Pinewood Derby & Easter

Hello!

March was eventful!

During the month we had the Pinewood Derby, Easter, Sarah was laid off, Sammy learned to ride a bike, one of Sarah's sisters (Marian) was married, we celebrated the 12th anniversary of my marriage proposal to Sarah, and Wallace Johnson (Sarah's father) celebrated his 70th birthday! Whew!

This year was Sammy's first year in the Pinewood Derby competition. With the help of his mother, he designed his car as the Batmobile complete with rear fins. Naturally, I needed to get a new tool to assist me in carving out his sleek, cool car. Jimmy chose to have his car in the style of an alligator, and he too needed fins at the rear end of his derby. With the designs in place, I proceeded to carve out the cars. It was then up to the boys to sand and paint their cars. Because they looked like they were having so much fun (and I got a new toy, er tool!) I decided to carve a car for Abby to race.

At competition time, all the cars were under weight so we had to do some last minute adjustments. The coolest, sleekest, most awesome car was the one I made for Abby. I had all the confidence that she would take the grand prize and the blue ribbon would adorn the mantle of our fireplace. I spent a great deal of time on the car refining it, sanding it, painting and resanding. So when Abby's time came to race her car, she danced up to the starting gate, placed her car and...ZOOM! The Pink Comet raced down that track like a snail asleep! Because of the way the tournament was set up, she was able to race a few more times and eventually won one race. Through it all, Abby didn't mind and it was only her father's pride that was hurt. She did win the award for the "Hottest Car."

Sammy & Jimmy both enjoyed racing their cars. In the end, Jimmy ended up winning Second Place for the second year in a row, and he also took home the award for the "Best Paint Job." Sammy's Batmobile won the award for the "Most Theatrical."

Next year the Droegemueller's will return and we will win that blue ribbon!