Maeser's the Spelling Bee Queen

Ellie participated in the school spelling bee this year.  They held a bee in each classroom, which determined the top three spellers from each class.  Ellie was one of them.  :)  Then, the three spellers from each class competed in a 1st-3rd Grade competition the last hour of school on Thurs, Jan 19th.  They sent home a study list and a request that if parents attend, they leave siblings at home.  In all honesty, I forgot to set up a sitter, so when the time came, I waffled over whether to take the girls with me, or just stay home.   I hated the thought of her not seeing a friendly face in the crowd, so we all packed up and headed over to the bee.  (I won't go into the looks I got from one of the moms...my girls were total QUIET angels, but whatever...)  Apparently, I waffled too long, because when we got into the gym, it was 30 minutes into the competition, and most of the kids had already been eliminated.  There were about 12 kids left up on stage, and lucky for me, Ellie was one of them.  She broke into a big smile when she recognized us.  Her word was next, and she spelled it correctly with ease.  This continued through several more rounds, and before I knew it, there were only 4 kids left on stage.  When Ellie's turn came she was 3rd of 4.  She confidently stood up, and spelled the word "microphone".  The judge said "That is correct", and Ellie went to sit down.  The 4th kid stood up, and got ready to spell their word.  There was a murmuring among the judges, and the judge then told Ellie that the other two judges had heard her spell the word wrong, and that she was sorry, but she was out.

??????  No!  There had been a slight inflection in her letter 'I', but I was pretty sure she had said the proper letter.  Apparently, the judges did not.  I was so proud of her though, because she took her place among the other eliminated kids, and proceeded to cheer on her classmate Anson as he went head to head with a girl named Skyler, and another girl named Maddie.  Maddie got eliminated, and Anson and Skyler went through several more rounds, with Skyler ending up winning it all.  When all was said and done, the final three competitors received trophies, and were told they got to go on to the regional spelling bee next month.  Ellie took 4th place.  Afterwards, I asked her if she thought she had spelled it wrong, and she said,  "Nope...but it's okay Mom. There's always next year!"  I asked her to spell the word again for me, and she spelled it correctly that time.  As her proud mama, I guess I'm inclined to think she spelled it correctly the first time, regardless of whether she did. :)  In my eyes, she was a winner anyway since she was such a good sport about the whole thing.  Can't say I wanted to be, but I figured if she was good with it, I should be too!!!

A few days later, while I was getting birthday decor for Amelia at Zurchers, I found and had to buy Ellie a little trophy.  In my eyes, she deserved it!!!  So, we presented her with this at family home evening last week...

You did a GREAT JOB Miss Maesers!  Congratulations!