Finally, three kids in, we’re getting the hang of the Pinewood Derby. This is “Jimmy,” named after Jimmy Johns, because the car was inspired by a meal there. I’m not sure how the plan was worked out, exactly, but father and son came home with the idea in mind to slide the wood block in half, sand down to a sandwich shape, and add in play food that hasn’t been played with since preschool. Then they happily went out to the home improvement store to buy a sander, and took turns sanding, then picked out the right pieces of lettus, cheese, tomatoes, and bologna. Instead of painting, my son pulled out his chalk pastels; I was skeptical but, when covered with Modge Podge afterwards, it produced a very nice effect (unless you quibble that ordinarily bread doesn’t have a wood grain to it), in part because we didn’t really need to have a particularly strong color to it. Then my husband used small nails to attach the food to the bottom half of the bread, and one screw from the bottom to attach the top half of the bread to the whole thing.
But I’m rather pleased with it.
(image: own work)
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