A Day at the Races - Cub Scouts style

On Sunday, January 18, Vincent participated in his Cub Scout Pack's Pinewood Derby. For those of you who are not familiar with this event, in a nutshell, the derby is a race. But, it is more than that. The premise behind it is the Cub Scout is suppose to design and build a racecar (spell that word backwards) with the help of a parent. There are parameters the car has to fall into in order to qualify for this event.

Vincent seems to really enjoy this event. For all practical purposes, he completely designs and builds the car. This year, we traced the outline of the block of wood provided in the pinewood derby kit, both the top view and side view. Vincent drew up on the paper how he wanted the car to look. We transferred those drawings onto the wood and I cut out the wood, using a band saw. Last year, Vincent used a regular hand saw to cut the wood. This year, I cranked out the band saw. Other than those cuts, Vincent did everything else, from sanding the wood, to using a hammer and chisel to make a notch in the wood, painting and applying the decals. He wanted a Missouri Tigers theme to the car. Below you can see the final product. Vincent's is the all gold car with the University of Missouri stuff on it, next to AFLAC the duck. I think Vincent's turned out looking pretty good. There are two competitions on race day, one is for design, the other is for the racing. As you can imagine, the Duck won design, Vincent's came in third in design.

On race day, the boys in each rank of the pack (cubs, wolf, tiger, etc) race against the other boys in the same rank. So Vincent, who is a wolf, would race other wolves. There were only 5 boys (wolves) who participated in the derby this year, so the competition was not as stiff as years past. However, Vincent was still excited and had a great time. When all was said and done, Vincent took first place, Wolf rank, in the racing competition. Wasn't even close (that is probably more of Dad's memory than actual truth). I don't know for sure, but he may have been the fastest car of the day. I have one of three races on video below. If you take first place in either design or race, you get to go to the regional races in April. So, we have to look into that and see what's next. Plus try to keep the kids from playing Smash'em Up with his car.

The last races of the day is in the Open Division, where anyone (siblings, friends, parents, etc.)can enter a car to be raced. Laura made four cars for a science project, so we had some extra cars around to enter in this Division. The cars were put through their paces for the science project, so they may have been past their prime. Sophia's car actually lost her wheel on one of her races, and didn't finish on another. Look at the "cars" in the open division. The squirrel was really neat. I thought if we had a car a little faster with a nut on it in the lane next to it, it would have looked like the squirrel was chasing the nut.

The "Wolf" Pack - not quite Dale, Jr, JJ, Carl, Kyle and Tony!

The Wolf's cars - Vincent's was the first in line. All of them were pretty cool!

Still love the Duck though!

Another angle of the cars!

Gentleman, start your engines! Vincent in the first lane, ready to go!

The "cars" in the open race! The squirrel was pretty fast! Lucy's car was the spotted car next to the squirrel and Laura's was the wedge next to that. Laura actually got third place in design!?

Vincent's car is in the middle, tearing up the track!!

Human Croquet Wicket

You know how, as your kids are growing up and playing sports, you sometimes, deep down, hope they are good enough to get a scholarship somewhere, anywhere for some sport. Just so you can get some financial assistance with college? Are there scholarships for Human Croquet?

Like most families with children in the lower grades, Laura and Vincent are very active in sports. In Vincent's case, he was involved in baseball and soccer, along with participating in Cub Scouts. He did very good in all three activities, but his favorite is soccer. He LOVES soccer. It is, probably, his best sport also. He started playing soccer where they have goalies this year (what a novel idea!) but, in some cases, the goalie wasn't much better than having an empty goal. Vincent was good/lucky enough to actually scores some goals this year, but his best abilities is usually on defense. Most people who watch him play would say the same thing, that is why this video is funny, because it's not typical of his play. I video taped about 5 minutes of his soccer all year, but I did get this. He was not happy about that, although he laughs harder than most when he watches it. Watch the goalie's reaction. Enjoy!