Little Wheeled Blocks of Wood

Every year our Girl Scout Service Unit holds a father/daughter activity.  It's usually a dance.

Last night our they held the first (hopefully) annual father/daughter Pinewood Derby.

(Well, it was supposed to be a father/daughter event.  The girls and the dads worked on the cars together.  But if they thought the moms (and in some cases the grandparents and neighbors) were missing out on the race, well, they had another thing coming.  That poor elementary school gym had probably never had so many people inside.)

There were 128 cars entered in the race.  The track had six lanes, and each car raced once in each lane.  That meant 128 heats.  It was a long night, but the Boy Scout pack who provided the track does this on a regular basis and were really organized.  The Girl Scouts all seemed to have a lot of fun, and that, of course, is all that matters.

Althoguh I have a suspicion that the dads, too, had a good time, and were, at the very least, grateful that they didn't have to dance.

Here's the best shot I could get of the cars.  This is not, of course, all the cars, but it does at least show the most important two:

Now comes the part where I brag a little bit about my own children.  If braggy blog posts bug you, and, believe me, I totally understand, tune back in next time for some regularly-scheduled brag-free blogging.

Like I said, each car raced 6 times, and in a totally random order.  Since we were standing behind the starting line, I wasn't able to get any good pictures of the actual racing (although we could at least see the finish line - my camera just won't take decent pictures that far away and in that dim of light), but the scoreboard was projected up on the wall, so I could at least take pictures of the placements.  We went into it not expecting much, just hoping the cars would actually cross the finish line.  And they did!

Lexi's best score:

She placed 3rd three times, and 4th twice, and 6th once.

And Vicki's:

Yay for 1st place!  She also placed 2nd twice, and 3rd, 4th, and 5th one time each.

Overall, the girls placed 51st (Vicki) and 52nd (Lexi), so they were in the top half!

And they can't wait for next year!