Brayden's First Pinewood Derby

Brayden got to participate in his first Pinewood derby race. Brayden came up with a car design, then we went over to my Grandpa's and he helped Brayden cut out the wood. Brayden wasn't quite sure what to expect out of the pine wood derby. We kept telling him that he wanted to try to design something that would be fast and we would need to add weight so it would go faster and he kept saying, "Why would we do that?" But the time the night was over, he had it all figured out.

Here is Brayden sporting his "Spyder" car

We were new to this as parents so we didn't know exactly how to design the best car. The first time down Brayden's car didn't do so well. So after each race we would tweak it a little. After the first two races Mike had just screwed the weight right to the top of the car and then it started going really well. Round #1 his car barely made it to the end. Round #2 he came in 3rd. Round #3 and #4 he came in first both times.

Here is Brayden giving himself a little pep talk before his car actually went down. He would get SO nervous. My kids really thought this was just the most exciting thing ever. Right before they got started Kaylee came up to me and she said, "Mom I have to pee really bad but I just don't want to miss this!" Good thing she was able to go and get back before it even started! If not it could have been total drama.

Here's part of the victory dance. The victory dance included a lot of chest bumps, hugs to as many of the fellows scouts as possible, raising of the roof, and rubbing of the hands together.

By the end of the night, Brayden had total game face on. The black smeared everywhere was the graphite they kept putting on the wheels to make them go faster. I think overall Brayden ended up finishing 5th (he was super stoked about that!)

I was totally impressed with some of the work that went into the cars. Not only were their some super fast cars, but their were some really neat looking cars, and cars that the scouts had made on their own. It ended up being a super fun night so fun in fact that everybody kept racing and racing and racing. I'm not actually sure what time everyone ended up leaving????