The month of February was hard for Hailey this year.  At the end of January she had a gum graft done in the front of  her mouth which made it necessary for her to stop all of her favorite activities; singing, playing the violin, dance, and talking.  It wasn't all bad, she was able to sit out P.E. which is her least favorite subject.  I love to hear her stories about cross country skiing, but that is a post for another day.  She missed school, Battle of the Book practices, choir practice, and a dance recital.   It took some time to recover but she was given the O.K. to participate in the Battle of Books this year.

This year her school had two teams.  She missed so many practices she wasn't sure she'd make either of the teams.  When she made the team she was disappointed in her score on her test.  We tried to teach her that she made the team and that is what she needed to focus on, not that she didn't do well on the test.  Other people didn't make it onto either team.  We asked her to focus instead on preparing for the battle knowing that she was a little weak in her knowledge of some of the books.  The big day arrived and her team was pretty excited.

Eric and I were chaperone's.  I had the snack/book bag and handled restroom duty.  Eric handled timing and scoring requests.  We really enjoy Battle of the Books watching the kids excitement and the suspense.  We could tell right off that Hailey's team wasn't going to win this year.  The girls tried to focus on having fun and I stopped keeping score.   Hailey's  first year they won first.  It was hard to watch her disappointment when her team didn't place.  It would be hard for anyone to go from first to not even placing.    It's a small event and in the course of her life really not that important but my heart sure hurt for her.   

Nothing we said really lifted her spirits but win or lose we had planned on having dessert at the Outback.  Apparently chocolate waffles can lift a girls spirits, by the end of the evening she was her happy and talkative self.  Thank you, chocolate waffles.