The Ropelato's: ~Pinewood Derby~

Friday, January 21, 2011

~Pinewood Derby~

Hunter lucked out that his very first pack meeting was the pinewood derby. He looked so cute all dressed up in his scout uniform, and it was fun to see his troop do the flag ceremony.

For the last few weeks, Hunter has been working so hard to get his Bobcat. He was so excited to see that he would be getting it at pack meeting. I had no idea that they gave the moms a pin as well. Our (notice I say our) hard work paid off :)

This last month has been CRAZY for Dave at work, with hackers from Russia trying to take down their company sites. Well, it got really bad this past week. Dave really wasn't home at all. He pulled many overnighters and even ended up having to go to the ER from a lack of sleep and eating (his body started to shut down). So I asked my Dad to help Hunter with his pinewood derby car. The first car Hunter made was really cool. Hunter painted flames down the sides and on the top. He was really proud of it. But I messed it up trying to put the wheels on. 3 of the wheels went on great, but the 4th went on crooked. I tried to fix it but just couldn't get it right, so I enlisted my Dad's help again to repair my mistake. He made it better, but the wheel still wobbled. The night before the derby, my Dad called and said that he just wasn't happy with the way the car turned out. So that afternoon, he had gone and bought Hunter a new car. He had already cut it out, so all Hunter had to do was to paint it. At first Hunter really didn't want to paint another car (he was happy with the first) but Grandpa got him to do it. and I know Hunter ended up being happy he did. My dad had even bought him some cool stickers to put on it.

The car on the right is the first car Hunter made (or as my Dad calls it "the practice car")
The car on the left, ended up winning 2nd place at the derby :) Hunter was so excited. Each car raced 8 times. The first 6 races Hunter was in, his car won 1st place. It wasn't until the very last 2 races of the night that Hunter came in 2nd. So out of 20 or so cars, Hunter came in 2nd. He was so excited to win the silver medal. 1st place went to Ethan Opheikens, 2nd place went to Hunter Ropelato, and 3rd place went to Andrew Chertudi.