Pinewood Derby

So, Jayden must have the coolest Uncle in the world!! Jim agreed to help Jayden build his pinewood derby car and Jayden had the time of his life! Jim set up the machine then taught Jayden how to move the blade so that Jayden actually was able to do all the cutting of the car structure. Jayden is my machanically minded boy and he ate up the experience. Jim was pretty impressed with how well Jayden listened to instructions and how careful and precise he was. He may have to come up with another random project to make with his uncle Jim!

I did my small part in the project by helping Jayden paint his Hummer tank camoflauge. I had him paint a little, then I would smooth out the paint and clean up the edges. Here he is painting the grill black.


The race was on May 2nd at Santa Susan Park. His car did pretty well. He won the first two races without any problem. (As you can see from the picture of his car on the track, it won by almost a whole car length. The third race, his car tied, but when they switched his car to the other track, it started wobbling and it lost the race. Same thing happend his next race. One of the funnest things about the race is that all the boys loved Jayden's car, so every time it was up for a race, the boys would chant out, "Army car" hoping it would win. That was fun for Jayden! He also enjoyed the support of his Grandma Jessop who came to watch the race and brought Jeff's kids along.