the great family boat disaster (affectionate)

we have a tradition in build a boat now where instead of everyone making their own boat, we build ONE giant family boat and all cram onto it. this is, predictably, a disaster every single time, and thats exactly why we love it. my oldest is the engineer and takes it very seriously, carefully placing blocks, while the younger two just want to slap on as many random blocks and seats as humanly possible. then we set sail toward the waterfall and obstacles and just watch our beautiful monstrosity slowly come apart. blocks flying everywhere, someone shrieking, the whole boat tipping over, all of us laughing so hard. but here is the sneaky part, they actually problem solve, after each crash they argue about what went wrong and how to build it sturdier next time, learning without even realizing. we got surprisingly far one run and the kids full on cheered. it never matters if we reach the treasure, the fun is the chaos and the teamwork getting there. its become one of those games that is really about us being goofy together.