on your mark, get set...

This was the first year that my boys competed in the Pinewood Derby race at our church. The Royal Rangers host the event and it is A LOT of fun! You purchase a pinewood derby car kit (I didn't get a picture of it before...) and then you are responsible for turning it into a car! I mean, literally, in the kit it is a block of unfinished wood (about the size of a brick) and you have to come up with a design, cut it into shape, paint it, decorate it, put the wheels on and even put weights underneath the car to make it go fast! It is a much more detailed process than I ever had any idea it would be! Obviously, since I'm a girl, I was in Missionettes as a child and not Royal Rangers and so I wasn't ever able to participate in the Pinewood Derby! It's a ton of fun, though, and I think they should let girls do it too!

For their cars, my boys chose to design them as a shark and a race car. I think you can probably tell that Ashtyn's car is the shark and Maddox's is the race car with flames.

When we arrived at the church on Pinewood Derby racing night I was very impressed with all the Royal Ranger department had done! The FLC was decorated in a derby theme complete with racing flags in sand as centerpieces on the tables and racing flags cordoning off  the race track. It was really cool! We were excited to eat BBQ and watch the races.

This was a very high tech event. The race track was hooked up to a laptop that told the Royal Ranger leaders which car was the true winner in the case of a close race...and believe me, there were PLENTY of those! The races were done in rounds, kind of tournament style. Throughout the races both our boys' cars took every place from first, second and even to third. They were excited no matter what! I think they just thought it was exciting to even see their cars racing!

We took the boys' friend Seth with us to the races. They were happy to have him there and he did a great job of cheering them on! Seth is such a good friend/big brother to my boys! Even when their cars would come in third Seth would jump up and down, cheering them on and giving them high fives!

Neither boys received an overall racing place for their cars BUT Ash DID receive third place for "Most Creative Car"! We were so proud! Honestly, I think Ash wanted to win the creative award even more than he wanted to win the race!

This is most definitely an event we will do again next year! It was so fun and a great family activity to do together!