A block of wood.

Three weeks ago, Seth was given a block of wood, 4 nails, and 4 wheels. I gave a deep sigh. It's that time again. The time that every scout looks forward to all year... while all we parents stare at that block of wood with dread and despair.

2 weeks ago, I picked up the peice of wood. I held it in my hand and wondered... how I~ a single mom~ with no experience in hand tools... was to create a race car out of this. Maybe I could wittle it down with a butter knife. I put the block of wood back down and returned to my world of laundry and baking. I returned on the last week, stared at it again... and picked up the phone.

This was an emergency of large proportions. No way was Seth going to go to the derby with a square block of wood with four wheels. It was time to call... a man!

When I called my brother-in-law, he was just about as excited to help as a patient is excited for a root canal. Four years of derby cars had taken its toll. However, I was in luck. His son needed a new derby car too! Why not just kill two birds with one stone. 

Countless hours later~ Dee delivered the car. It had been shaped, painted, and glued. It was still wet even. He dropped it off to me exclaiming "the wheels suck!" I didn't care!! It was the most glorious looking derby car EVER. The race... was tonight.  So I painted on the detail and when Seth came home from Speech Therapy... we were off. 

We were the second to arrive at the weigh in. Armed with pennies and tape. Seth had a wrench in his pocket that he decided to strap on the car instead of 3 large mounds of pennies. It looked great! It weighed the perfect amount. Time for a test run. It ran... slowly. I explained to Seth that we were here to have fun and make friends and that it didn't matter if he won or not. After two years of losing at the Derby he had a fairly good understanding of this.  Soon, someone came with the graphite for the wheels which I meticulously put in.

Then... it was time!

Seth's car won 4 out of the 7 races and he won the award for the car most likely to be driven by a superhero!  Even better still is the fact that the race is over... and we survived.  He was happy. He socialized. He ate nachos. He fit in. It was perfect.