Conner's First Pinewood Derby

Conner had his first Pinewood Derby on Thursday night. He and Bryon (and the neighbor) have been working on this car for about the past month. Conner was so excited!

Bryon found some Pinewood Derby templates online. He and Conner went through them and chose one. They then sanded the car down. A couple of weeks ago it came time to paint it. Conner wanted to paint it his favorite colors: yellow and blue. He also
wanted somehow to tie his favorite past time of reading into it. Bryon and I racked our brains trying to come up with something. We got an idea of Modge Podging the comics onto the car rather than painting the car. Conner loved the idea. He and Sam had a blast picking out some comics to put on it. The outcome was very cute. (Can you say that about Pinewood Derby cars?)

Our ward meets with another ward for Pack Night. There were probably 15 boys there to race. Conner won his first race by a landslide. Bryon and the neighbor were pretty excited! Conner then lost the rest of the races. Conner has the best attitude. They awarded prizes to the winners. After Pack Night, Bryon took Conner to the grocery store so Conner could pick out his favorite candy bar for a prize. I was so touched that Bryon thought of doing that to celebrate Conner's efforts.

My boss at work drives Corvettes. She and her husband have a couple of Corvettes. Conner went into work Friday to show my boss his Pinewood Derby car. Bryon was giving her a hard time and told her that next year she is in charge of helping Conner make a Corvette for the Pinewood Derby. She told Conner that she was not going to help him make one, she would just let him drive hers when he is old enough. Now Conner is counting down the days until he gets his driver's license.

Sam Earns His Wolf

Sam officially earned his Wolf Badge! I am from a family of all girls and so this scouting thing is totally new to me. In November, the ward wanted to move all of the scouts up in scouting at the first of the year, instead of on their birthdays. Bryon and I felt like we wanted Sam to really earn his Wolf and it just not be something he hurries through to complete. We didn't let him move up with most of his age group. This past month, he finally earned his Wolf Badge. I was so proud of him. He worked so hard. Besides earning his Wolf Badge, Sam earned four arrows. Way to go!

Sam's Pine Wood Derby

I am from a family of all girls. This Boy Scout thing is all new to me. We got a flyer about a month ago announcing that this months pack night would be the Pine Wood Derby. Sam and Bryon have spent this past month working hard on his car. They went down to Idaho Falls on a Saturday and had Grandpa Joe help them sand down their car. Then Bryon and Sam have been working hard on getting the weights just right, painting the car and adding the wheels. I must say the perfectionist in me couldn’t help but offer to help him get the gold detail on his car just right. Sam informed me, to leave his car alone. He told me I had my chance to make a car in Girl Scouts. So yes, Bryon has put in a great deal of time helping Sam but a majority of the work has been Sam. So tonight was the big Pine Wood Derby. We had talked over and over with Sam about the important thing about the Pine Wood Derby is how much time he and his dad have spent working on this car together and it isn’t all about winning. I have to admit when it all boiled down to it, how exactly Sam would act should his car not be the fastest. Being the humble mother that I am, I was just sure that I wouldn’t have to worry about it because Sam’s car would no doubt be the fastest car there! When we got there, the track was all set up and ready to go. The Scouts were very anxious to see how their cars would perform on the track. Many of them were taking advantage of racing their cars down the track just to see how their car would do. Sam was a little hesitant. With some gentle encouraging, Sam stepped up to the track and set his car ready to race. Like Bryon said the important thing is, his car made it down the track. It wasn’t nearly as fast as I had envisioned it would be. Once pack night began, they had three different stations for the boys to attend to hopefully take their minds off “the official racing”. After seeing that Sam’s car wasn’t the fastest one there, I was really worried about how we would react once the real racing began and his car wasn’t winning. It was soon time for Sam to race his car. He didn’t win. After the race Sam made a point to come over to me and let me know that it was okay he didn’t win, he was having a great time. Sam raced his car all night long. It didn’t win once. Not once did Sam complain about losing. As we were leaving the church and Sam and I were together, he commented about how he didn’t win once all night long but that didn’t matter. So tonight I just want Sam to know how happy he made me about being such a good sport. You are right. Sam, you didn’t win a single race. You won where it mattered much more. You had a winning attitude and that is so much more important than winning any race.