How We Spent Three Hours on a Wednesday Night

Tonight was the Pinewood Derby at Kaylee's Awanas. I had to get her there around 5:30 for registration, where they weighed her car, measured it, tagged it, judged it and gave her a number to wear around her neck. Her car could not weigh more than 5.0 ounces. Her car weighed in at... 5.0 ounces. That's impressive considering we didn't have a scale at home. Kaylee was Number 18, and I sat on a plastic bleacher while they ran the little bitty kids, then the high schoolers, then the adults. Steve joined me about an hour into it, and we watched the other cars run while we waited for Kaylee's group (T&T) to go. After everyone else ran, they stopped and did a 10-15 minute devotional about running the race of life, and then finally Kaylee's group went. She came in second place in two of her heats and first place in the other two. Her face when she won was great, it cracked us both up. One of the wins her car was pretty far ahead of the others, and she pumped her fist and did a "YES!" kind of thing.

In the end, out of twenty some cars, she won a first place trophy for novelty design, and we think she took 5th place overall on speed. The 3rd place car came in at 2.75 seconds and her average was 2.77 seconds, so she was really close! Steve thought he saw her in 5th but they took it down too fast and only showed the top three. Either way she did pretty well, and she was very surprised and pleased with the 1st place trophy for design. She's the one that picked the shape, and Steve and she worked on the paint and stuff together. He's already got plans for her car for next year. It was really obvious that some of those dads (most likely) had spent a WHOLE lot of time on the cars. There was one shaped like a little Louisville Slugger bat including signature on it, one done up like a stop light, and a couple of cars that looked like metal cars, shiny precise paint scheme and all. A trophy was awarded for the car that most looked like a real car, for overall speed, and best novelty design, which is the one Kaylee won, which really surprised all three of us. :) We didn't get home until after 8:30, so it was a bit of a long night of it, but it was a good family adventure. I took some photos, but until I get the web programs reinstalled on my computer, I can't put them up. Soon enough, along with the rest of the sunset ones I took last night.

So today while I was on the ground at Muncie waiting for a student to complete his three solo landings at a tower controlled field, a guy inside there asked me basically what I was doing, and I told him. A few minutes later he says "Did you say you're waiting for your son to get done flying?" My SON? I later said to Steve "Do I LOOK like I've got a son old enough to be flying around out there?" He of course doesn't like to let a good rhetorical question go unanswered and said "yes". *sigh* (Actually I am old enough to have a 16 year old out soloing...which is a weird thought.)

Here's another Kaylee one to end on. The trophy, her car, and the "participation ribbon" they gave to everyone who came and raced tonight. I know they have to make everybody feel good, thanks for playing, here's a ribbon, but most of the kids know the ribbons don't mean anything. Kaylee got a trophy for participating in a gymnastics thing, and while she liked it at the time, when she said that this was her first trophy, and I reminded her of that one, she replied with "Mom, everybody got one of those. Not everybody got one of these. THIS is a real trophy." You mean people appreciate things more if they actually earn them? Huh!! ;)


P.S. Happy St. Patrick's Day, unless you are Protestant in which case I hope you wore orange in protest. (One of the dads at Awanas tonight gave a speech about this, sorry...)