Buzzz time

This year's spelling bee was held a couple weeks ago and Kinsey was old enough to participate.  The kids were both super excited. Cailey was a little nervous right before the bee. 

Kinsey was in the first group against her peers and did a SUPER awesome job!! She lasted a ton of rounds until she had a brain freeze on the word saddle.  She handled it beautifully but was funny because she came to sit down and said, "oh...saddle...I can spell that! s-a-d-d-l-e".  The winning word for her grade was circus and she was able to spell that as well.  She's grown a lot since studying for this bee and has become a much better speller because of it.  She's looking forward to next year's bee already!

Braden and Cailey both went round for round in their grade levels before being the last ones standing.  They both were thrilled and left the stage with big grins on their faces.

 Once grades 1-8 are done with their rounds they have a 'spell off' for the winners of each grade level. I thought for SURE the 8th grader would win but little by little the kids would misspell words until it came down to only Braden and Cailey.  They were testing off of sixth grade words at this point and went back and forth, round after round.  It took FOREVER!  They did such a great job!  Cailey ended up spelling epidemic wrong and Braden got it right, then got another word right and became the winner of the entire bee.  It was a nail biter and a strange position to be in as a parent! (NOT fun).  We were very proud of all three of the kids!

Sidenote: Cailey was asked to spell the word she missed last year and did so with a HUGE smile knowing she would never miss that word again:).

Cailey and Braden were awarded with Target gift cards (one for winning their grade level then another one for Braden since he won the whole bee).  Cailey used hers to get a skateboard (and has been loving her choice!), Braden got a light saber (that lights up and makes noise),  Kinsey used a card from Christmas to buy a new basketball, and Ephram also got a new light saber.  Braden's funny when he has money to spend because he struggles with his choice. He went from The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings books to a Lego set and finally the light saber.