Zucchini Boats

***Confession: I am copying this post from my sisters' blog because I'm too lazy to write it myself but I want to blog about it. Thanks Shian and Robyn. Ü ***

This summer, my nephew Gavin saw kids racing zucchini boats at the park. He thought it looked like fun. He knows my mom has lots of zucchinis in the late summer, so he mentioned it to her. This is a genius idea! The weekend after Robyn and Gordon moved back was the perfect time because all of my family was together. After making a big mess of the kitchen from cleaning out zucchinis and gathering sticks and paper to decorate them, we had four very different designs.

here's the line-up



Ship Crafters:

Gavin and Chris


Tara


Mom


Gordon, Robyn, and Baby


We found a ditch down the road that was full of water to race them.
LET THE RACES BEGIN!


Mom got distracted by a phone call and didn't have time to make hers as fancy as she planned but the lack of decoration proved to be in her favor as she won the first round. Then we had more rounds with a bit more lenient (ok, much more lenient) rules. Some of the boats preferred to float upside down, or be mostly submerged with one end barely above the water (that was mine Ü). As long as any part was still above water that boat could participate in the race. Those rules helped some stay in much longer.

Robyn fell in trying to launch hers on one of the re-do races (I think Baby just wanted a closer look Ü)


Addy is giving Gordon a piece of her cute little mind!


Gavin wore his pirate costume for the event. He and Chris made a boat together. Gav made the flag to look exactly like Blackbeard's pirate flag. However, it floated much better without the flag. The weight from it made the boat fall on its side.
Mom's boat was the absolute winner. She didn't get a drop of water on deck! Apparently less really is more, even when it comes to zucchini boats.


Tom and Shian played with Spencer and Addy instead of creating a boat, but they'll be making one next year. Clif and Camey had to pack up while we were getting ready but they did get to come watch and I expect they'll be making some next year, too. Dad cheered us all on and took pictures. Everyone laughed so hard and enjoyed it so much, we decided to start a new late summer tradition.

And then when we got home there was a stray cow wandering around my parent's yard... random.