Thursday, May 31, 2007
Sometimes in life you discover really great things. Know what I discovered today that just about makes my happy bubble burst? I can blog outside in the backyard on our swing while the kids swim and slip and slide and swing and the babies roll happily all over the grass and mud. And once the fence is in, I don't even have to worry about Caleb deciding he'd rather go throw rocks in the storm drain across the street or throw himself in front of oncoming traffic. Nope. . . I can just sit outside in the fresh air and sunshine while the kids frolic and play and blog til my heart's content. And that is a most wonderful discovery indeed.
Anyway, for those of you who don't know, Mark and I were called as the Activities Committee a few months ago. We held our first successful event in March when we threw a Sock Hop. Then we had a fabulous first potluck and had a pretty good turn out for that too. But on Memorial Day we held our first ever Ward Potato Derby and had by far, the greatest turn out of all. In fact, so many people came and so many of them had such a good time that I've heard people want it to be an anual event. We shall see.
 
The greatest thing of all was that it was a cinch to put together. Of course, we have Darlene (another one of my secret weapons) and she had already purchased all of the wheels (Pinewood Derby wheels) for the cars but there wasn't a whole lot more involved. I found this great place online that sells all kinds of checkered racing gear for cheap. And we hit Costco for giant potatoes and lots of ground beef and buns for Sloppy Joes and that about did it. Mark had to do a minor repair on the Pinewood Derby track and hit Party City for a few more decorations but that was it. We had the whole place set up in less than an hour, had members help make the Sloppy Joes, assigned each family to bring a side dish to share and a knife to cut their potatoes and the rest took care of itself.
 
Families were so creative with their cars. We had Mr. Potato Head accessories, toothpicks, aluminum foil, vegetables, flags, brads and gumballs. We had pig cars, Darth Vader cars and just plain old potato cars. We had fast cars, slow cars and some cars that never made it to the finish line. We had cars that fell apart and crashed into everyone else's cars and cars that would have given the Pinewood Derby cars a run for their money. Even the teenage boys got into it.
 
Everyone had fun and nobody got too competitive. Darlene made flags out of paper and straws for the little kids and they seemed to enjoy making flags for their family's car and cheering their potato down the track. All in all it was an awesome activity. As much as I'd like to take credit for it all. . . it was the Dance Family's idea. But it sure was a good one and I highly recommend it to anyone looking for a fun ward activity.
posted by Shana # 1:50 PM 
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