Speed Racer

Saturday was the big race day, the Awana Grand Prix! Here is Cade's Texas A&M car at the pit table, along with some other cars.

Daddy, Cade and Maddi. You can see on Cade's face that he was very nervous. He was quiet and not real excited when we got there. He was sort of taking it all in and would say things like, "maybe I'll get an award for design". I don't think he had any idea just how fast his car would be.

Here he is with his driving license in front of the track. A little more of a smile, but still not so sure about how this would all go. They had it all decorated so cute!

Most of the cars lined up waiting for the race while everyone sizes them up. There were so many cute cars. There were about 40 in Cade's age division which is kinder through 2nd grade.

Maddi and her friend, Grace, are ready to watch the race. Maddi made a car but just for fun. She didn't race it because she doesn't do Awanas since 3rd grade is on Wednesday nights.

This is the first race, Cade's car was on the far left. It was CRAZY fast!

This is another race and Cade's car is 2nd from the left.

Cade won the 2nd race too! Maddi and Daddy were so proud of him and were telling him congratulations.

The three of them were talking about how when Cade won the first race they thought maybe the cars he raced were really slow, but now he smoked the cars in the 2nd race too, so he must have a really fast car!

He's not nervous anymore. He's so proud of his hard work after his car wins race after race.

They have software that keeps track of the cars and their times and calculates the winners. Cade won firt place for speed with an average speed of 205 mph! 2nd and 3rd place had an average speed of 178 and 176 mph. These are all the winners of design, novelty and speed. I have to admit, I thought this race might be a little boring, but it was so fun to watch all the kids get so excited to watch the cars racing. There were 2 car wrecks and everyone went wild, just like a NASCAR race. Ha! The kids all worked so hard and were proud of their efforts.

We were all proud of our little Cade man with his super fast car. He designed the car and did all of the work except for the cutting with the saw. Brett helped him along the way to make sure it was all done just right and they had fun working together. My little engi-nerds sure know how to make the car speedy! Notice little Emalyn has her little tongue hanging out of her mouth, just like big sister used to do. Cade, by the way, will be getting an expander and braces soon to fix his crazy teeth. And, on a side note, Maddi has failed her hearing test at school. I'll take her to an ENT to see what's going on with that later this month. No wonder she never hears me when I say, put your clothes in the hamper, put your plate in the sink, and she never seems to wake up when her alarm goes off!

Cade couldn't stop smiling after the race. We ate lunch at church (hot dogs, chips and lemonade) and he kept talking about how he'll make his car for next year. He thinks he wants to win for design/novelty next year but Brett wants him to go for speed again. We'll see what comes of that....