The Maiden Voyage

I can't believe I didn't blog about this waaaay back in 2006! Probably because the girls were this age...



...in 2006. To be completely honest, those years are just a blur to me. I can't be held responsible for anything that happened between Sept 2003 and Sept 2007.



Anyway...back in March 2006 Bubba was in Kindergarten and we were introduced to our elementary school's tradition of The Transportation Parade. Every March the 6 year olds study about transportation. And every week after Spring Break they have a parade and all the 6 year olds wear a homemade mode of transportation and walk the halls of the building with the older kids watching and cheering them on. It's So! Much! Fun!



In theory.


Until the reality hits and you realize that before they can parade around in their homemade modes of transportation...you have to make a mode of transportation.



At home.



Because they don't sell these things at Target.



Or Walmart.



Trust me. I checked.



Here's what we came up with for Bubba...

...a four wheeler. He loved it and his dad loved helping him make it.

It was held together by copious amounts of duct tape and had real live working headlights. About half way through the parade one of the wheels fell off, and I made a note to myself that a few years down the road when we were doing this again for the girls, we needed to make sure we used something a bit sturdier than duct tape and pipe cleaners to construct the vehicle.

Fast forward a few years down the road to March 2010. The girls are 6 and have just finished studying transportation. And it's the week after Spring Break.

I spent the first 3 days of this week subbing, so in all of my spare time, we constructed the girls' mode of transportation. And despite having just come off a week long break from all things school, plus, having...like...4 years notice...The Transportation Parade kinda' snuck up on me.

It didn't take me long to realize that I didn't have time to make two vehicles. So I came up with the idea that we could make a sail boat and have them both ride in it. I ran the idea by Honey and he loved it. He just didn't think the girls would go for it.

But I had a plan. One night at dinner I pitched it to them...

"Let's make one sail boat for both of you to share! You can dress up in your new bathing suits, wear your sunglasses and flip flops, and one can drive the boat while the other gets pulled behind in a tube! That would be SO! CUTE!"

They were so distracted by the dressing up! and the sun glasses! and the new bathing suits! that they couldn't have cared less if they had to share with the whole class.

So every night this week we worked on the sail boat. And by last night we had the entire thing done except the sail. The sail was finished...

...we just couldn't figure out how to get it to stand up straight. We tried duct tape, but even that wouldn't hold it steady.

So Honey pulled out the big guns. Literally. See...he sells this stuff. This mega, super, industrial glue kinda' stuff. I don't really know the name of it. We just call it Dr. C. Anyway...it's made to glue concrete together and you apply it with a caulk gun.

And he applied that stuff to the sail...




...and it worked!

It wasn't pretty, but it dried to the touch in about 2 minutes. And after hitting the sail on the roof of the van 2 or 20 times loading it and unloading it, I can vouch for the Dr. C. That sail ain't going anywhere!

While we were waiting for the Dr. C to dry, Honey did a couple of small repairs on our kitchen floor.

I'm not even kidding.

And by the time we went to bed last night, the S.S. Drama Queen was ready for her maiden voyage.

The girls couldn't have been more excited!

All the kindergartners were corralled in the cafeteria waiting for the parade to start. It could have been chaos...but it wasn't. As excited as they all were, they held it together pretty well.

The girls had so much fun showing off their vehicle to all of the big kids.

And this time nothing fell apart. I know it's hard to believe that in the 20 whole minutes (Yes, it takes me longer to dry my hair than it takes all 120 Kindergartners to parade around in their homemade forms of transportation.) it took for the parade to start, walk and wave, and finish, nothing fell off, ripped, or broke. I guess the S.S. Drama Queen really is sea worthy. Even with the pipe cleaners, duct tape, and Dr. C.