The makings of the all important father/son competitive event, the pinewood derby car! Ethan had a specific idea in mind and he and his father set out to make his dreams become a reality. In the beginning it was supposed to be a shark. With Grandpas help they cut out the basic shape and from then on the sanding, painting, and weighing began.
Ethan picked out a shiny blue spray paint and did most of the painting himself.
After a month long delay, the pinewood derby finally arrived, and boy was Ethan excited!
The competition was fierce. Jeff had talked to some of the other dads and they were going on and on about all the stuff they did to their cars to make them go faster. We didn't know what we were doing and so had stuck to the basics. Nerves were high as we went to the race hoping to just not come in last! There were a lot of really cool cars and a lot of hard work went into making them. Ethan's car is the blue one with the silver stripe.
Then the race began! Each car was raced down the track four different times and then the times were averaged. No car raced against the same car twice. The computerized system kept track of times and averages. The first time Ethan's car went down the track, much to our surprise, he came in first place. Ok, so we weren't going to lose! As the race continued, his car kept winning and he had the record for the fastest time.
Much to our amazement Ethan won!!!! Good job Ethan! What a great way to start out our many years of doing pinewood derby's, but a high expectation has been set. What are we going to do next year??? Apparently sticking to the basics worked. Ethan was happy to win a trophy and a certificate for the car with the coolest racing stripe!
The makings of the all important father/son competitive event, the pinewood derby car! Ethan had a specific idea in mind and he and his father set out to make his dreams become a reality. In the beginning it was supposed to be a shark. With Grandpas help they cut out the basic shape and from then on the sanding, painting, and weighing began.
Ethan picked out a shiny blue spray paint and did most of the painting himself.
After a month long delay, the pinewood derby finally arrived, and boy was Ethan excited!
The competition was fierce. Jeff had talked to some of the other dads and they were going on and on about all the stuff they did to their cars to make them go faster. We didn't know what we were doing and so had stuck to the basics. Nerves were high as we went to the race hoping to just not come in last! There were a lot of really cool cars and a lot of hard work went into making them. Ethan's car is the blue one with the silver stripe.
Then the race began! Each car was raced down the track four different times and then the times were averaged. No car raced against the same car twice. The computerized system kept track of times and averages. The first time Ethan's car went down the track, much to our surprise, he came in first place. Ok, so we weren't going to lose! As the race continued, his car kept winning and he had the record for the fastest time.
Much to our amazement Ethan won!!!! Good job Ethan! What a great way to start out our many years of doing pinewood derby's, but a high expectation has been set. What are we going to do next year??? Apparently sticking to the basics worked. Ethan was happy to win a trophy and a certificate for the car with the coolest racing stripe!
