Daddy Daughter Pinewood Derby

Nate and the girls went to the Daddy Daughter party on Thursday night.  They had a great time!  This year’s activity was a pinewood derby.  The girls were so excited to get to make their own cars.  As soon as Elise got her kit she started searching the internet for ideas.  After looking at 453 different cars, she decided to make a Hershey’s bar car (very fitting for our candy-loving girl).  Nate did the cuts, Elise did the sanding and painting, and I helped her to put the foil and wrapper on.  It was pretty easy to make and turned out super cute.

It was no surprise that Emily wanted something art related.  She found a cute car online that looked like a box of crayons that she wanted to copy.  It seemed complicated, so I suggested that she do watercolors instead.  She thought that was a great idea.  We had an old set of watercolors with removable cups (they don't make them like that anymore).  Most of the paint was used up, so Emily washed them out and put in the little discs of paint from a new set.  Nate drilled out little ovals to put the paint cups in and cut a groove for the paintbrush.  Emily was in charge of sanding and painting.  The finished product looked awesome.

Nate made all of the strategic adjustments (adding weight, polishing the axles, and using graphite).  When he tested the cars out here, they were equally fast.  Emily’s did better on the night of the race and she finished in 3^rd place out of 22 cars.  Elise was a little disappointed (more about only being able to race once than about not placing), but she got over it.

I’m glad the girls have such high effort Activity Day leaders and a great dad that will go out of his way to make them happy.  Abby is already planning her car.  She helped the girls make one when Ben had his pinewood derby, but she wants one of her very own.  Hopefully this activity will make an appearance again in a few years.