Grand Prix 2020

This past weekend, we had the AWANA Grand Prix at our church. It's a pinewood derby race that we've competed in for many years. The kids love it and look forward to it almost as much as their daddy does, ha. Leighton lets them choose any design for their car that they want. In years past, we've had a shark, police car, Hershey bar, monkey, shoe, a Camaro and "My Little Pony" Mustang, and various personalized designs. 

Leighton does a fantastic job with the cars, not only because he's a skilled craftsman, but because he's teaching our kids those skills, as well. As they get older, he expects them to complete more of the work. Drawing the design, sanding, painting--all the way down to cutting out the shape and polishing axles. It gives them a stronger pride in their cars and teaches them valuable skills.

Here are our 2020 Grand Prix cars!

  

I always love seeing their creativity. Anything can be made into a race car. Sometimes the kids know immediately what they want, other times we brainstorm until they decide, but we always have perfect designs in the end.  

Nicky suggested a few crazy ideas before he settled on Blaze from the television show (quite the resemblance, right?!) He actually wasn't involved in the design process since this car was a bit more involved, but he made a convincing project manager as he reminded his daddy of important missing details. He needs paint! Where are his wheels? In the end, he was quite pleased to drive Blaze across the gym floor and send him flying down the hallways.

Tyler had initially drawn two different ideas for his car. We all fell in love with his sub sandwich, so that became the winning choice. Tyler painted his buns and cut out felt for his fillings. It looks good enough to eat! He also made sure to have lighter colored slits in the top bun since that's how a real loaf bakes. Smart boy. He does love his momma's homemade French bread. 

Zac wasn't too concerned about a fancy car this year; he wanted to go for speed. He drew his design, sanded, and painted. He even added a number 18 on both sides, but soon realized they were covered by the wheels. Oops. His effort paid off though as he won 1st place for his group and competed in the overall race winning 2nd there. 

  

Alyssa took the longest to decide on a car. I personally suggested at least a dozen ideas (Leighton vetoed my Mount Rushmore suggestion, even though a group of perfectly carved presidents would be a guaranteed trophy). She eventually chose a hot dog, complete with ric rac mustard. Not only did she win a first place trophy for design, but for speed as well. That little hot dog can move!

Jake made his car completely by himself. Leighton gave suggestions and walked him through certain aspects, but Jake did the work. Not bad for a 14 year old! One of the wheels popped it off the track the first couple times down, but after it was angled differently, it really picked up speed. The adult group is only for fun, but I think his design was trophy-worthy. I'm sure there's no prejudice influencing that opinion either, ha. 

Leighton made his car by himself, too, ha! He put his engineering knowledge to work to design a fast car. He won every race in his group, won the overall race, and even beat a car that had never lost a race in many years. His car had hit 205 mph. I think to say he reached his goal of crafting a fast car and one that made his kids proud.

It was another great year at the Grand Prix! Designing, detailing, racing--it's all part of the fun! The trophies are just icing on the cake.

Or mustard on the hot dog.

Things That Make Me Smile 4/22/16

Jake (10), Alyssa (8), Zac (6), Tyler (4), Nicholas (1)

Happy Weekend! This Smiles are from a few weeks ago, as I'm still trying to get caught up. So much going on here lately, but we need to make time to Smile!

1. Zac, holding his hands out: "It was this tall. Or it was shorter or taller."

2. Alyssa: "I thought this was a free country . . . I shouldn't have to do math."

3. The kids made (with some help from daddy) and raced pinewood derby cars at our church's Grand Prix. We brought home trophies for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place for speed and 2nd and 3rd place for design.

4. Me: "What does aversion mean?"
Jake: "Well, Mary was a virgin because she had Jesus when she wasn't married."

5. Zac: "I made up a joke: What dessert does a balloon not like? . . . Popsicles!"

6. Commercial: "What's in your wallet?"
Jake: "That's none of your business!"

7. Me: What are sentries?
Jake: "100 years."

8.

9. I stayed home from church because Nicholas wasn't feeling well. I listened online to Leighton teaching Sunday School. Nicky's face lit up as he walked up to the computer. "Da-ddy! Da-ddy!" He had a big smile as he was trying to find his daddy on the screen. 

10. Alyssa, right after Nicholas ripped her notebook: "I love Baby . . . even though he's a nuisance sometimes."

11. Tyler: "I don't want you to tell Daddy that I'm going to play at {the neighbor's house.}"
Me: "I don't keep secrets from your daddy . . . except for fun surprises."
Tyler: "To me, that's a fun surprise."


What made you Smile this week?

Car Garbage Bag Holder

Many years ago, when I shared my car with no one, it was kept clean. Spotless. Garbage-free. Anything that didn't belong in it was taken out when I got out.

And then I got married.

I love that man dearly. I do. But he doesn't share my fervency for a clean vehicle. It doesn't help that he's worked in the demolition field since before we got married and it's nearly impossible to keep his truck free from dirt, but that's another story.

Over the years, he's given me children--5 of them--and those children all seem to have missed out on that keep-your-car-clean gene. They're much more like their father in that aspect, but worse. I mean, they are kids, after all. Almost every time they take something in the van with them it remains there until Leighton or I demand that they bring it in the house.

Candy and gum? Pop it in your mouth and toss the wrapper in the cup holder.

Toys? Drop them in your seat once we reach our destination.

Papers from church? Let them slip out of your hands and fall carelessly to the floor to be trampled on.

