did all their own work and ask lots of process questions to make sure the kids know what is going on.

They performed in the morning and then returned in the afternoon for a spontaneous problem, where they had to turn one of the team members into a monster using common household items. We were lucky enough that the venue was just a few miles from home, so we came back and rested between events.

The evening brought the awards ceremony. Most of the team made it back, but Anna decided to skip the awards to go to a sleepover birthday party.

I think Kurt was very hopeful that the team would score well enough to feel good about what they did, but not well enough to go onto the next level. We were all surprised (pleased?) that the team took second place in their division and qualified for the state competition!! The kids are all pretty excited to have a chance to add to their skit and build an even stronger structure to hold lots more weight. Ryan is cooking up some scheme about making a city out of empty Girl Scout Cookie boxes.

Sunday brought Girl Scout Cookie Booths! We signed up to stand outside a local 7-11 and try to hawk cookies for two hours. Things went fairly smoothly for that, although the business seems to be slower than in years past. The weather was lovely, not too hot or too cold. I was especially happy about our timing when the rain hit just as we arrived home after our shift.

Then this afternoon, Kurt went to pick his mom up from the airport so that we can leave tomorrow for our cruise! We're leaving the computer here, so I'll be completely cut off for the next few days. I hope everyone out there is healthy and safe, I'll check back in a the end of the week.