Birds and Bees

Both of my kids were in the school's spelling bee today! I'm all puffed up and proud. They both wound up in the top two for their classes and today's bee trimmed it down to a top speller per grade.
This was Emma's first spelling bee and one of her first times to be on a stage in front of everyone. She's great in living rooms and at parties, of course. She loves to be the center of attention. She just freaks out in front of a crowd. So.....she went down in the second round, but at least she was not the first one eliminated. There were bitter tears. But she eventually calmed down and was able to watch the rest of the kids spell their hearts out. At the end, as the classes stood up to leave, Chris and I were totally cracked up by the swarm of little girls that clustered around her within seconds. Chris said, "It's like she just got dumped or something!" There was back-rubbing and arm-locking and hair-stroking. This, of course, started the waterworks up again. Estrogen at work. At least she is loved. And, I'm really proud of her for getting up there and giving it a go.
Andrew, on the other hand, came out on the top of a one-hour death match spelling smack-down. Seriously - once it got down to two kids, he and the other guy spelled for nearly an hour. I never knew that spelling could be so intense! So, he moves on to the regional bee. Again, I could not be more proud!
In other news, the second clutch of baby birds has left the nest. I came home from work and heard their little voices in the trees - separate trees. I have spent most of my afternoon and evening craning my neck and trying to find them. We did find one casualty, but it seems that two of them have made it this far and are stretching and trying out their new skills. They are very cute. I love that they seem to be trying out their grown-up calls, which sound kind of like "chip, chip, chip," but as soon as they catch sight of Mama, they revert to their hungry baby sound, which sounds a little bit like a penny whistle. I tried to catch a picture....you can kinda see the baby here, right in the middle:

The kids were really happy to see the babies too. They have short little tails and fuzzy little heads. I love them.

DAILY BLISS: cheering on my boy - we don't do soccer or basketball, but once in a while I get to play cheerleader anyway