the big race

Saturday afternoon was the annual Derby Race at church, and this was the first year that both Collin and Drew entered cars. Doron worked with them for weeks; picking out cars, paint, decals, lights, side pipes, and all these other whirly-do's that I don't want to/couldn't begin to name.

Collin's car:


Drew's car:


Remarkably similar, wouldn't you say? That's another story.

There were a few snags along the way. Drew was by FAR the most excited about the race, and after painting his car green and gold, he chose some orange and yellow flame decals, and decorated his car with all the precision of a 5-year old. He was SO proud! Two days before the race, Doron lacquered Drew's car to make it shiny, but the lacquer made the paint bubble up, ruining the entire car. And the decals. After a late-night, emergency call to Hobby Town, we discovered there were no more flame decals in stock. After an emergency post on Facebook, we discovered there was only one more place in town to try, and yep, you guessed it, no flame decals. That was snag #1.

Snag #2: Upon arriving at the race Saturday morning, Doron found out that both boys' cars were not legal, and the wheels and axles had to be replaced. Oops.

Snag #3: Not only did we use the wrong wheels and axles, it turned out that both cars were over the 5 oz. weight limit. Seems a certain dad missed a certain memo, outlining the rules.

Snag #4 (which I will cover in detail later): If you're not in the 'Boys of Faith' group (1st grade and up), you don't get a trophy. Do I need to remind you that Drew is in preschool? Might I also remind you that Drew is highly competitive and doesn't give two hoots about playing "for fun." Either you win, or you have an emotional meltdown. More on that later.

Let me say this before we go any further. I don't like to make excuses. HOWEVER, may I just say, that my new, awesome flash TOTALLY bailed on me, and died a slow death...starting about 5 minutes after we arrived at the race. I guess that's why they always tell you to BRING EXTRA BATTERIES. Every time I took a picture, it took about 30 seconds for the flash to recycle. And it was so stinkin' dark in that gym, not using a flash was not an option. My last excuse, and then we will move on: I don't know how to use my new, awesome flash!! I was bouncing it off the ceiling, off the walls, off Doron's bald spot... I had no clue what I was doing.

OK, here come the pictures. You will notice that on my blog, when I like the pictures, they will be large. If I dislike them, they will be small. These are small.

Here's an overview of the whole event. See the race track, teensy weensie in the opposite corner from where I'm standing? Thought you might like to look at a bunch of folding chairs, rather than the track. Nice!


Here are the boys, Drew in orange and Collin in blue. They are watching Drew's car.


Drew comes in 1st place!


Yes, this is too small for you to read, but it says: 1st place ~ Drew Bonnie!


This post is getting really long, so let's cut to the chase. Collin did good. Drew did better. Collin got a trophy, Drew did not. If you're not in "Boys of Faith", no trophy. I was sort-of, almost 80% positive that I discussed this fact with Drew before the race. Clearly I did not. As the trophies were being handed out, getting bigger and bigger, the smile on my preschooler's face got bigger and bigger. He just KNEW his trophy was going to be huge!

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, here is my only (awful) picture of Collin receiving his trophy. I was being squeezed out by other moms taking pictures, and I'm not a pushy kind of person. Right, Doron? ;-)



As Drew waited and waited for his trophy (he really did have one of the fastest cars in the whole race)...all of a sudden we hear "Well, that concludes our evening! Thank you so much for coming!" And this, my friends, is where the meltdown occured. I was so sad for Drew, I couldn't even bring myself to snap one picture of the giant tears rolling down his cheeks. *sniff, sniff* :-(

As always, my sweet, thoughtful 2nd grader was there to save the day. When we got home, Collin secretly snuck this up to Drew's bedroom: