This is a repost of our zucchini race experience last year at the San Diego County Fair. We will be participating again this Saturday!

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Has it really been almost a month since I’ve written a real blog post? Yes, I think it has! I have many things to write about, but sometimes for me, Writing is Not Easy.

Neither is Waiting! Which it seems like we have been doing the past month as well.

But in the end, writing is rewarding. And in the end, waiting is rewarded as well.

“But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.“

-Isaiah 40:31

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A quick note about the book that I have pictured above. This book is part of a series of beginning reader books that I absolutely LOVE. It is geared toward toddlers and pre-kindergarten age, but even my 7-year-old and 9-year-old read them. They are fun and engaging and perfect for kids. They aren’t too long or too short. I am not a very dramatic person, but these books are easy for even me to read expressively. One of the more fun books to read aloud in this series is A Big Guy Took My Ball, and I get to talk like a whale. My 2-year-old’s favorite Elephant and Piggie book is Should I Share My Ice Cream? We borrow these books from the library, but I think we will eventually buy the whole series if possible.

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Now, on to the real reason for this post! The San Diego County Fair (which is still The Del Mar Fair to those of us who have lived here a while) just wrapped up about a week ago. I had gone a few times as a teenager with my family, but Josh had never been until after we moved back to the San Diego area from his duty station in Washington, D.C. After much convincing, I was able to get Josh to take us to the fair for the first time as a family about 3 years ago. On that first trip, we stumbled across an event going on in one of the agricultural buildings: The annual Zucchini Race! It is basically a soapbox car race but the soapbox part is a zucchini instead of wood. Yes, it sounds odd and a little crazy, but it is a lot of fun!

Once we saw that event, Josh said that we needed to take part in it the next year. So we did. This year was our second year being in the race. And as usual, we had a great time! This is probably one of the best bargains for entrance to the fair as well. The entrance fee for each child is $5, and each child gets an extra ticket for an adult chaperone. My 2-year-old and 4-year-old enter for free, so the rest of us (5 of us) were able to get in for a total of $15. We also didn’t have to wait in line to get in to the fair. Since we were participating in an event, we entered through the vendor entrance.

The theme for the fair this year was a steampunk Alice in Wonderland. So Corran made a steampunk-themed zucchini car. Josh helps the boys every year with their zucchini cars.

Matthias had some really interesting wheels on his car!

Ian’s car used scooter wheels and soapbox car wheels.

My boys’ zucchini racers along with some of the other zucchini racers all ready to go!

Here is one video of Corran’s race just to give you a taste of what it’s like!

Each racer receives a participation ribbon, a first or second place ribbon for their race, and a decoration ribbon.

Corran’s ribbons: First place in his race, the best fair-themed racer

Thias’ ribbons: First place in his race, the Mad Max ribbon

Ian’s ribbons: First place in his race (he was the only racer for his race because we knew his wouldn’t go straight! It actually fell off the ramp!), the catywampus racer ribbon

This year was Corran’s last year to be in the zucchini race, but next year, Rhys will be able to participate!

Josh knows more about how they actually built the racers. Maybe he will write a post about it at some point. After the race, we went and walked the rest of the fair! But that will be enough for another post!

-Lynn

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