okay, that title was a bit dramatic, but boy was i one happy mama when i received a letter from dutch’s school stating that he was one of two students in his 1st grade class who qualified for the school spelling bee!
woohoooooooo!!! i was in a couple spelling bees in elementary school and won ribbons so i was pretty dang proud.
then i saw the list of words. since this was a school spelling bee the words weren’t just for 1st graders. in fact, they were 5th thru 8th grade words! the school sent home a list of 450 words to study and it included words like expressionism, extemporaneous, circumloctution, dramaturgy, slantindicular…
what the hairy heck?
we had less than a month to prepare for this thing and honestly, i didn’t even concentrate on the tougher words. for goodness sakes, my child is 6, what does he know about slantindicular?
so we practiced and practiced and initially dutch was excited about the possibility of winning a ribbon, but as the spelling bee drew nearer he said, “mom, i’m not going to win this thing.” i told him that i was proud of him for even making it to the spelling bee at all! my husband and i just wanted him to do his best and to have fun.
the day of the spelling bee, dutch said he wanted to wear his bowtie. and this is not just any ol’ bowtie. it’s a black velvet bowtie, but i love that he wants to do his own thing sometimes and not follow the crowd so i just went with it. we took tons of pictures and he videotaped himself. he was super excited about the day.
as if you couldn’t tell by the pictures. 
my husband and i went to the spelling bee and we were nervous as heck as he stepped up to the mic to spell his first word.
s-c-o-o-p
whew!! they started off with the easy words. i was hoping that he’d at least make it through the first round. score! then came the second round and honey, it was a beast. wiped out most of the 1st graders. dutch stepped to the mic once again…
t-u-r-k-e-y
boom!! all i do is win win win no matter what… yeah, i was dancing in my seat!
there were only two 1st graders left for the third round and dutch was the first up…
t-h-u-r-m-u-s
as if my child knows what a daggone thermos is, but hey, he sounded that sucka out and did the best he could. we were mighty proud of him and his school principal said the same.
and can i just say everyone loved his black velvet bowtie? one teacher said to me, “he might not’ve won the spelling bee, but he definitely wins for most fashionable.”
all i do is win win win no matter what…
