Pinewood Derby and I have a love/hate relationship.  I love watching my boys get so excited about their car.  I hate how disappointed they are when they lose.  We let our boys do all the work on their cars (minus the actual cutting of the wood).  When it comes to Pinewood Derby, I've found there are a lot of dads out there who do their son's car for them.  We try to let our boys do as much on their own as possible.  Then the car is truly theirs.  They pencil out the design on the wood and they paint and decorate their car.  We install the wheels and that's about it.

Well this year Colton spent a lot of time on his car.  We even used weights to bring it right up to the allowed weight...but he still lost almost every race (I think he won one race out of about five?).  Colton is such a good sport.  He never cries when he loses and he always praises the winner...with no coaxing from us.  He is a naturally gracious kids.  BUT...I could see the disappointment in his eyes every time he lost.  And that was hard.

I am so proud of Colton and the ability he has to praise others.  He is such a brave and valiant kid.  I'm so glad he's mine!

Look at all these cute boys all ready to race their cars...

 The spectators all cheering on their favorite cars...

 Here comes Colton's...

 And again...

 Showing off his VERY cool looking snake car...

 We have some super amazing leaders who made every kid feel like a winner.  They gave them some pretty cute awards.

 The older boys also raced Pinewood Derby cars.  They didn't follow any of the normal rules though.  They were strictly there for fun.  There were some pretty cool cars.  This was Bryan's...

Half the fun is making those cars, and both Bryan and Colton had fun making their cars.  It was fun to watch Bryan giving advice to Colton about how to do it. They may fight sometimes, but Bryan is very protective of his younger sister and brothers.  I love my kids!