Spelling Bee!

Our homeschool co op had a spelling bee that the two oldest kiddos participated in this year. They did AWESOME!!

Braden won for his grade level! There were actually quite a few rounds so I wasn't sure how it would go but he ended up winning!


Cailey was nervous beforehand but VERY confident with each word she was given...spelling them very loud and SUPER fast. I was afraid she was going to make a mistake because she wasn't really thinking about it first BUT she won too!

the winners posing with daddy!

next up there were semi finals which was the first, second, and third grade winners against each other (then the older grades). i was super nervous...not knowing WHO would win and honestly hoping the 2nd grader would because I didn't want hurt feelings at home. They used third grade words for this round. Braden went a few rounds with her then got out on abandon. We were SUPER proud parents of both of them..but talk about nerve wracking! I was definitely more nervous than them because I didn't want either one of them to be too upset.

after that cailey had to go against the upper grade winner for the 'champion' and she FREAKED when she learned that they would use harder words. I knew she would. She's a planner and needs to know everything that's going to happen ahead of time. I didn't know about these extra rounds and assumed there would just be a winner per grade so I didn't prep her at all for it. She got out on the first word she was given and was visibly upset because 'I didn't know there were going to be harder words'. The words she had were pretty advanced. BUT the word they gave her wasn't that hard...but she had CONVINCED herself she couldn't do it and gave up before even starting. She got out on the word vault...and word I'm sure she won't soon forget:).

To us they did AWESOME and we were SO VERY proud of both of them!

they got target gift cards for winning! braden got $10 for winning his grade and cailey got $20 for winning her grade and the semi finals.

The next night we went out to a new Golden Corral to celebrate and then went to use their Target gift cards:). Braden had another $10 one from his birthday so the older ones each had $20 and Kinsey had $10 for doing such a GREAT job with her reading. Our kids don't usually have that much money when they go to the store (honestly they usually just go to the $1 store) so I knew it was going to be a fun night watching them carefully make their decisions!


going into it braden wanted another nerf gun...until he got to the books and ended up getting two star wars books, erasers, a matchbox car for ephram's birthday (always thinking of others!), and lotion (from the $1 section...he wanted to spend it all even though i have lots of FREE lotion at home:). it was HILARIOUS for brian and i to watch them look all over and some of their choices made me smile but we had a blast together:).

cailey got a hula hoop right off the start because she's always wanted one and she LOVES to hula! she's actually very good at it too. Then she got a big bouncy ball...which I tried to talk her out of because we have several but she really wanted her OWN one so she got it. She also got her own erasers (so funny!...yes...we DO have erasers but for some reason they wanted their 'own':), hair barrettes, a hair brush, a three musketeers bar, and a mini deoderant (again..hilarious since i have SO MUCH free deodorant but we did tell them they could use their money however they wanted!)

Cailey was searching all over the toy department trying to decide when I reminded her she didn't really play with toys and should think of things she really wanted like a new watch or 'fancy' shoes or hair things. She lit up and immediately went to look around at all of those things. Once she saw how much the shoes and watches were she decided not to go for those...even though she could have but she did NOT want to put anything back (not even the ball or erasers:). She ended in the hair department and very happily found her last items there.


it cracked me UP to see them buying toiletries with their money!! who's kids do this??:) Sweet Kinsey girl made her decision as soon as we got there and chose a new pair of goggles. She never changed her mind but it was hard for her to see them get so many things when she just had one (because they cost the whole amount). In the end they were all THRILLED (and still are two weeks later) with their choices:).

yep! she's holding up the deodorant:)