Go Speed Racer, Go Speed Racer, Go Speed Racer, GO!

Well, January is here which means it is time for the Adventure Guides/Princess Pinewood Derby Car races. In order to truly appreciate this years race, let me show you Petunia's car from last year ... Sad doesn't even begin to describe it ... See those "D" batteries? The first time down the track, they fell off. Let's just say, we all learned a lot from our first time racing a derby car.

This year Dad got a little more resourceful. One of the men that Dad works with is a HUGE woodworker and was happy to help out with the "shaping" of the cars this year. It was a good thing since Dad had to do two this year - one for Rowdy and one for Petunia.

Of course, in true family fashion, the cars were left to the last minute to complete. We had good intentions - the unfinished cars, weights, paint, etc. went all the way to Colorado and back with us. Unfortunately, they never left the bag.

Last Wednesday night after church, we got the kids tucked into bed and Dad started working on the cars. I snuck off to bed to read my latest book. At some point I dozed off and woke up to smell the most HORRID stench. I hopped out of bed afraid that the house was on file. Seriously - I'm not exaggerating here. I followed the smell to the garage where dad was working on priming the cars. He was spray painting them in front of my black car. Hello - who can tell me what color a spray can of primer is???? Dad assured me that everything was fine he was just working on melting some weights to add to the car. At that point, I had no idea what the stench was but was assured the house was not on fire.

Back I go to bed (after grabbing a t-shirt to wrap around my nose!). A few hours later, Dad came and woke me up to tell me he wasn't having such good luck with these cars. I immediately asked if he got white primer on my black car. He told me no - the car was fine. He did however melt the metal weights on the stove in the kitchen (the culprit of the stench!) and when pouring (or I guess I should say- attempting to pour) the melted metal into the drilled holes on one of the cars, the metal skipped right off of the wood, bounced into my WHITE kitchen sink, and down the garbage disposal. Oh, did I mention ... we just had the garbage disposal replaced last month. Dad assured me that it was OK ... he cleaned up the sink and was able to get the metal out of the garbage disposal and it worked fine but the metal pot he "cooked" his metal in was ruined. I couldn't even find words to speak so I rolled over and went back to sleep.

Making memories!

On to the fun stuff ...

Even though Dad (and I, once the painting came time) did a lot on the kids cars, they did help some ...

Rowdy's car was a police car while Petunia opted for a Hannah Montana "Sweet Nibblets" ride.

Friday night was the "Beauty Contest". Imagine our surprise when both kids took 4th Place in their division ...

Saturday was the actual race. There are no words to describe the thrill Dad and I had when Rowdy took first place during his first race! We where jumping up and down and high five-ing like a bunch of goons!

After 4 races he placed in the top 12, earning him the chance to keep racing. When it was all said and done, he was 11th place over all in the Kindergarten division. YEEEE-HAW!!

Most of Rowdy's group placed very high up. Far left placed 1st and the boy to the right of Rowdy placed 3rd. Way to go boys!!!

Later in the day was Petunia's race. She didn't fair quite as well as Rowdy but we were thrilled with her showing ...

Sweet Nibblets wasn't quite as speedy as the Police car but it was fun spending time with friends ...

Thanks Dad for the memories ...