Pinewood Derby - a Happy Ending

Yesterday, my little Wolf

had his Pinewood Derby race.  (Like the pink Wii remote?  That right there tells a lot about him!)

He worked on his car with his Dad.

His is the one with the nickles on it.  Dad figured out the attachment with the Velcro that we got at CVS on our way to the race.

People are really crazy about the Pinewood Derby.  Really crazy.

Fancy, eh?

Before the race, I had the "talk" with Hadyn.  I tried to explain that it's not winning that is important - but the process.  He spent a lot of time with Dad making and painting the car.  Both had a lot of fun with it.  That's what's important.

So, when it was our time to race, all the other cars made it down the track, Dad got very nervous.  He wanted our car to do well.  Well, our car stopped dead in the middle and looked like jumped the track.  All the other cars made it to the end - in record pace, of course. Needless to say, Hadyn came up to me with sad eyes.

       <Here we go>  UGH.

So, they raced the cars again changing tracks, and our car still stopped in the middle and jumped the track.

Haha!  I thought it was funny.  Dad was sad.  Hadyn had sad eyes.  Everybody was trying to comfort Hadyn.

So funny.

So, they ran his car a few times by itself to see what was wrong - which was really nice of them to do.  One Dad thought it might be the wheels, so we had a pit stop during the race to see if we could work on the wheels.

Once they worked on the wheels, we ran the last race.  The person who started the race gave our car an extra little push...and we came in second!  Dad with yelling, Hadyn was yelling and cheering!  Everybody was cheering for our car.  Everybody was happy.

I just took in the moment, looked around and smiled.

Hadyn got a blue ribbon for the most improved car!

A happy ending to a very poor beginning!

Initially, I was extremely hesitant about participating in this race.  So much competition.  I believe in cooperation not competition.  In reality, you can't get anywhere in this world alone.  But, it was cooperation which got our car down the track - the best lesson of all!

See, there was really no need to worry.  Although, next time, I need to make sure I have the "talk" with Dad.

What do you think about competition?  Should I have been worried about the race?  Would you have been?  Please comment and tell me - because I really want to know!

L