And the winner is...

...Not Alex, unfortunately. Tonight was the Pinewood Derby, held annually by the Cub Scouts. Alex had fun watching his car do pretty well. I, on the other hand, thought it was excruciating. Jason had to work late tonight, so it was just me and the 3 kids. The Derby was scheduled to start at 6:30. Of course, when you get there, you need to register your car and you are assigned a number. Then you have to go and have your car weighed. It can weigh 5 ounces or less. We weighed Alex's car when it was completed, and it came in at exactly 5.0 ounces. When they weighed it tonight at registration, it was at 5.1 ounces. See, I knew it wasn't just me mysteriously putting on weight...even the car put on weight without an explanation! So, when the guy tells us that the car is too heavy, I was cursing Jason. Not because he was the one who put the weights on the car and weighed it, but because he was at work and I was the one who had to take a screwdriver and try to pry off a chunk of the weights. Actually, it ended up being quite easy, and it only took me a minute to do, so I guess I should just shut up about it. After that, it weighed in at a perfect 5.0.

After the whole registration thing is said and done, we sat and sat and sat and waited for the thing to get started. It was probably 7:15 before they had the first heat of cars ready to go. My only saving grace was that it was in a gym/cafeteria, so Lauren could run around and be loud if she wanted to. She also brought a couple of trains and a baby to keep her occupied. OK, so things finally get going, and it just keeps going and going and going. How many times do they need to run each car? Seriously, I think Alex's car ran about 8 or so heats. And there must have been at least 50 scouts with cars entered in the race. That's a lot of races! Then every once in a while, they would stop the race, and a den would do a skit. Hello? In the middle of racing? That's what all the other pack meetings are for. This is the Pinewood Derby. Then they went back to racing. Then a little bit later, a den leader got up and took the mic, and started announcing some awards that the scouts in her den were receiving. She might as well been speaking without the mic, because I couldn't make out a word she said. Back to racing. Then more announcements. More racing. Then a couple of jokes. I wanted to scream! By this time, Lauren was bored with her trains and her baby, and decided that the other side of the gym looked like more fun. So I'm off chasing her, while a bunch of other kids are apparently bored with the race too, and are running around at full speed. I just wanted to stick my foot out and trip them! (Is it horrible for a mom to say that about other people's kids?) By the time the event wound down, it was quarter to nine! People--I've got a 2-year-old who didn't take a nap at daycare today. I need to go home!!!

So anyway, back to Alex. Grandpa Frank helped him with his car this past Sunday. He cut the car out of the block of wood that it starts as, and sanded it as well. Then Alex did all the painting and designing. Jason then helped him nail the wheels in, and add the weights. Alex was really happy with how the car looked when he was finished. I have no idea what "place" Alex came in, other that it wasn't 1st, 2nd, or 3rd. He didn't care though. He got to have ice cream when he got home, and to him, that's the most important thing. Oh, and thank God he didn't place, because at the end, they mentioned something about tonight's winners moving on to a "District Race." I don't think I could take another night like this one.