Pinewood Derby

Last night was the AWANA pinewood derby.  My kids love this event.  I love this event.  It's a lot of fun, but it is also a great reminder of one of life's lessons better learned early.  Not everybody wins.  Actually most people lose.  In a society that gives an award for everything, it is kind of refreshing to go to an event where most of the kids leave with only the satisfaction of having tried and putting forth their best effort. 

Learning this lesson isn't always easy.  All the kids had a great time designing and painting their cars.  They went with high hopes of how their cars would do in the races, but Naomi was the only one who left with a trophy.  She got third place for design in the Cubbies division. 

Elijah took losing the hardest.  He cried.  Big, fat crocodile tears.  Disappointment is hard to take but it is part of life and as much as I hate to see him cry, I want him to learn that we often lose and when we do it with grace and then learn from it sometimes were better off than if we had won.  Overall the kids had a good time and the oldest three are already talking about how to improve their designs for next year.

I swear Naomi wasn't clobbering Sam with her trophy.