Friday, February 6, 2009

the art of spelling as it pertains to life


torrey was in the spelling bee today at school. she's been studying so hard for weeks. she's given up recess time, studied at home & in the car... she really wanted to do well. as far as i'm concerned, she did. she made it a few rounds, and got out on a word she knew, but couldn't go back after she said one of the letters wrong. rules are rules.

as a mom it was really hard to sit back and watch her miss-say her letter... see the look on her face & that she knew it was too late... and being done. you worry so much about your kids feeling like they're successful... but sometimes in life we don't always get the top spot, even when we try, even when we're smart, even when one little change may have meant that things would be different. and man, it took every fiber of my being today not to say, "man, that just isn't fair!" because it was. and even then life's not always fair. for all of the protecting that you want to do, sometimes just letting the disappointments come and go is a kind of protection. protection from turning 18 and getting thrown out to a sometimes very unfair world, and learning for the first time that sometimes things don't always go your way. this is proving to be one of those parental lessons that's harder for me than i thought it would be.

torrey handled it like a champ. not too hard on herself... disappointed, but able to live with it. to me that's worth a prize ribbon for the day. yea torrey!!!


and man-o-man! if spelling bee day wasn't exciting enough the girls also had afternoon of art at their school today. it's a day when bunches of local artists come to the school and teach classes on their particular art form. the kids get to request their top choices, then are assigned to one. emma got to do a pottery class and torrey got to do a quilting class, and i got to run back and forth and get pics of the two of them having a ball! they both came home with their projects & a new love for some new art forms.

and a big shout out of thanks to all of the local artists who volunteered their time today for this very cool day for the kids!

part way through emma's pottery class they took a break for recess... so i got to sneak in a few extra shots on the playground.

5 comments:

Unknown said...

Wonderful photos...as moms I think we can all relate to the spelling bee. I think you are well on your way to a scrapbook page!

Scrappy Girl said...

Cute photos! What a great day at school...such a great idea too for the local artists to come. Fun!

Jackie said...

It's ok Torrey...I know what that feels like...love the bottom pics of the kids jumping and emmas feet

Joanie said...

I love the expressions on the faces of the children at the spelling bee. You can see that they are all so nervous!

Noel, you take such awesome photos. I love the last one in this post of the girls jumping the best... you have a wonderful eye for the shot.

PS Thank you again for your defogging tut... I love it.

Gretchen said...

great pics short stuff!

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