Pinewood Derby

It's derby time again, and this year we had 3 girls racing! Mark knew with having to help cut 3 cars we needed to aid the girls in choosing a 'low maintenance' design so that they could finish them in time. Since they like themes (and cutting 3 cars the same way definitely expedited the process) they chose to make crayons this year. Mark helped them cut and shape them, then they each picked out the paint they wanted to use and sanded them down to get them ready. They drew crayon wrappers to mod podge over the colored car and definitely sped up production since they didn't have to wait for multiple coats of paint to dry like in the past.  They did a great job drawing their wrappers and decoupaging them on. They turned out really cute. 

Grace created the Pink Blur. Now that she graduated to the older group she races against the Expeditions instead of against the Adventure Guides. Weighing in at exactly 5.0 with an average speed of 155 mph her car won first place in all 4 heats, earning her first place overall! 

Emma, of course, chose blue for her car. Her speedster weighed in at 4.9 ounces and though her car beat her sisters cars in all of the practice runs, her average speed was 148 mph during the races, earning her 15th out of 21. It definitely had the best paint job of the three and earned her the craziest car award. [They make up awards so that everyone gets a certificate...ask me how much I hate that]. **She would like me to add that  they devised new classes this year to give all participants a "fair advantage" and made a fast, medium and slow class. Since she was in the medium class she didn't get a trophy while slower cars in the slow class did. My logical, black&white, rule following girl had a hard time understanding that rule. (Truthfully, so did her logical mother. Shouldn't a speed award be given to the speediest cars?) She wouldn't have qualified either way, but she is a stickler on things being "fair." She was super-proud of her beauty-of-a-car, though. 

First time racer Norah made a purple car weighing in at 4.9 ounces and ended up with an average speed of 154 mph. That put her in the fastest class and earned her 6th place overall! With the new "fair advantage" rule, she was a little bummed when a kid with a slower car got the 6th place trophy, but she walked away with an awesome car and an awesome dad who helped her build it...so she was a big winner anyway! [And a certificate for "funniest car" because every kid is a winner].

And the best dad award goes to...this guy! Helping design 3 derby cars is no easy feat...Someday we'll have to bring all of the old cars they have made together and figure out the fastest design of them all.