Tuesday, February 16, 2010

On to the D-I-S-T-R-I-C-T Finals!

I've been a rather sorry blogger lately. Life has been crazy. We're currently having our bathroom remodeled, and the uproar involved in all that seems to make everything else fall apart, too!


Alex competed in the Davis School District South End Spelling Bee last week. He and two other students from his school qualified to compete based on their performance in the school spelling bee in January. There were 70 competitors in the south end bee. The whole family came to cheer Alex on. 


Parker freaked in the first round when Alex spelled his word. It was "receive", and when Parker heard Alex spell it "R-E-C-E-I-V-E, Parker thought that was wrong and he groaned....


Ummmm....good thing it's Alex in the spelling bee, not Parker, right? :)


Anyway...there were five rounds of competition. In the first three, the kids were given words from the list they had studied. Not many were eliminated, so then the bee organizers turned to words the kids hadn't studied. In round four, the spellers were dropping like flies. Alex made it through when he spelled 'karate' correctly. Hiiiii Yah!!!


Fifth round, Alex got the word 'diatribe', which I am certain he had never heard before and had certainly never used in a sentence. But he bravely stood up at the microphone and spelled it correctly!


At the end of that round, 16 spellers remained, including Alex and a girl from his school. They now advance to the Davis County Spelling Bee Finals in March! 


So exciting!


Nothing could make a spelling and vocabulary geek of a mom  more proud!


Hooray for Alex. :)


Outside the auditorium right before the competition.


The spellers in the beginning of the fist round. Alex is on the second row. 


Alex spells his first word.


After two rounds, there was a short break. Here's Alex on stage waiting for the next round to start.




Alex waiting for his turn.


A smile of relief when he becomes one of the winners!


Smiling for his picture that will be in the Davis County Clipper!

The 16 winners posing for the newspaper photographer.

:)

17 comments:

Joanne said...

This is so exciting! Good luck Alex! I would be scared to death to get up in front of a crowd and spell!

annabelle said...

way to go Alex :)

Lisa Childs said...

Yay!! Congrats! He looks so much like your husband it's unreal. I LOVED the spelling bee in elementary- I won every year but didn't take first so wasn't eligible for district. I was always so envious- Good for him! I am living vicariously through him! haha just kidding;) Thanks for letting us know about him! Good job Alex!

janett said...

Awesome! Congrats, Alex!

Photo's by Shan said...

Yay, how exciting!!

Esther said...

Oh my gosh, that is so exciting!! These photos gave me goosebumps just thinking of all the pressure he and you all must have been under. Way to go!! I love all these perspectives......wow.

pat said...

Yea, ALEX!!!! Being a word geek myself (and a spelling Nazi) I couldn't be prouder of him. I know spelling isn't very highly rated these days, but GO ALEX GO!!!! It IS important!

For Over 29 Years... said...

How exciting! Great pictures on stage, that's hard to do.

Nicki said...

Great job (for Alex ---Parker needs to stick to running - hehe!). Great job on capturing some nice pics too Mom.

Janae said...

Go Alex!!! My favorite is the one where he is all by himself. Perfect! I am crossing my fingers for him to be the champion!!!

S.Kremer said...

YEA! That is awesome! Congratulations little guy:)

Suzy said...

That is awesome - Congrats Alex! I love all of your caprues! He looks so proud of himself as he should be!

Denita said...

Congrats to Alex...how exciting to make it this far! Keep us posted. I love the look on his face in some of the pictures!!!

Reds said...

That is awesome!! Congrats to Alex!!

Mindy Evans said...

Yea for ALEX!!! What a smartie!

Gypsy Girl(Brenda) said...

Congtatulations Alex. He looks so calm up there. To funny about his brother thinking he was wrong.

Samantha said...

Woo-hoo! Way to go Alex!