Day 77 - March 22nd

The regional spelling bee in Seattle was today! Maranda represented our town and was one of 60 contestants from King and Snohomish counties. We're very proud of her! This is a picture of her in round two. Round one saw few eliminations and Maranda's word was "prattle", which she rattled off quickly. Round two saw significant eliminations. Maranda's word was "incognito" which she also got quickly. At the end of round 3, which she got the slightly harder "corpuscle", there were only 24 contestants remaining.

Unfortunately, Maranda missed "madeleine" in round 4. At the end of round 4, there were only 12 left. At the end of round 5 - six. And those six were GOOD. Real good. Around the record breaking round 11, one finally was defeated. By round 13, they were down to 3. Finally, in round 16, a winner was declared! For a spelling bee, it was pretty exciting with those final six competing fiercely for the prize. They spelled words I've never even imagined, let alone heard. The winner is going to Washington DC for the National competition.

We were so proud of Maranda. She did well and we were excited to be there. Well, maybe not for the entire four hours it took! Peter got pretty tired and Sophia was sick all day, so at one point, both of them were asleep on Jill's lap. But at least Sophia didn't get physically sick during it.

Oh, and on the good news front, Peter ASKED to go to the bathroom several times today. After over 13 continous years, I think we can finally glimpse the end of diapers coming up...