Snood

By the way, do you know what a Snood is? We didn't know when we started calling Nathan that. We do now. Oh well, we're still calling him that. (It's the red hangy thingy on a turkey's beak.)

I wanted to write a post about Nathan because some pretty special things happened to him back in March.

At his school the older grades get to participate in The Battle of the Books. The kids get a reading list of 20 books and have the whole year up till March to read as many as they can. They are then formed into teams and they compete in a quiz contest to see who knows the most about the books.

In true, over the top, over-achiever fashion that we do in our family, Nathan read all 20 books. (OK, really, I pushed him on that a little. I didn't realize that the average that most kids read was 5. But we are book lovers in this family and he loved doing it, so that's ok.)

His team rocked it. I got a phone call Friday afternoon from my friend who was in charge of the Battles. She said Nathan's team was going to be competing in the semi finals in about 5 minutes if I wanted to come. I had just put the baby down for a nap but I grabbed him and Dal and off we went.

Nathan's team won.

So, Monday morning they were in the finals. This was huge and this was fun. The lights were out, spotlights were on, each kid got called by name and got to run into the gym while the crowd cheered. Cosmo the Cougar (from BYU) was even there. It was really neat.

Nathan's team lost-by 1 question!! Bummer. But it was so neat.

AND, bonus. While I happened to be there to watch the Battle, Nathan got called up for another award. He was given the "Above and Beyond Award." He was so nervous and cute while getting it and it was so special for me to get to witness it. I wouldn't have been there if not for the Battle of the Books that day, so this was great. Here is what his teacher wrote to me in an email about it:

"I thought maybe I should explain the recognition Nathan received this morning because I think it got a little bit lost in translation.  I thought Nathan should receive recognition for going "above and beyond" with his assignments.  If I assign one paragraph, Nathan writes three.  If I ask them to read a book, Nathan reads two.  If I ask them to draw a picture, Nathan creates a whole mural.  He extends all his activities on his own. That is so rare!"

I am so proud of that sweet boy of mine. I just wanted to make sure I always remembered this special time for him.