AWANA Grand Prix

In preparation for the AWANA grand prix, Dr. Peds spent a lot of time in the basement with his tool collection.  In true Mason fashion, this year each kidlet chose something that wasn’t actually a car for their racing vehicle.  The Banana drew up plans for a ballet shoe.  Mr. SP wanted an upside down surf board.  The ever creative YaYa decided on a Radio Flyer wagon this year.  They were busy cutting and sanding and painting and gluing and wheel polishing.

We arrived at the church quite early on race day, since Dr. Peds was helping with the race.  So much excitement!  This year there were so many really neat cars, even more than the previous years.  There were London taxis, school buses, shoes on wheels, space shuttles, slices of cheese on wheels, rolling boxes of crayons, sports cars, an aquarium on wheels, and my very favorite of all, a yellow banana that was perfectly ripe with a few brown spots!  I loved all the great ideas.

Here’s The Banana’s shoe racing against a space shuttle, the slice of cheese and the banana.  The Banana’s shoe was eliminated in the first few races, but she was delighted to win an award for design.  Mr. SP’s surf board held on for the finals, but didn’t place.  He handled the disappointment excellently.  After the first two races, it became quite apparent that YaYa’s wagon was fast.  Really fast.  In fact, it was so fast that it won second place for speed, which was very exciting because in previous years, her bed was a bit slow, and her bathtub made it to the finals, but didn’t place.  This was her last year of AWANA racing, so it was special that the wagon ended up very fast.  (Leave it to a dad who did a lot of research on weight placement and wheel polishing!  The dads get a little crazy sometimes!)

There was one heat where The Banana had to race against Mr. SP, which resulted in a few tears.  It’s so hard to loose to a sibling, but over all, it was a fun filled morning.

I like the AWANA races because I get to sit back and watch.  I am completely useless when it comes to building a car, and I love how its such a great activities for dads and kids to work on together.  There is SO much excitement in the room on race morning.  Mr. TOF had a great time watching the cars.