OR even with Sandpaper for that matter, because as crafty as I like to think I am:

I have no business messing with my Husbands tools.

(and visa versa of course….If I caught him digging through my knitting needles, in hopes of making a Winter sweater my eyebrows would raise for sure.)

But, this week there was just no way around it.

I was going to have to buck up, get in the garage, and take on the dreaded Derby Car Race.

You see, my kids are part of an AWANA program at church, and they have a “Derby Race’ every year where they award trophies for the Fastest and the Best Designed car that enters.

(You can already imagine the kind of competition that goes on in these little circles)

Well, because of poor planning, and a few ear infections this week…..nothing got done like it was supposed to.

(Ever just have one of those weeks?)

So as the night before the race rolled around, we realized that showing up with a rectangular piece of wood with wheels sticking out, wasn’t going to cut the mustard.

At least not with all the hype we’ve been hearing about it……though it would be kinda funny now that I think about it.)

Anyway, Hubby was busy, Bubba was sleeping, and Sissy was about to break into tears if we didn’t get it done, so I bravely took on the task…and entered the garage!

and ten minutes later I figured out how to turn the light on in there.

And after turning the light on, I found the saw. (A rusy old hack saw that you let you’re kids practice with because it doesn’t really HACK anything….nevertheless SAW something.

Not to be discouraged, we spread out the kit that we we’re given: Pine rectangle, axels, wheels, and numbers. You can see that I drew in a rough sketch where I wanted to saw……and rough was the key word of the day.

And here is Sissy sanding away at all the crazy ways I managed to hack of the corners of the wood

(I actually had the kitchen knife out at one point, whittling away at it……..I know dangerous, and for those of you over-protective types, you’ll be happy to know that after I sliced my finger, I promptly moved back to the hacksaw)

And of course, we had to add a touch of color:

After everything was dry, the next morning we added the wheels: ( I know what your thinking….“Hey, that looks just like my first car!”

Then it was off to the PIT to be measured and weighed (of course we didn’t do all that much to it, so that went pretty quickly!)

And we had to take a photo of all the “Other” -Not as good as ours- Derby Cars. (I mean really……who want’s a Pod racer Space Car anyway……)

(LOL, I’m just kidding Christie…..I’m secretly really envious!)

And finally after an hour (during which I unsuccessfully spent every waking minute trying to keep my 3 year old under control) we were ready for the big race…..

And we got our tails whipped.

Such is life….no fairy tales to report here folks!

But, Sissy was proud as peanuts and enjoyed every single second of her big day!

She reported home to Dad about the fantastic time that she had, and showed off her “Participation Ribbon”

And of course, Dad was really proud to see her so happy just to participate, and only chuckled a few times about my Hack-job.

I’d like to see Him knit a Winter sweater to top that!