Hair ties and clips? Ask mom to put them in your hair just so you can remove them before we even get to where we're going and leave them in the van. Bonus points for each additional item.

Crayons, pencils, pens? Set them down and let them roll until they get lost deep between the seats.
Lego pieces? Actually, I'm not so sure what they do with those as I find them in every possible crevice of both the van and the house. What exactly do they do? Throw them in the air to make it rain? Play hide and seek with each other? See who can lose their pieces the fastest? Strategically place them all over to drive mom crazy?? I'm just not sure.

Am I exaggerating? Yes. Maybe. But you get the point. Kids plus car equals mess. (Actually, kids plus anything equals mess, but you already knew that.) Whether you're running errands around town or driving on vacation across country, you need a way to contain the mess.
   

All you need to do is fill an empty paper towel tube with plastic grocery bags.

I know, super simple. We always have bags in the van for garbage or for carting objects back into the house. We've been using this method since our oldest was just a little guy, because it works so well. I do prefer to rely on reusable bags for grocery shopping and carrying our things, so I use the plastic bags mostly for garbage, but there are times when I forget to put the reusables back in the van and just hand the kids a plastic bag to gather their things. When you use up all the bags, you just need to refill it. The tube lasts quite a while before needing to be replaced. It fits easily next to your seat, under it, in the glove box or anywhere that you can access it. I keep mine in a slot in  the passenger door. That way, while Leighton is driving, I can gather the random mess of papers, wrappers, receipts, and whatnot that has been overlooked and get the van back to clean again. 

In a perfect world, the kiddos would clean up after themselves every time without being reminded to. Yeah. Until then, we'll just keep filling our tube with bags.

Now, if only I could figure out what they do with those Lego pieces.

Wordless Wednesday 12/5/12

Antioch Grand Prix

The past few weeks have included many nights with me secluded out on the porch doing more woodworking. I wasn't finishing the dollhouse, nor was I making any more beds. I was carving pinewood derby cars, three of them. It was supposed to be four, one for me, but I ran out of time. I thought about doing a step-by-step of the process, but they took enough time as it was. I couldn't imagine how much longer they would have taken. I'll tell you what I did. I just won't be able to show you.

When I asked Jake what kind of car he wanted he told me, "A race car that the hood opens." Really? Do you understand how this race works? Opening hoods don't matter, you're not going to do anything to the engine. It won't have an engine! After some talking we determined that winning a race was more important to him than the car looking cool. So we looked at other low profile cars for ideas. We decided on a design and cut the shape. I didn't start carving right away because I was more concerned with how much work I had to put into Alyssa's, so I started hers first. When Jake saw it take form, he decided looking cool was much more important. A completely new idea, and a new block of wood later; we were on our way. I decided on the Camaro aspect, he chose the black with green flames and the red number six.

Alyssa's design was easy to come up with, "I want a pink My Little Pony car!" "Pony Car!" A Mustang! Idea, easy; following through, not so much. I decided on basing it off the 2013 model on Ford's website and Alyssa decided on Pinky Pie being the art work.

When I asked Zac what kind of car he wanted,"I want blue one!" So the design was up to me. I chose to try and win a race with this one. While still trying to keep it stylish, I removed as much wood as possible. Once I finished the cutting, sanding, and priming I let Zac do the painting.

Zac's car did not require any extra wood but the other two did so that they would look real.

I used the standard block of wood you are given with the kit but added a piece of wood 1 1/2" wide and 1/2" inch thick (actual measure) to the car. Before I could glue it to the block I had to cut openings for the wheels.

I measured the distance from each end to the axle cut and mark it on the side pieces. I used a 1 1/4 inch spade drill bit to drill the openings. About one-third of the bit goes over the edge of the board, so clamp it down and go slow. Or drill just enough to get the line to follow the edge and cut it out with the scroll saw. I did some of each. Once the holes are done glue them right to the block with wood glue using clamps to hold it over night.

With the added wood the block would not fit under my scroll saw so I had to use a band saw. I simply cut out the basic shape with the saw and used a Dremel to do all the carving. Most of the work was done with a sanding bit, but a lot of excessive removal as well as much of the detail was done with a variety of high-speed cutters. Use what tools you have, but be PATIENT! Speed leads to mistakes. Trust me! When I was little my dad would cut the basic shape and I would do the rest with a pocket knife. It just takes longer.

I did just about all the priming and painting with sprays. The tail lights and some touch ups were done with acrylics. Use fine sand paper before you paint if you want a fine finish when you're done. A lot of people at the race thought our cars were plastic because of the finish. I also added a coat of clear to make them really shine. Word to the wise though, don't draw any designs with a Sharpie if you're gonna use clear coat. It makes the marker run.

The races went completely backwards of what I expected. I lost one of the polished axles that I prepped so I had to use a spare axle that was too tight of a fit for the wheels so Zac's car didn't go anywhere. Jake's car with it's blunt nose won second for speed and Alyssa's won third. I had assumed that their cars would not do well on the track due to how much wood was on them. But it turns out it comes down to what you do with your axles. Polish your axles, it pays off. But depending on the age, as long as they end up with a car to play with they're happy.

I already mentioned that Jake won second and Alyssa third for speed. But Alyssa also won first for design. I'm sure that had nothing to do with the pony to mustang reference.

Have you made any pinewwod cars? What creative designs did you come up with? Any cool paint jobs out there? Any success tips to share? Make a car and have fun!