Pinewood Derby

Andrew recently participated in his first Pinewood Derby race with his cub scout troop. My only experience with Pinewood Derby was watching the movie “Down and Derby” so I assumed that most dads got overly involved (even though the cub scout is supposed to do the work).
Josh spent some time in Djibouti and Kenya so he was limited in how much help he could provide. I was clueless and busy juggling work and home so I was limited in what I could do.
We managed to get his car cut into a simple wedge and Andrew spray painted it white. He decided he wanted his car to look like Speed Racer’s car so I helped him on my computer and he designed the M and the circles with the number 5 for me to cut from my vinyl. Josh helped him put the wheels on and we had a car!
Friday night was the weigh in and Josh said it was interesting to watch the dads holding the cars, tweaking them, etc. Josh just handed it to Andrew and let him go with it.
On Saturday, Race Day, Andrew had to be at the race at 8:45am. Josh offered to take him while I kept the girls at home and out of the way! ☺ I honestly thought Andrew would come home with his little certificate of participation and that would be that.
He ended up placing 3rd in his troop which meant he had to come back later that day at 3pm to race with other winners from the council.
This time we opted to all go thinking he would do his race and we could then continue with our Saturday errands. When we got there we were told they wouldn’t start until 4pm. Thankfully there was an indoor playground to entertain the girls. By 5pm we were back home and Andrew had won 5th place in the council! I was quite surprised but happy for him.
Next year I plan to not have any other errands to run for the day. ☺
Here are a couple of pictures of Andrew with his awards and car. The car is covered in graphite from all the racing!