AWANA Grand Prix

Since I've been preoccupied snuggling my post tonsillectomy patient for a week now... it's time to catch up here on the old blog a little.  (The patient has been in a lot of pain between doses of Tylenol still but I think he improved a little today and we might just be on the way back to normal.  I hope so at least!)

As I previously mentioned, the Saturday of my solo parent weekend was the AWANA Grand Prix.  A couple months ago, we purchased a car kit in preparation for the race.

The church where AWANAs is held has a build night so we could get some help with the project.  And use their tools, which was helpful!

Cooper helped pick the style and shape etc, but it was hard stuff for him to actually do himself.

That didn't keep him from participating.  

But he left the sawing to Daddy.

While he played with friends for a few minutes. 

Which is pretty much what Miles did the whole time.

We got the shape of the car finished at the build night and then took it home to paint it later.

This part of the design was all Cooper's.  He named it "Fire & Ice" and painted icicles on one side...

And flames on the other, which he had Daddy help shape.

Before Derek left town he took the car and parts to the post office to weigh them and make sure it came in under 5 ounces and would qualify for racing.

Then he let Cooper assemble the axels and wheels.

On race day Cooper got up super excited!

And if you remember, the Durango broke down on us leaving us to wait for a (wonderful!) friend to come to our rescue.

Kevin, Daphne and Hayden did come and got us to the race.  Another friend, Jessica, was already at the race and when she told them what happened, they waited for us!  I thought it was so nice of them!  And Cooper was thrilled.  We ran in and checked in Cooper's "Fire & Ice".

Then things were off!  First with the national anthem and the pledge of allegiance. 

The bracket was projected on the wall.

And they called each racer to come get their car and line it up when their turn was up.

Then they walked to the finish line to wait for their car.

Cooper lost his first heat, but won one in the second bracket.

Then he ended up against our friend, Emma.

They watched their cars race down. 

Emma's was faster and she ended up winning that bracket and getting third place overall!

Cooper won two different heats and did a cute little happy dance after both.

He also got this ribbon for participation. 

We had fun at our first AWANA Grand Prix (once we got there!) even without Daddy.

Proud little brother.

Miles wasn't allowed to touch Cooper's car until after the race so he was getting a chance right after it ended.

And they opened the track to let everyone run their cars down again giving Miles a turn.

Hayden thought Coop's car was cool too.

Especially when Cooper let him race it too.

After it all wrapped up, Jessica, Aiden and Emma gave us a ride to our house to get the car keys and then to the airport to get our other car...

We decided lunch out was in order so the boys used their Chick-fil-a gift cards they got for Christmas from G'pa Secor and new G'ma Jan.

Whew!  We finally made it home in time to rush around, throw some food together for the soup lunch at church the next day... that we ended up skipping and going to urgent care instead.  Then it was time for me to go to Life Group and Ethan and Malachi came over because we shared a babysitter.  And unknowingly exposed them all to strep.   Oops.