Pine Wood Derby 2013

Well as most of you probably know from Facebook, AJ won the pine wood derby for Tigers!!!! We are sooooooooo proud of him!!! We didn't have a ton of time especially with us going to Belgium the weekend before and getting snowed in the extra day. Not that we didn't LOVE being there the extra day!!! But we were able to get it done in time, we painted it on Wednesday, picked it up Thursday from the arts and crafts place, had a scout meeting that night. Friday was busy with bowling and Bingo and when we got home David put on the wheels and then AJ put on the weights. They are very specific about the dimensions and weight of the car. It has to pass inspection and be legal or it can't race. It also has to be there on time. There was one car that didn't make it and wasn't eligible for the race. Then on Saturday morning the Tiger's weigh-in was at 8:30 am, so AJ was up early putting the finishing touches (stickers) on the car. Whatever he did, he did it right!! They do four heats for each car so they race down each track once and then they take the combined score and see who is the top winner. The top four move on to districts. In the first heat AJ took first place and I couldn't believe it!! The smile on his face was sooooo awesome!!! Then he took second by .001 of a second, it was a close race! All in all he took first of the Tigers. I didn't realize how long of a day this was going to be. We got there at 8:30 and didn't leave until 3:30 pm. They also wouldn't let anybody even near the cars. Once you weighed and checked your car in, you could not touch it again until the race was over. They brought in some boy scouts to help and they were the launchers. It was definitely an experience. After they did all the races, there were 5 different scout groups, the siblings and the adult group (which there were a lot of heats in the last two), they took the top two out of each group and raced for the overall winner. Out of 12 cars AJ was 4th over all!! Every time he did well he came over to me and gave me a high five!! It was so nice to see all of his work payoff and he also was a great winner, he didn't gloat that he won or hold it over any of the others. I am really proud of him!!! It was such a great day!! Afterwards we headed to the KMCC (the big mall on Ramstein) and celebrated with ice cream and play time at the kids area!! We all came home tired, but what a great day!!!

We put some graphite on the wheels and told the kids to run the wheels back and forth to make them go faster.

AJ's car getting checked in, he named it Monster Driver

Michael being a goof while eating lunch

AJ being a goof also while eating lunch

They had some games and such for the boys since they had to be there for so long. The opening ceremonies didn't start till 12:30 pm (they were supposed to start at 11:30 am)

Getting ready for the races. We had all the boys sit there and then found out they couldn't be on the inside of the tables - it was strictly off limits. :-) Like I said they were serious about their pinewood derby.

Michael and his friend Alex going head to head :-) LOL

AJ's first race, his car is on the far left looking at them - it had the blue and green of the Seahawks for Daddy!! And a little bit of gold - not sure for what, but he liked it!

AJ in the "pit" awaiting the first race

That is AJ's car that already crossed the finish line, check out how far ahead he is compared to all the rest!!! If you look at the sign that says Finish that is the electronic device that measured the speed and the time to one thousandth of a second

They printed out driver's license for all the kids, including the siblings - I thought that was really cool!

So with all the heats and how long they were there, I broke down and let them play their acers. I think both boys were loving the attention!!

Not sure if you can see it here, but this is the placing of the Tiger's group with Albert in the number 1 spot!!!

This is the overall one showing him in 4th!!!

These were the top three from the Tigers and their trophies!!

AJ is very excited to put his pine wood derby trophy next to his bowling trophy!!

AJ has been working hard on earning belt loops, they finally arrived and he is showing off all the belt loops that he has earned!! He is really doing such a fantastic job with scouts and it is such a great program and we were blessed with a wonderful leader!!! Can't wait to see what adventures it holds in the future. Stay tuned for districts - it will be much more challenging, but I am sure lots of fun!!! They even said we could do something to AJ's car, change it if he wants, try and make it faster, but we asked him and he is pretty happy with how it is!!! As he should be! :-)