3rd RUNNER-UP in the S-P-E-L-L-I-N-G-B-E-E!!!

We are bursting with pride today!!! Gabe came home on Friday and announced that he was a finalist for the Second Grade Spelling Bee!! We practiced the "suggested" words all weekend.....and this morning.....we, oh I meant Gabe, felt ready to tackle the Bee!! There are 4 second grade classes, in which there are approximately 24 kids per class..that of which the top 5 spellers went on to the Spelling Bee today....so just getting to the finals was a huge accomplishment! This morning Gabe woke up with a tummy ache....I assured him he was not sick those were just the "Spelling Bees" in his tummy! I gave him my Mommy pep talk letting him know how extremely proud we were of him...no matter how he did---and I told him that there were about 70 other kids that would love to just get the chance to be in the finals---so no matter if he was the winner or got out in the first round...there would be absolutely nothing to be ashamed of!! So, off to the Bee we went....practicing the hardest words on the walk to school! Gabe did fabulous--He was the 3rd runner up overall and the top speller from his class! He made it through all of the rounds in the spelling words--words they had had on their weekly spelling tests and to the 3rd round on the challenge words--words that are from 4th-6th grade spelling tests. And I'm sure the question on all minds, "Which word got him?" ABBREVIATION!!! Crazy a word that means shortened---why in the world does it have to be so long??!!! He did however spell DISCRIMINATION correctly----Pretty impressive if you ask me!!! There were 2 young ladies that had the bee to themselves for 7 or 8 rounds when finally one of them misspelled "spry". But, before that they spelled words like algorithm, paleontologist, arachnid, and parallelogram! I'm wondering how many average adults these second graders could have beat??!! Gabe we are so very proud of you------Way to go---3rd RUNNER-UP is AWESOME!!!
The Final 4! Gabe is sitting behind the girl standing up.....who happens to be the Champion!