Derby Day

It's another rainy Saturday in the litany of rainy weekends we've had here this year. I'm not really complaining. I understand drought pretty well. I know how much we desperately need the rain. And I need to be decorating a cake for tomorrow anyway. Daddy and Smunch left an hour ago for the San Francisco Giants FanFest, which doesn't start for another half hour. It's raining there too, but I hope it's some good bonding time for them.

We were supposed to find out yesterday whether Smunch made the competitive baseball team. We haven't heard a thing yet and I'm kinda bummed about that. It makes me unnecessarily nervous. I mean really, if he doesn't make it, I'm off the hook for a lot of extra work this Spring. But he'll be so disappointed...

Anyway, I hadn't quite finished up yakking about last weekend when we all endured another Pinewood Derby. Not only were Aunt Karen and SPENCER! there, but Gram and Grandpa joined us as well. They joined us far too early. I hadn't anticipated the whole weighing in and registering to take a full hour or more. We were all pretty bored, but at least SPENCER! had some good company.This year, Daddy took a different approach to creating a Pinewood Derby car with his son. Last year, they agonized over the details, made it look really cool and in the end, it ran two races and didn't do well enough to run in any more of them. This time, Daddy left most of the carving and decorating up to Smunch...with supervision, of course. When it needed a little more weight, they hammered nails into the back end. Not pretty, but quite effective.

Smunch's den was in charge of the "flag ceremony" for this event and it was cute to see them marching down the room with the flag and leading the pledge of allegiance (even though I half-despise this ceremony).And Smunch looked excited to be doing it. He managed to keep from mopping the floor with the national emblem. It all went pretty well!And finally, the races began...43 heats of races and that was just for the scouts. There were also divisions for siblings and parents!Smunch's car is in the photo above, next to the one being set on the track. It did really well and placed first in two races, second in one and third in one. The car's time, however, was best in the race where it placed third...suggesting that it wasn't really all that fast, but Smunch was thrilled watching it go. It was more fun to watch him than to watch the race.In the end, his car wasn't in the top three for his age group, but it was probably in the top 5 of about 13 cars. He was happy, so we were all happy. Much better than the meltdown of last year!

Pinewood Derby Day

I'm still playing catch-up from last weekend. It was a busy, busy week. I'm hoping the coming week will feel a little more sane...even though I've got Mam's birthday party to get planned...

Just before the big Superbowl party last weekend, Smunch's Cub Scout pack had their annual Pinewood Derby. Smunch and Daddy had worked really hard on Smunch's car. It was carved, sanded and painted. A good blogger might've taken photos along the way, but no. All you're going to get is the finished product.It's too bad I didn't take "in-process" pictures, really. It's strange to think this thing came out of a plain ol' block of pine.

Daddy and Smunch went to a final tune-up on Friday where they added weights to get it close to (but not over) 5 ounces. Then Saturday was the big race day. Smunch was really excited to learn there were trophies for the winners. "I bet you'd be really proud of me if I won a trophy," he said. Thank goodness, the right answer was easy to come by at that moment. "I'm going to be proud of you no matter what," I replied. "You and Daddy worked really hard on your car and it looks great."

Of course, most of the cars looked great. And there were lots of them. Considering this was our first try at putting together a derby car, I didn't have high hopes. But it was obvious that Smunch did. He absolutely expected to win and he waited eagerly for his car's turn.The rules of the race are that your car gets to lose twice before you're out. The cars raced in groups of 3 or 4. Here's Smunch's car on the starting blocks.And at the finish line for the second time having come second in the first race.So, he came second again by a nose and the race was over for our Smunch and his silver car.

There was a lot of frustration and more than a few tears. I felt so bad for him and more than a little irritated with the whole event. The boys who lost went home with nothing but the car they worked so hard on. And, they weren't nearly as proud of it once it lost two races. It just seemed all wrong. At least they should've all gotten a cheesy little ribbon or something to reflect an accomplishment. In Cub Scouts, the boys get recognition for doing much less.

I was really pretty proud of how well Smunch's car did. Coming second twice is hardly shameful. But I could tell how much pride was wrapped up in that little car and it was so, so hard for him to see it lose. And it was hard for me to see how heartbroken he was. It's a good life lesson I suppose. Most of us probably lose more often than we win. (Except maybe one of the kids who won from the Tiger Cubs...he seems to win everything).

It's a little embarrassing to have your first grader dissolve in tears like that when the other boys seemed to take their losses in stride. But then, my kid is a fierce competitor. These next few years may be tough!