Bennett and Maggie were both able to participate this year in the Grand Prix... a fancy name for watching pieces of painted wood roll down a kind of sloppy track as the kids cheer and yell and laugh. It was fun. Sometimes I think the parents get too involved and want to win more than just watch the laughter.
There are only a handful of the kids who actually care if they cross the finish line first. Most just want to cross the line. They each ran 4 heats and the cars that finished 1st in their 4 heats got to run head to head. Of course, our cars were not the fastest, sleekest, prettiest, or best engineered... but they were the kid's!
And that's what mattered most.
Maggie counted each time her car crossed the line. "I finished 1st one time, 2nd two times, and 3rd two times"... and she only ran 4 times. :) The brain of a 6 year old. Her car was faster than Bennett's. My theory is because the lead weight was placed further toward the front of the car. They had no control in that.
Curtis cut their cars pretty much identically too. We had to use the hairdryer to aid in the speedy paint drying that we needed. Nothing like waiting til the night before to get it done. Bennett made his 88 car like Junior's again this year. Good thing for new sponsors so we could be different than last year's 8 car. We did go online and look at several other fun models but it was after we already had been cut... so we were limited. Next year we'll do something new and different!
Ruth also wanted to paint something. Here's her creature. Isn't she beautiful? :)
Bennett ended up getting a 3rd place trophy for design. I think he was pleased. It's always nice to see your child succeed... but I had prepared him before hand that his Nascar design might not win again this year. I knew the judges would know it was the same kid's car. He has both cars and both trophies displayed on his dresser. Come see!
We had a great season of soccer this spring. The girls didn't make it onto teams because they were alread full, but they were able to squeeze Bennett onto a team at the last minute. 
It was the same one as our friend Jaelen, and another girl he played with last year. The coach was better and more involved with actually instructing and we saw definite improvement from game to game... which is what you want to see. Plus, they really enjoyed themselves. I know I've uploaded a couple videos of him playing. He made 3 goals (I think). I also took fun pictures of their end of the year party... he was the only boy since the other one didn't get to come. He played it up well as you can see. ;)
Our crazy friend Jaelen! :)
Izzy... 
Maggie tries out the cookie... which had black icing. Lovely!!?
Lydia gets cookie too.
