Pinewood Derby!

Pinewood Derby!

All of the cars before the race. Kyle's is the shiny red one near the center.

Kyle and his car. (They did the hole in the middle because when they took it for weigh-in his was slightly over weight.)


Kyle and the scouts putting their cars on the track. Kyle's is the red one in the middle.





Laren sweating bullets!
Right before the race started Laren leaned over to me, telling me he hoped Kyle's car made it off the starting blocks. He thought it might have been too low, or that the tires would rub on the center thing on the track.




We realized right away that Kyle had a fast one! He ended up winning every race except for one, and he finished third place in that one. (There was something wrong with lane 5 on the track - every car that took that lane had problems.)



So Kyle WON the entire DERBY!!!!
I was happy for Kyle in that he has gone through SO much lately with his life threatening liver problems and being in and out of the hospital - and most especially that he could enjoy racing cars like boys do and that he had something positive happen on his 9th Birthday since he had been so sick earlier in the day!!

Kyle and Dad with the winning car, first place blue ribbon and Kyle's "Ring of Fire" award. All boys got a certificate and candy for racing. The top 3 finishers got ribbons. I was glad they didn't put too much emphasis on place because not all boys had a Dad to help them, etc... But especially so the boys didn't feel bad if their car didn't do well.

I am not sure all that they did to make Kyle's car fast, but I know with Laren being an Engineer he was thinking about speed through the whole design process. They moved the tires back, and put the weight in the back, rubbed graphite on the axels and I'm not sure what else.

**And just a little aside - Kyle does look different than he did before his liver problems. His primary teacher told me he did not recognize him the first time he came back to class and sat down. Most of the change is caused by the steroids (prednisone) making his face swell and making him gain weight. As for his sickness and his numbers going up - I guess, at this point the doctor thinks his numbers going up is directly related to him having had the flu this past week. Crossing my fingers that is the reason!