Pinewood Derby Production Post

Aaron experienced his first pinewood derby this year.  It was a lot of work.  Thank Heavens for gramps who helped him build his car.

1st:  Aaron designed his block of wood to the car shape he wanted.  Pretty cool and only a few erase marks:

2nd:  Grampa Brent cuts and carves:

3rd:  Sand, sand, sand, sand, sand, sand, sand ... and then sand some more!  [Marissa and Krystal sanded the cut-out parts :)]  EVERYONE took turns trying to sand that dang car!!  They sanded and sanded until I told them AB.SO.LUTE.LY no more ... it was getting a little ridiculous!

Finally .... paint time.  Aaron wanted orange!  We were all skeptical, but it turned out pretty sweet looking:

Gramps added 5 or 6 more layers of paint the next couple of days while we were at home.  Then - we got together again to add the wheels!

Here's Aaron and Gramps smoothing and sanding the nails that hold the wheels on:

Gramps checks (with a magnifying glass) to make sure the nail has zero jagged edges.  Then they had to give it many a tests on the wood floor and re-adjust the wheels until it ran perfectly straight.  [This pic with the very crooked run was the first trial].  

Here's the finished product!  Gramps figured out the weight for us, 'cuz I was LONG done and ready to throw in the towel.  He is awesome.  What a fabulous grampa!  I think Aaron looks pretty pleased too.

Here we are the night of the derby:

Aaron was in the first heat - and you can see the shock on his face as his car was Waaaaaaaay ahead of the other two.

We had THE coolest track that was all computerized, so the whole entire race took like 10 minutes.  Each boy raced 3 times ... once on each track .... and his times were averaged.  And - this face shows it all - Aaron took FIRST PLACE!!!  Hot dang!  (My dad was pretty proud too)!

The boys got to spend the rest of the pack meeting just racing each other for fun.  Krystal felt very special handing Aaron his car at the end of each race:

Here is Aaron and his cub master dad getting his "Fastest Car" award and 1st place medallion.  Pretty cool!

I'm so proud of my husband.  He is such a wonderful cub master.  May was a very extra crazy month for him, but he delegated well (and we have an AMAZING committee), and got his part done, and the derby was a huge success!  I think everyone had a great time.

So cool to win the derby your first year, huh?  Now he's got some pretty high expectations! :/  We'll be hangin' out with gramps again next year!  :)