Pulling it off

Last week I got a phone call from the principal of the elementary school.  She told me that she had some exciting news- Isabelle had won first place in the state of Idaho for a handwriting contest that 285,000 kids had entered!  What are the odds?!?! She said that the Houghton-Blouser (not even sure if I have that name right - I will have to check later)- handwriting company would be sending a representative to present Isabelle with an award at 8:15 on April 3rd.

So, today we drove all of the kids to school after the presentation so that they could all be there to see surprised Isabelle, who didn't know a thing about it, as we were supposed to keep it all a secret, receive her award. She got a big medal and a huge bag- full of fun hand-writing supplies. She looked like a very happy little girl! A write-up about it is supposed to be in the paper soon - i will have to add that later.

The handwriting rep, Isabelle, and Mrs. Rogers her teacher

Isabelle's teacher this year is just awesome-definitely one of the best that my kids have ever had - and she received an award too.  I thought I would share the funny little story behind Isabelle winning:

This handwriting contest was not mandatory - the teacher sent the contest home with the kids and they were to do it on their own time. Isabelle brought it home all excited and started practicing on a piece of paper before she wrote on the real thing.  Isabelle's papers don't usually have the neatest handwriting, so I gave her some tips.  She got tired of it after a few minutes and never did finish it up.  A couple of weeks later she came home and told me that she had finished her handwriting competition paper at the last minute.  She said that Mrs. Rodgers had told them that it was due.  She had leaned over to her friend Cambrie and said, "Darn! I wanted to enter that contest but I never got it done!" She said that her friend instructed her to just "hurry and do it while Mrs. Rodgers is talking." So she did. Last minute.  And I saw it when it was sent home a month later because she won for the school.  And it really looked great. So much for having one of those teaching moments that you get to tell your child to look at how hard they worked and see how it paid off!! Yeah, I don't think I will be pointing all of this out to Belle:)

Being presented with the award

Anyways, we're glad that when it counts, she knows how to write beautifully!! Way to go Belle - we're proud of you and you made a very exciting moment in our day!