Kid Stuff: Good, Clean (And Not So Clean) Fun

My kids were supposed to participate in a very fun event, benefiting Cook Children's Hospital, called the "Dirty Scurry" - like the "Warrior Dash," but with kid-sized obstacles, all mud-related.  So enamored of this concept were we that we encouraged various and sundry family friends to participate, and a team was formed.

A team that we will not be joining, alas, because C was invited to join his school's Cardboard Boat Regatta Team.  When I signed the permission slip, I thought that the date of the event was familiar - evocative of a conflict.  And every time that I went to submit our Dirty Scurry registration, I hesitated, because in the back of my mind it seemed like we just might have something else going on on that date.  I didn't put two and two together until Monday - yup, same date, same time slot.  So, instead of getting really muddy and then getting hosed down and drenched, we're just going straight to drenched.

Or, you know, not.  I haven't seen the "vessel" yet.  Perhaps it is sea-worthy.  All I know is that C is one of four sixth-graders selected for the team and that he doesn't know a lot about the team's entry, on account of how the seventh- and eighth-graders engineer it and do most of the construction.  The sixth-graders are what you might call "ringers."  See, you have to have four team members on the boat . . . and, since statistically sixth-graders are more likely to be pre-pubescent and therefore more lightweight . . . you get the picture, don't you?  But C clarified that "Gracie and I weren't picked because we were small.  The other two were picked because they were small.  We were picked because we are resourceful and good at math."

And how does he know all of this?

"Because the team captain told us."

Gotta love smart kids - as a population, NOT the most tactful people on the planet.

So you were picked because you were resourceful and good at math?

"Yeah, because if things start to go wrong, we have to trouble-shoot and stuff."

So, basically, your job is to ACTUALLY REARRANGE DECK CHAIRS ON THE TITANIC?

"Pretty much, yeah."

Well, that's worth missing the Dirty Scurry right there.

I checked out the Web site for the Regatta, and it appears that there is a little brother-friendly competition, involving piloting pinebox-type wooden boats down a rain gutter.  Putting the bug in Spouse's ear that a trip to the Scout Shop for a catamaran kit may be in order.