Grand Prix

We went to Riley's AWANA Grand Prix today--it's their version of the Boy Scouts' Pinewood Derby. We were given the supplies about a month ago, and Riley and Ted began working on her car during Spring Break. A lot of the neighbor kids are involved in the AWANA program, too, so a lot of them spent an April afternoon in the middle of the circle cutting out and sanding their cars...well, really, who am I kidding, the dad's cut out and sanded their kids' cars.

After Riley painted her car, it was time to weigh it and then add weights to get the car to the 5 oz. limit. We wasted no time getting to that (not)--working on it just two days before the Grand Prix. We found some fishing weights and a tin can to melt them in on the grill. They eventually got it to the magical five ounces (Ted got it to the magical 5 ounces), but not until after the scale tray got warped by the intense heat of spilled molten lead. After that, Riley just had to do some touch up painting.

This morning was a fun experience. Riley's car came in 4th place--and she was thrilled. That's Riley for ya'--it's one of her best qualities...she's just happy to be participating and playing with her friends. In fact, she came up to me so excited that her friend and our neighbor won first place (beating her). (can you see the enormous smile on her face?)

The fun of this morning was not in watching the kids' cars race down the track, but in watching our kids' dads. Luckily everything was very friendly and we didn't have any dads get ugly, but it was ap'parent' who was really competing.