Allie and the "I Beat Pete" Challenge

There is a sportscaster here in Lubbock who does a feature called "I Beat Pete". (His name is Pete) He travels around the city and competes in sports related challenges against people. He called and wanted to compete and against the school spelling bee champions in Allie's school district. So today, we got to go over to the district office for the "I Beat Pete Challenge". All of the student winners were on a team against Pete and 2 other men on his team--another newscaster and the cameraman. The words were all sports related. The kids did very well and beat Pete and his team! Allie hung on until the last round when Evander Holyfield knocked her out. (She spelled Evander right, but misspelled Holyfield with an "i" instead of a "y".) The rest of Pete's team had gone out in previous rounds and Pete went out in the same round as Allie. There was another student left so the kids won! Other words Allie had were: "skate", "cue stick", "basketball", "athlete", "divot", "whistle", "bodybuilding", and "Vancouver Canucks". It was amazing when she spelled "Vancuver Canucks". I don't think anyone in the room thought she was going to get that. Next Wednesday the segment will air on the 10:00 news. I will put it on the blog as soon as it is available.

Allie and Pete went out on the same round--the last one!


The team that beat Pete. The kids and the adults spelled from the same list of words.


Although it looks like the kids starred on the biggest loser, they will be getting "I Beat Pete" t shirts in their sizes soon. Pete was waiting on a t shirt order in kids' sizes.


***As a side note that is funny to us: Allie's school district is called "Frenship Independent School District". When we were first picking a school for the kids, we joked that we didn't think Frenship would be good because they couldn't even spell "Friendship" right. During the challenge, Pete jumped in and said, "Friendship.... F R I E N D S H I P....Friendship" It was pretty funny, especially when the district judges immediately hit the bell that signifies a misspelled word. Rumor has it that they really had meant for the district to be called "Friendship" but someone with a heavy West Texas accent misspelled it. Idon't know if that's true, but it's pretty funny if it is.

Luke's Valentines Party

Here are some shots from Luke's Valentine's Day party at school. They have been studying fairy tales so they had a fairy tale party and asked everyone to come dressed up as a fairy tale character. That's an easy task for the girls, but a little harder for the boys. Boys are left with the option of Prince Charming (yeah right!), a dwarf, or a bad guy. Luke went with the bad guy route and wanted to be the Big Bad Wolf. I also had to do Allie's class party that day, so adding on the costume made for a busy week. Luke had VERY specific ideas about how the costume should look, even down to the exact length of his tail. I had to draw several samples of eyes just so he could pick the right shape. He wanted to look mean, but not too mean. I am pleased to report that I passed inspections. I was up very late working on the hat, but it was worth it to hear his delight in the morning when he tried it on. Kate came along to the party too, so I made her a Little Red Riding Hood cape.

Lunch in Luke's classroom


The kids learned several dances including the Macarena (see video) and the Chicken Dance.


Luke and his buddy Jude


Kate enjoyed lunch and got to sit at Luke's table.


This is classic Luke. He is very good at looking out for Kate and helping her along. That is his rice krispie treat that he is sharing with Kate.


The Big Bad Wolf finally gets a bite of Little Red Riding Hood.


Here's the video of Luke dancing. Kate makes an appearance at the end. You can't miss the kid in front of Luke. He's a crack up!

On to Regionals!!!

Allie competed in the district spelling bee this morning and she won!!! There were a total of 6 spellers--one from each school. It was very tense. Luckily the competition was held at Allie's school in the library (a place she's pretty familiar with). Allie didn't miss any words and won in 4 rounds. She had to spell: morbid, calcium, colic, and meditate for the win. She has been studying hard this week with her dictionary and an ESPN spelling bee app on my iPod. Everyone was surprised that a third grader won. She looked really cute up there with the 5th graders. She couldn't reach the microphone, but managed okay. She now moves on to compete in March at Regionals against 25 or so other spellers. At Regionals, she will be competing with kids all the way up to 8th grade. We've heard that the homeschoolers dominate, but maybe Allie will give them a run for their money and give public schools a good name. After that, it's nationals in Washington, DC. Wouldn't that be fun if we got to watch her on ESPN!

1st Place!


All of the spellers had a last minute pep talk from their parents.


Pictures weren't allowed during the bee, but we got to take one during the practice round.


Receiving her trophy and a medal. We asked her if she wanted us to take them home for her, but she wanted to keep them on her desk.


With the assistant principal Mr. Langen who organized the event for Allie's school. He was very excited that Allie won.


With two very proud and relieved parents. A reporter for the newspaper took this picture of us. She is writing an article about Allie for the paper. I will try to post it when I find it.


We walked her back to her classroom and two of her teachers were in the hall. They were so excited for her. Their classes came out and congratulated her. She was like a 3rd grade rockstar! And, because I'm her mom, I have to add this last part. The thing that I was the most proud about was Allie's sportsmanship. She didn't celebrate in front of the group, but just smiled and said thank you. She told the other spellers that they did a good job. That's classic Allie--she's super intelligent, but very humble about it. We're so lucky to have Allie--she's a super kid.

Winner...W-I-N-N-E-R... Winner

Today we are celebrating. Allie's school had their school spelling bee this afternoon. Allie qualified at the class level and got to compete against the 3rd, 4th and 5th graders at her school. There were 26 competing and Allie won!!! We were proud of her for even making it, so it was exciting that she won. It was a nail biter and she went head to head against a 5th grader at the end. All of the kids did a great job and I think most of them missed their words because of nerves. I was so nervous, even I was having trouble spelling the words in my head! Allie spelled "guard, applause, suburban, and some other words that I can't remember because I was too nervous. She missed "condemn" but the boy after her missed his word and she won with "competitive". They were very strict with the rules and I couldn't take any pictures during the bee. The only pictures I have are from before and after. Now she gets to go on to the district spelling bee.

Nervously waiting for the bee to begin.


The competitors


Receiving her trophy from the princpal


With Mr. Langen the assistant principal. He organized the event and helped the kids prepare for the bee.


With a proud mom!


Allie had to make sure that her trophy would be safe on the way home from school.