Pine Wood Derby

Jackson raced his pine wood derby car for the third time. This year, I was lazy and bought a kit a Hobby Lobby; actually I bought one for both boys b/c last year Cal raced one of Jackson's previous cars and I thought he'd enjoy racing his "own".

The day I brought the cars home, both boys were convinced that we should have the cars sanded, painted, and put together all within 20 minutes. If you know anything about these kits, you know that's impossible...so, we get the cars sanded, paint them and 'quick-dry' them with my embossing heat dryer and hammer in the wheels. Then, we put the cars away...

Until this morning. We're running late (what's new?) and Dan is getting ready to take Jackson [arguing with him about the number of stuffed animals he can take]. I'm rushing to put the graphite powder on the wheels...[don't know what that stuff is, huh? neither did I until a couple of years ago, when we first stated boy scouts...]. Dan finally gets Jackson out the door and I call his den leader to let her know they're running late.

When they get to the track, turns out the kit I bought at Hobby Lobby isn't 'legal' and they're not wanting to let Jax race--RED FLAG. The thing is, Jack doesn't car if his car comes in dead last. He likes being there, going through the motions of racing his car. Once again, his den leader comes to our rescue and lets him go ahead and race. Note to self: wheels on the cars cannot have spokes, they must be solid...

His car didn't come in dead last, but didn't perform as well as his cars have in the past. But, he enjoyed himself and participated; to me, that's victory.

One more interesting thing about the derby. It's always held in Auburn (about 15 minutes away). This is the town we go to for haircuts (the girl who has cut my hair since we've lived in 'Busco moved to Auburn a few years ago; of course we followed her b/c she is great with Jackson). After the derby, Jackson actually asked to go get a haircut!

This is HUGE for a couple of reasons. A.) I cannot believe he was so aware of his surroundings that he realized they were in Auburn. B.) Getting a haircut is far from his favorite thing to do.

Overall, a good day...