Pinewood Derby

Last night was our pack's pinewood derby.  Josh's last.  Michael's first.  And after last year's debacle (Josh's car didn't even cross the finish line when it raced), Jason vowed that things would be different this year. 

The Miller Guide on How Not to Come in Last Every Time:

Step 1: Start working on the cars earlier than 2 days before the race.  Somehow making pinewood derby cars has never made the priority list.  Even for the boys.  We would ask Josh to work on his, but he never seemed interested.  Coming in last in every race last year fixed that.

Step 2: The internet (more specifically, YouTube) is our friend.  Jason found some videos on how to make your car faster and we watched them for a Family Home Evening activity.

Step 3: Buy tools/hit up friends who have tools for help.  I am sure Jason would love to have some wood working tools.  But, we have no garage.  What we do have is a kind friend with tools who cut the cars for us.  Jason also bought a battery pack for a drill Grandpa gave him.  I am not entirely sure what he and the boys did with the drill, but I believe sand paper was involved.

Step 4: Use your snow days wisely.  If you can plan to have snow days right before the pinewood derby, you are golden.  Even more so if Daddy has snow days with you.  You are stuck in the house anyway, why not be productive?  This way the prep doesn't actually cut into your otherwise busy schedule of playing Pokemon, Bakugan, or Legos. 

Step 5: Functionality over aesthetics.  The boys did decorate their cars in a manner pleasing unto them.  However, we don't have a scale at the house, so the extra weights to get them up to 5 ounces couldn't be added until race day.  At which point, Jason glued the weights on the cars in the best place for speed regardless of what decoration was underneath.  That strategy definitely paid off and the boys had no complaints with the results.

Some pics from the evening's festivities:

Jason with the glue gun of power.

Michael and his BFF,

Our pack.  Yes, Josh is wearing a mask.  We are currently experiencing a never ending cycle of the stomach bug.  That morning it was Josh's turn (in the school clinic no less), but he was feeling much better by the evening.  It was killing me that he would have to miss his last pinewood derby, so we compromised by having him wear a mask and giving him strict instructions not to touch anyone else for the evening.

Our awesome leader made these very cool prizes for the races.

A snazzy collection of cars.  Ours are the ones with the washers glued on top.

Michael cheering on his car.

Ben watching his car lose the sibling race.  Jason made some changes to the distribution of the weights after this race and the car was much faster.  It turns out that, despite the best laid plans, we did not bring enough weight to bring all the cars up to 5 ounces.  So, Jason ran out to the car to find any loose items he could to glue on to Ben's car.  It was a bit of a hodgepodge.

Tie breaker race for 2nd and 3rd place.

Michael proudly displaying his First Place award.

Josh took Second Place.  This far surpassed our expectations.  Jason said afterwards that his only goal had been to help them so they wouldn't come in last.  We were all thrilled when they took First and Second.  Here is a picture of the top three and the cubmaster.

After all the official races were done, we raced all the boys' cars together.  From left to right: Ben, Michael, Josh.

This is the only picture I got of all three of them and it was at the end of the race of their cars together.  Sadly, I caught Ben's hand in an unfortunate and inappropriate position.

The boys all had a great time.  We were so lucky to have great leaders who put together a wonderful evening and a great daddy who spent lots of time helping the boys.