Last Friday was the annual Scout Pinewood Derby. We had procrastinated making the car so tensions were high Friday afternoon. Heath kept getting frustrated for various reasons. I think the wheels were splitting the wood or something. I was keeping my distance because I wanted nothing to do with the Pinewood Derby.

At one point Heath walked in and growled, “I hate scouts! I hate scouts!” I agreed. Scouts is a tricky activity. I can see where they’re going with the program but frankly I don’t care. As long as Gavin cares about it I will be supportive. Heath did go to a scout leader training a couple weekends ago. When he came home he was reluctant to admit that he is starting to catch the spirit of scouting a little more. It was an excellent training and he was glad he went. I’ve been a scout leader a couple of times for only a few months each time. All I learned was that scouting takes an extraordinary amount of time and training.

All that being said, I am so impressed with Heath. I was ready to encourage him to forget the whole stupid Pinewood Derby. I never said anything even though I definitely thought it. Heath told me he remembered only going to one Pinewood Derby as a kid. He didn’t remember it being an option the troop entertained very often. He wished he could have done more.

He couldn’t let Gavin down at the last minute. He was going to make it work even though we had waited way too long to finish preparations. I thought that was very big of him as a father. Gavin disappeared as soon as he heard Heath’s frustrations. I’m sure he was disappointed but was going to deal with whatever hand we dealt him that evening.

 
This is the best picture ever! Not because Gavin has spaghetti sauce stains all over his face and arm, although that is pretty funny. But because he is smiling! Gavin smiled for a picture? Have pigs sprouted wings? You can see how excited he was about his Perry the Platypus car.

Perry the Platypus. I asked Gavin if he wanted the eyes glued on top or in front. He said on top. I glued them in front. When I ask your opinion just know chances are I will disregard anything you say.

How did Perry fare among the other racers? Heath put together this little video to answer that question.

Everyone in the room knew exactly who the car was supposed to be. They thought Perry was pretty cool.

Gavin was excited about the Red Hots, ribbon, and badge he got.

Parker was really excited to go to the Pinewood Derby. Heath said he was really sweet playing with Rebekah, one of Gwen’s best friends. Gwen and I stayed home and had a girls night.

We had ended up at McDonald’s earlier that day for lunch. The library was a little too crowded for my taste and Gwen really wanted to play. So I told her we could go to the playground at McDonald’s. She was thrilled. You can imagine how happy she was to have more girl time with me that evening. In fact, she cried as if someone had died when the boys got home! Heath thought Parker did something since those two fight like crazy. But she was just mad that our girls night had ended! We had fun together. Best girls forever as Gwen would say. And the boys had a very fun masculine time racing cars.