Raingutter Regatta

I'm officially less than 48 hours away from getting my braces off! You don't even know how excited I am about that! I've apparently been thinking about it quite a bit the past few days because last night I had a dream that one of my brackets had come loose and I didn't realize it and when I went in to get them off, the orthodontist told me I was going to have to wear them for another month! I'm praying that dream doesn't come true!!!

We had Emma's Parent/Teacher conferences after school today. She is doing very well and we are so proud of her. She was just moved into the top reading group today, so that was exciting news.

Tonight we had our monthly Pack meeting. The Raingutter Regatta races were tonight, so that was exciting for the kids. Scott had searched on the internet yesterday for some "Raingutter Regatta tips". The tips told him not to use the boat as it was in it's original form, to make it into a catamaran by cutting it in half and turning the halves up on their sides. Our group made 2 boats, one as a catamaran and the other in the original shape. It also gave a pattern to alter the sail from it's original form as well. Our boats definitely sparked some interest amongst the other dens who had boats to race as well. One of the boys was asking Scott why we did that to our boat, and Scott told him that he had searched for tips on the internet and the boy replies, "That's cheating isn't it?" LOL! Scott assured him that there was no cheating involved.


Here's a picture of Scott and a few of our Scouts working on the catamaran.

Tyson is serious about this boat building stuff!

Gage takes his turn gluing on some bumpers. These were designed to keep the boat from getting caught up in the edge of the rain gutter.

Each of the kids took a turn spray painting the boat.

Cameron takes his turn as the rest watch and take notes.

Even Emma got a chance to spray the paint. Her little fingers weren't quite strong enough to push the nozzle AND point it in the right direction at the same time.

Tonight at the Pack meeting our entire den was awarded the Citizenship belt loop and pin. Here is Gage receiving his awards.

The kids had to do several things to qualify for this award. One of the requirements was to participate in some sort of community service project. Our Trick-or-Treat for Others to Eat event worked for that, and we also discussed recycling at one of our den meetings and the boys picked up trash in the neighborhood and took the items they collected to the recycling trailer not far from the school.

These are our den's 2 boats. The catamaran definitely created a stir as I think it won (or nearly won) every race that it was in. At the end of the races, Scott told Tyson that he could have the boat and boy did that ever upset Gage! Tyson was very excited to get it, and was such a sweetheart for offering it back to Gage because he didn't want him to be sad about it. We told Tyson that the boat was his and to not worry about Gage. Scott didn't talk to Gage about it before he did that, so I'm sure it was mostly because he wasn't expecting it. We are going to give the other boat to the other boy that helped build it in our den and Gage is okay with that. We talked about it and told him we could get another kit and build another one. We seem to have meltdowns at the end of each den meeting because they last until 8pm, which is way past bedtime. The kids are almost always in bed by 7pm, so they are always overly tired at the pack meetings since they don't even start until 7pm!

Here is Gage racing the catamaran.

Blow Gage, blow!!

Cameron is racing our 2nd boat. It didn't work quite as well as the catamaran did. The catamaran sat on top of the water more than the other boats, which helped it to go a little faster. Plus, the way we altered the sail, it caught more of the wind.

The boys in our den were very excited about how well our boats raced.



Emma and Brycen are racing our 2 boats against each other. I'm not quite sure who won the race in the end as it was very close! Emma was having a hard time getting enough air behind her sail since she wasn't quite tall enough to get right behind the boat.

Tyson racing the catamaran against our other boat again. Our neighbor, Erik, didn't have a boat so he borrowed ours to race. You can definitely see a difference in this race.

(Scott obviously doesn't realize that you can't turn the camera sideways when taking video, so I hope you don't get a kink in your neck from watching them!)