Pinewood Derby, Year 3

Every year I am amazed at the amount of time Craig and Bentley can spend making his pinewood derby car.  My natural tendency is to get annoyed (because there are always about five hundred other things I can think of that I would like to make Craig do around the house), and I have to step back and notice what a fun father-son bonding thing this actually is.  So what if the automatic door on my van is sticking?

Anyway, this year the theme for the race was "Time Travel."  Bentley originally wanted to make a model of the Mayflower, which Craig and I both agreed was a brilliant idea.  Unfortunately, we also realized that this would make for a terribly slow car, and felt like in the interest of full disclosure we should probably point this flaw out to Bentley.  So he decided he wanted a locomotive engine, instead.  He and Craig fashioned a lovely one, and set to work painting it and trying to make the rather bulky car train as speedy as possible.

I love this picture.  It can be so hard to get a good shot of Bentley, and this one is perfect.

In the past, I've tended to get kind of up-tight about the day of the actual derby.  I have a hard time bringing little kids to places I'm not familiar with, especially when I know there won't be anything to keep them contained and/or occupied.  But this being our third time going, for once I was pretty relaxed about the whole thing and looked forward to cheering on Bentley's car.  As an added bonus, Bentley's den was in charge of this year's derby, so I figured Craig would have no problem saving us seats since he'd be there way earlier-- I could just show up with the little guys and enjoy!

That turned out to be completely wrong.  (I should have known better!)  Upon our arrival, the first thing I saw was Craig standing at the head of the race track, directing each scout on how to place their car on the track.  He was too busy to even notice us, let alone to have been saving seats for us that entire time.  And coming and helping me with the kids was certainly not going to be an option, either.

Craig is engrossed in making sure the track is perfect.

So I found some seats with pretty much no view of the race track and proceeded to try and keep Ryder and Colton happy for an hour and a half (fortunately for everyone, the snacks they were selling were at a good price, so I didn't feel too bad indulging the kids).  This was one of those things that, had I been prepared and had I not spent the entire morning vacuuming the whole house AND had I not been so pregnant, probably wouldn't have been a big deal at all.  But as it was, I sat there feeling kind of annoyed and hard-done-by.  (Scouts seems to have this effect on me, I'm afraid.)

So it wasn't my best time ever.

But, much more importantly, Bentley seemed to have a wonderful time, even though his car didn't race particularly well.  Craig and Kendra had a great time, too, for that matter.  Well, so did Ryder and Colton, for the hour and a half I managed to keep them there.  So, yeah, everyone had fun but me.  I was grumpy.  (I should just make Craig blog about this-- then you'd just get the happy version and not see what a whiner I am!)

I was too busy to get many (good) pictures, but I like that I got Craig helping Bentley out here

Anyway, I survived it, and everyone else had fun.  And I really did like Bentley's car.  I'm not quite sure how Craig is going to manage all this once all three boys are old enough to be doing this at the same time.  I guess that will be his problem, unless I start learning to use his power tools (doubtful).

But I think I'm glad this next baby is a girl!

Bentley thrilled (I think?) with his award-- "Most Industrious"