So it seems that I started blogging at the wrong time in my life. Shortly after starting, I found out that we were expecting child #4. And all of the extras in life seem to come to a screeching halt when I am pregnant. So, here I am starting again.
These are just a few pictures from the Pinewood Derby this year. Xander races on Thursday night with his cub scout pack and then our ward has an activity the following night where anyone, adults included, can enter a car. It has become one of the highlights of our year and Budge and the boys go all out on designing cars. I even get into the fun by helping paint and figure out some of the surface design aspects. So here are the results from this year. This is the final heat at the ward activity. The first three cars on the left are ours. Jaden's Batman car, Budge's springform design, and Xanders Hershey Bar car. I don't have a better picture of Budge's car but he received a metal for the best craftsmanship.
Xander's car won 1st place overall. Check out that trophy! He also won 1st place overall the night before at the cub scout derby. The metal around his neck is the award for most unusual design. It's hard to tell from this picture but it is a Hershey's chocolate bar with a bite taken out of it. We used an actual wrapped and tinfoil from a real candycar. It was very thin and flat with a metal bar inserted in the bottom side to give it weight. It was very fast.
All of the boys looked at pictures online of pinewood derby cars and chose the type of design they wanted. Rohan chose a pencil and this is the final product. It was fun to make and he chose the colors. We used tinfoil on the end near the eraser and it was his idea to color the tip with an actual pencil to make it look like lead. Smart boy! He did the painting himself with the aid of painter's tape. It wasn't as fast as we had hoped but he won an award for the most creative car.
Then there is Jaden. We hadn't planned on making a car with him this year but he didn't want to be left out of the fun. And he is our very oppinionated little boy who knows exactly what he wants. He wanted it black, which he painted himself, and it had a be a Batman car. It also turned out the be very fast and he won 2nd place overall. 
All in all, it was a fun time and something that we all worked on together as a family. It's also something that the boys still talk about and Xander has saved all of his cars over the last few years. Having an engineer for a father has its benefits!
