As I mentioned in my last post, one big event last week was the older two kids getting to participate in the annual Awana Grand Prix at church. Grand Prix is a pine box derby race that the kids (and lots of dads, and moms, too!) look forward to every year. It is a wild & crazy night with over 100 kids entering cars into the race! The races are divided by club Sparks & TNT with a winner for each club. And then the club winners race each other for the grand winner! This was Jack's 4th year entering a car & Sophie's first year being able to participate.
A lot of planning, engineering, and work goes into making the delicate race cars out of a plain block of pine wood. Jeff spent the day last Saturday (while I was still in bed sick) at his parents' house making use of the wood shop to work on the cars. Sophie & Jack had both drawn out their car designs before hand...although Jeff took a little creative liberty with the designs in the interest of speed...it is all about weighting & aerodynamics to achieve the fastest car down the inclined track! Once the cars were finished, the fun begins...the kids got to paint & decorate their cars however they wanted!
Sophie choosing just the right paint colors
Everyone busy painting!
Darcy had her own little "car" to work on...a scrap of wood left over from the other cars.
Sophie decided to paint the body of the car pink with green sides.
Jack chose a "flames" motif
They each picked out a stamp or two to decorate the cars.
I used my cricut to cut out their car numbers using adhesive vinyl...easy peasy!
The ready race cars!
(Jack's car did get white stripes on the football to complete it, we had just forgotten to paint those on before pictures!)
Race Night!! It is always a packed house!
Drew immediately spied the dessert table...
Darcy enjoying some snuggles with Daddy
Sophie's car won her first race! She ended up racing 4 times & coming in first in 2 of those races. Great for her first year, but not quite good enough to make it to the final heat.
Jack's first race!
Jack also won first place in 2 out of 3 races and narrowly missed advancing to the final round. It was his best year yet, so he was happy!
The boys spent lots of time watching the winning cars & storing away tips for next year...Jeff said he learns something new each year & each year the cars get better. Can't get mad at that!
Drew spent lots of time snacking & cheesing for the camera!
By the end of the looong night (it takes almost 3 hours to race all the cars!) I was doing anything I could to keep Drew entertained & not screaming...hence the cheerios on the nose game!
After their cars were done racing, the kids had lots of fun just racing them around on the floor!
Drew, of course, got in on the racing action. The boy loves cars!
Sophie & her little friend Molly Grace
Jack posing with his car
All in all, it was a great night & fun was had by all! We were also super thrilled that the kids' good friend Jacob won the grand prize for the Sparks club and only narrowly lost to the TNT race car in the finals! We are already looking forward to next year!
2 comments:
Ahh, what a fun night. Our Church has a derby too. I think we're a year or two still away from being able to enter. I know my car loving guys will get really into it. I love that Jack is allowing to take some pictures of him, with no hand up! He's so grown up but I see so much of little Jack in him too. Miss you all! Can't wait to hear the upcoming baby arrival news. So glad you are all healthy and well again.
i have such fond memories of racing my cars in the awana grand prix... can't wait for my little men to do the same in a few years. way to go jeff for carving two cars... and way to go YOU for having a hundred different paints for the kids to use! so fun!
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