Adventures of a Christian Military Homeschooling Family: 2011 Heritage Pinewood Derby

Each year, our church, Heritage Baptist, hosts a Pinewood Derby for children ages 3-5th grade. In 2010 we had just moved here, so we hadn't settled into a church yet, and the the kids missed out on the Derby (Too bad, because that would have been Christopher and Emily's only year to participate). So, this year, Lydia wanted to make a car, and we decided to let her do as much of the project as possible. In 21 years of parenting and having 5 children, we have only participated in a Pinewood Derby once, so we just crossed our fingers that Lydia's car would be respectable enough to finish the track ;-)

Well, we have some awesome friends, and some special people, Randy and Ginger, decided to help Gary and I out as we tried to help Lydia create this car. Randy has woodworking equipment, so we didn't have the expense of buying tools that we probably would only touch on rare occasions. We enjoyed dinner with them twice this week, while Randy helped Gary and Lydia with the car.

First, Randy taught Lydia how to use his saw and had her begin on some practice wood.

She looks so serious in her safety glasses!

Ok, she was ready to cut the real thing! Daddy watched on :-) What started off as a simple block of wood would soon become her masterpiece!

After cutting the block into 2 pieces, she used wood glue to put them together at a different angle.

The grips were doing a good job...kinda ;-)

The next day she painted the car white as a base coat (Sorry, no pics), and then it was time to begin painting her "Watermelon Racer" :-) Yes, she came up with the idea!
She did a GREAT job!

Then, Lydia had to draw the seeds. She practiced all day one day on how to draw the proper shape for a watermelon seed! Her practice paid off, and she did terrific!

The finished product turned out great! It's hard to see in the photo, but she even wanted a couple of bugs glued on top of the watermelon slice...just to be different! That's our Lydia ;-)