My Little Racers

Our church participates in AWANA. Thomas and Sarah Grace are both in the Cubbies class, and have really enjoyed going each week. They have learned about 30 verses this year in the Cubbies program, on top of the ones we work on at home. I can't even begin to tell you how proud of them I am!

One of the things that AWANA does at the end of the year is a Grand Prix. (I only know how it works within our church, so if your church does it different, don't come after me wagging a finger and telling me this isn't right. Because for us, it is.) The kids get to build cars for a pinewood derby type thing. Actually, a handful of adults do a lot of the work...the kids are just the idea creators!

As you can imagine, this is highly entertaining. And highly competitive. Thomas did very well last year with his Lightening McQueen car, and just missed placing. Since then, he and Sarah Grace have been mulling over the various characters their cars could be. However, we seem to be short on imagination and long on Cars love. Thomas again picked a car based on Lightening McQueen and Sarah Grace chose to model hers after Sally.

At this point I will tell you that if you haven't seen Cars, you aren't getting any younger. It's cute, though I would not recommend it for every kid. There are some pretty sassy spots and several bad attitudes. Then end is all happily ever after, though!

Okay, plug over. Back to the meat of this post.

Joshua and I scurried home Sunday afternoon to ensure that we could gather all our children and be a part of the Grand Prix races. It was a good time, I tell you. Thomas and Sarah Grace were beside themselves with excitement. They wanted to show off their cars. They wanted to play with their cars. They wanted at the refreshments table where a spread of junk food was laid out!

Thomas and Sarah Grace's cars both did very well in the first heat. Thomas was even in the run off for first place, but lost out to an older kid with a really cool car! Then after the first place finisher was awarded his trophy, the award for fourth place design was announced. Sarah Grace and her Sally car had taken fourth place on design!!!

Sarah Grace was a bit upset and scared to go get her trophy, so I picked her up and we went together. Once she saw the trophy, all fears were cast to the wind. She had a new shiny to show off!

In the second heat, Thomas and Sarah Grace both kept winning until there was a showdown at the end for second place finisher. The man with the mic announced announced that Thomas Freeman and Sarah Grace Freeman were the final two cars to race against each other for the overall second place finish! A Freeman Race-Off!

The room grew (slightly) more quiet and several people laughed as they stood up to see brother and sister face off.

For their part, Thomas and Sarah Grace happily took their cars to the starting line, then stood back to cheer for themselves.

The crowd counted down, and the cars went zooming down the track. I stood at the end of the track to see who would win so I could be sure to check the face of the other child for signs of break down.

Thomas was announced the second place winner!!! He ran to collect his trophy and his car while I made my way to Sarah Grace.

She picked up her car and returned it to the table to await her next run. When she turned to me, I had no idea what to expect, given that she is usually the more competitive child.

'Now we bowf have tro-pees, Mama! I gots one and Thomas gots one!'

I hugged that little girl up close and was joyful with her that they had both won. She hugged me back, but quickly squirmed away to go off and sit with her friends to watch the races.

Sarah Grace's car continued to do well, making it into the over all third place finals (but missing, and then into the over all fourth place finals. Where she won!

In all honesty, she was tired of the hullabaloo, and I had to coax her to go and retrieve her trophy. She gracefully accepted it, and with a wry look on her face, handed it off to me, then went back to play. I laughed, because what else does one do when things are funny?

The winners for speed and design all congregated at the front for pictures with their trophies and cars in hand. Almost all. Sarah Grace needed to go to the restroom, and held up pictures for several minutes. I laughed again as I heard a teen aged boy comment that he and his brothers were always waiting on their Mom to come out of the bathroom before they could do things, too. I wanted to pat his shoulder and tell him that the best things in life are worth waiting for, but I suspect he wouldn't have quite understood yet.

It was a fun evening, and the kids are thrilled with their trophies. Thomas took his to school yesterday to show off to his friends, who were all sufficiently impressed. Today, the three older kids have played 'Trophy Winners' all morning. They keep passing out the trophies to each other for various different things: counting to twenty-nine (Sarah Grace get stumped after that), singing a song, jumping over a pile of books/pillows/siblings, eating all their food, etc.

In fact, pretty much anything is trophy worthy at our house today. I nursed Anna and received a 4th place design trophy for it!