best in show

The 2013 Pinewood Derby race was yesterday morning.



Charlie thought his Wolves were racing at 9:45 so when we slept in until 8:00 we thought we had plenty of time to get up and have a leisurely breakfast. Until .... Charlie double checked his e-mail and realized that the Wolves were actually racing at 8:15. Roh Roh!!  So off he and William raced to the races and with only five minutes to spare, they were unable to pull on their full Cub Scout regalia.  It impressed the heck out of me that they didn't just go in their pajamas.



Half an hour later, I arrived with the rest of the crew and we took our positions at the bottom of the race track with donuts and orange juice in hand, compliments of the Pack. There were some very impressive Derby Cars this year.



But I think this one was among my favorites...



My little Henry has declared himself an "Honorary Cub Scout" and loves to wear William's retired orange Tiger uniform (hat and ascot) whenever we go to Cub Scout functions.



Sometimes this creates quite a commotion because people will yell to him, "Little Tiger Cub! Little Tiger Cub!! Get over here with your Den!!" so Henry will run over and join up with the kids wearing the orange until they look at him and ask, "Uh, who are you?"  To which he proudly replies, "I'M AN HONOWAWY CUB SCOUT!" 

(Also? Cutest five-year-old in the universe!)



There are two Wolf Dens at our school, with eight boys in each Den, for a total of 16 Wolf Cub Scouts. Of those 16 boys, Charlie William's car came in sixth place for speed. I didn't think that was too bad considering it was literally a block of wood on wheels with absolutely no aerodynamic enhancements. Charlie, however, thinks that he can do much better next year.  Something about nailing the wheels in straight, more Vasoline and Tube O' Lube, yada yada yada.



Also, I'm thinking that if you're competitive (which I'm definitely not, but my husband definitely is), a simple thing like thinking about the car in advance and spending more than 30 minutes on final design could make a BIG difference.  As it would turn out, Charlie's Den took first, second and third place in the competition for speed.  I think this is hilarious because the boys who won this year, are the same boys who won last year and the first place winner last year went on to win the Northern Virginia Regional Championship.  And oh, by the way ... all three of the boys' fathers happen to work for the US Military as Aerospace Engineers. Is it any surprise that their children's cars are among the fastest in Northern Virginia?



Probably not. 

More hilarious than that is that Charlie William's "PWD Boxcar" had the unanimous vote of the adult judges for Best in Show.



However, William's car wound up coming in third place ...



Because all the Cub Scouts were also allowed to vote (IMAGINE THAT?) and they selected the one that looked like a mouse driving a block of cheese.



Several parents came up to tell me that gluing the box directly to the car was absolutely brilliant. The fact that it took us only 20 minutes and yet landed us a spot on the podium?

Even more so.



As it turns out, every so often ...



Procrastination can work out quite well.