My little winner

Today was the pinewood derby for Zack's Wolf Troop.  He worked diligently on his car all week long.  His idea?  To create a car that looked like a Wii controller.  His goal was to try for a design award.  Last year's derby taught him that plenty of the experienced dads took speed seriously.  They made cars that quite simply flew.

We did a bit of trimming and a touch of weighting and then got to work on the design.  He used spray paint to make it a nice and glossy white.  Then we grabbed the camera and took pictures of his wii controller.  After printing out the best shot, he trimmed the decorations and we modge podged them to the top of his car.  After that, he spray painted a clear gloss coat.  It is definitely easier at age 8 to work with spray than a brush.  Here he is with his creation:

He headed to the race feeling hopeful.  Allie and I headed to the health club for Tae Kwon Do and a work out.  As soon as the races were over, my phone rang.  A very excited Zack could not contain himself.  He won his very first trophy--for original design.  Zack is still bouncing around the house filled with excitement.  He came in 2nd place a couple of different heats for speed, but did not make the finals. 

I was proud of him for winning, but even more proud when Drew shared that one of his classmates was sitting crying after losing and Zack handed dad his trophy and went to sit and talk to his friend.  Talked to him about how Zack felt last year when he did not win anything and the crying kid won the speed prize.  Then they headed to play a bit of basketball together.  If I could give him a trophy for kindness, I would. 

I am so proud of my little man.