Sink or Float?

Today, Mommy, Daddy and Madison set out with several supplies and attempted to create a boat that could transport marbles in it - many marbles.  We were at the library for this project, and were given some aluminum foil, popsicle sticks, modeling clay, straws and sponges.  The goal was to use these supplies to create something that would not only float, but would be able to carry a bit of weight to it.  So cue the A-Team theme music, as our team went to work.  What you see above is one of the end results - the sponges do float, but we learned that they needed to be covered with the aluminum foil so they would carry weight.  And the popsicle sticks helped with the structure, and also served as a flooring to support the eventual marble weight.  The straws... well, they float and all (with modeling clay plugging the holes on either end), but we thought they were largely more decorative than anything.  We used one to make a flag for our boat.

Just down the table from us, we faced competition from a fiercely competitive German team.  Style-wise, their boat was just a square.  No sponges, no straws.  Just a square using more aluminum foil than the amount initially provided.  These are the people that gave us BMWs, and they just have a square?  Of course, they went on to announce how their boat could sustain over a hundred marbles, which in fact it could.  We could have done that too, but our goal was less weight-carrying in motivation, and more about style.  After all, we have a cute little aluminum foil flag hoisted high.  It is for this reason alone that I have chosen to cheer for Argentina in this weekend's World Cup game.  Before this afternoon, I had no dog in that fight. Whatever that means.

Anyway, today was a busy day for us, believe it or not.  We went to the tire shop again to finish up work on the car.  This was Madison's first tire shop, which sounds like I'm making a bigger deal of it than necessary.  But she really wanted to see the tire shop for some reason.  I was thinking she may have assumed it resembled Luigi's Casa Della Tires.  This was probably a big let-down.

We went to Cracker Barrel today after this, mostly out of necessity.  We didn't think we'd be at the tire shop so long.  Fortunately, there is a Goodwill next door, where Madison and Mommy blissfully shopped for books and other items.  Daddy went over to visit, and was delighted to find something he's been looking for:  Carl Fredrickson's cane!  It doesn't have the tennis balls on it yet, but it will soon!  This cane looks similar to the one from the movie "Up," with the four feet at the bottom of the cane.  All I have to do is put a few tennis balls down there, and I'm halfway done with my Carl costume.  Best of all, the cane only cost $1.91.

ANYWAY, we moved on from there to the library, for our task of the day:  sinking or floating?  Yes, it floats.  We worked together on this one, and did well together.  By the way, today we went to the Sharon Forks library to pick up an audio book series for our upcoming trip.  That's the fourth Forsyth County Library we've been to so far this summer (there are only four).  It's amazing how big this county is, as this particular library is way down south from here.  We only went there today because it had the audio book, and we were on our way down to the tire place.  So it all worked out.

We're doing a lot of packing lately, getting ready for a week away.  It's going to be a great vacation - although we still have quite a bit to do for work.  That's tomorrow, which also happens to be ANOTHER big holiday.  Stay tuned to find out which...