How our plan almost went ker-plunk!

It was time for our school's annual "Family Fun Night" and our administrator, who has been tirelessly working from dawn to dusk + five hours, put out the request for each grade level to create a game to contribute to the event. When met with mild grumbling, he pointed up to his face. "See these eyes," he exclaimed, "these eyes haven't closed in days!" Thus-ly inspired, the 4th grade team set to work.

Spear-heading the movement, I found the directions for a to-life-scale version of Kerplunk and brought the idea before committee.  Not mentioning any names (Geri), one member of the group was less enthusiastic than the rest. "I have tomato cages and a tire in the barn," she mused reluctantly, perusing the materials list doubtfully, "but how do you propose I tunnel through the six foot wall of snow to get there?" The rest of us, however, were optimistically delighted about our plan.

Typical of our usual team meetings, we began the process well over a month ago. As unofficial team secretary, I made note of our progress:

Meeting #1:  Introduction of plan:  squeals of delight, muttering, almost unanimous decision to bring our idea before the administrative committee

Meeting #2: Having reviewed the plan with administration, we went over the necessary supplies (see Geri's contribution: appendix A: paragraph 2)

Meeting #3: Still enthusiastic but as the event was still weeks away, we still just talked about supplies. Half-hour discussion about a) DO clear shower curtains exist? and, upon subsequent research, b) WHY do clear shower curtains exist?

Meeting #4:  Agreed to discuss plan next week

Meeting #5:  Geri brought a cheesecake so progress was temporarily halted

Meeting #6:  "Wait...? Family Fun Night is THIS week?!?!" Clearly we did not have enough time available to plan and construct our project. Will have to table our idea until next year.

Emergency Meeting #7:  Having encountered our administrator the night before in a shopping center buying Visine for his dry eyes, our formidable team leader, Rachel, had hastily bought tomato cages and yes, a clear shower curtain (which we promptly lost). We spent over an hour acquiring our much-discussed supplies..."Hello, bus garage...do you have a tire we can borrow?" " Hello...gym? Do you have colorful balls we can borrow?" (As you can imagine, THAT request was met with some colorful language not
suited for a blog of this quality!).  With assembly-line precision, we wrapped recycled PVC piping from Rachel's daughter's science project in duct tape of assorted colors and patterns..."Are these peacock feathers?" Geri asked, setting a plastic pipe on a strip of tape. We zip-stripped the cages together and hit our first big snag as the cages sank despite our best efforts, leaving gaping holes for our colorful balls. (No giggling...this blog is rated PG). Clear packing tape and fifty thousand zip-strips would have to suffice as we wrestled a tire into a polka-dot kiddie pool and then wrestled the tomato cages into the tire. We all stood back to admire our efforts. Clearly, this was an excellent example of how to successfully set a plan in motion!