Proud Mummy Moments

The kids will blog the same story tomorrow....I'll do my version tonight and then we can compare notes!

K9 was entering his very first University of Auckland Science Competition and he really really really wanted to get a "highly commended" mention (like his brother and sister had done three years earlier on their first time)

But there were eighty contestants...and some of them had Very Smart Entries. As he looked around, K9 was coming to terms with the thought that he just might not have made the grade.
Then Mother overheard the judges discussing his piece - the JudgeWhoHadInterviewedK9 was rooting for him. Desperate to keep listening, she Did The Right Thing and moved away so as not to hear any more! But she couldn't help noticing the JudgeInARose-PatternedTop went over to talk with K9! Then the Official Photographer took his picture. K9 came running across the hall, full of excitement. "Mama they want you to sign a thing that says my photo can go on the university website" Thoughts of highly commendeds were banished - he was about to be famous!!

The Prize-Giving
The five highly commendeds were read out. The anticipation of coming fame was not quite enough to soften the blow that K9's name was not among them. He looked disappointed. How I wanted to hug him! All my talks about "the effort you've put into this has been fantastic, you have done your best and that's what really counts, our family will enjoy playing this game for many years " just weren't cutting the mustard.

Third place....goes to.....
K9.
What? Me? They didn't say my name right, but it sounded kind-of close!
Woohoo. I won a PRIZE. A real prize.
AND I'm going to be famous.


Then it was on to the older kids.
J12 and J11 had told me they were hoping they might get a Highly Commended, but so many of the other entries were STUNNING, so they just weren't convinced theirs measured up.
They too got that disappointed look at the end of the Reading Out Of Highly Commendeds.
For an instant I wondered if they might actually get a prize...but there were still so many Great Projects out there.

Third Prize.
Second Prize.
First Prize...well, the guy couldn't read K9's name, and he did even worse with J11's and J12's!
It didn't even sound like them! But it was. For the second year running, they were delighted with first place.

And while those were proud moments for me, the best was when J12 came up to me and said, "Mama I'm happy to get first" (mistress of understatement! I'm sure she was VERY happy)....and she continued, "but I'm really REALLY happy for K9. He'll just be soooooo pleased." That was the precious moment of the day for me.