olympic spirit

kiss

sadie's class had a valentine's day costume contest...here's what we came up with the night before. she had a few second graders asking her if she was a princess:) anyway, she won and i had a nap so we were all happy.

b-e-a-u-t-i-f-u-l

when abe was in second grade he missed the word beautiful on a spelling test. he reassured me he would NEVER need to know how to spell beautiful in his ENTIRE life.

he recently made it into his school spelling bee (3rd-6th grade). he was excited and we practiced for two days, as much as possible between soccer practices, homework, and running around. the morning of the bee, we were eating breakfast and doing some last minute cramming. we came to the word beautiful. he spelled it wrong. i happily reminded him of his second grade experience and told him i really hoped he got the word beautiful. we laughed, and as we packed up sadie taught him some secret ways to remember how to spell beautiful.

he made it to the third round. he looked cute and visably servous (a mix of nervous and serious) as he waited at the microphone for his word.......beautiful.

he spelled it correctly! it was great, but far better was when he turned and looked straight at me with a giggle in his eye and the biggest, greatest, smile i have seen.

he got out the next round with the word grimacing. he was the last third grader left and he was disappointed he didn't win. but to me, it was one of those moments that make life happy...and beautiful. i will always remember the connection i felt when he looked at me, smiled, and i knew exactly what he was thinking.

strong work abe!

yeah!

my wedding ring has been long gone for two years. a few weeks ago dave replaced it. we were sitting on the floor last night and max came and hugged my knees... then he noticed the wedding ring on my finger. he looked at me with his big eyes and asked in his best surprised voice, "mom, you got married?" and before i could respond he said, "yay!"