Bridget Crushes Sixth Grade

We're finding out that sixth grade is a lot. I'm happy that Bridget is participating and having fun, though. She has conquered her shyness and fears one by one.

Bridget was one of the mer-sisters in Little Mermaid Jr. and the show was in March. I didn't get to see her practice with the other mermaids, so I didn't know what was going to happen when I went to the first performance with Grandma Peggy. The six mermaids were all adorable - costumes and long blue wigs. For their song "She's in Love" they sounded so good! They started singing harmony and I cried like a baby. I go to a lot of kids theater, you guys. It's one of my beats as a small town newspaper reporter. Hearing elementary kids sing in tune is a rare treat and hearing beautiful harmony is the holy grail. I was so proud of all of them I almost busted!

Grandma and Grandpa brought Nate for the second night of the show and I helped backstage that night. Grandma and Grandpa brought Bridget a pretty seashell necklace. Emil and Colin and Nate ate a lot of candy.

The week after the show was Battle of the Books. Brian read several of the books with Bridget and then Bridget and I finished up Esperanza Rising a few weeks before the battles. We started Hatchet the week of Battle of the Books and it ended up coming in pretty handy.

Bridget's team consisted of her, Katie, Mariah, and Tylee. The first round of play they were unstoppable! I always volunteer to read or be a time keeper for Battle of the Books because it is awesome. Mariah was the team captain, so she was the only one who could answer questions after she'd consulted her team. I could tell which books each of them had read - a great strategy. It's so hard to remember details from 20 different books! Better to know five really well. Every time Bridget got an Esperanza Rising question right I would tear up with pride. That was a long, grim book. We read it together and she said it was her favorite book on the Battle of the Books list.

On the second day of battles, Bridget's team faltered a little. They did crush the top team, though. Their final score put them in fourth place and the top four teams went to the final. Her team played the second place team.

Bridget's team destroyed the second place team in the semi-final. Sami's team ended up winning their semi-final too, so Bridget's and Sami's teams faced each other in the school final. It was so intense! I honestly didn't care who won - they all won because they read books! (Nerd alert.) Sami's team won and they could choose one player from the second place team to take to the district competition. They chose Bridget. My girl is the MVP, you guys.

The district competition was at American Fork Junior High - Brian's alma mater! Grandma met us there and we followed Bridget's team all over the school for six battles. Brian told us fun stories as we passed forgotten halls and nooks. "Ryan Hall fought a ninth grader right there." HA! "I was playing tag right here and I ran into this cement pole. It knocked me out and I fell back and hit the other side of my head on the sidewalk. I was in the ER and couldn't speak!" Junior high, man. You couldn't pay me to go back! Unless I get to know everything I know now. Then I'd go back and not care about anything and listen to all my teachers.

Bridget's teacher, Miss Beck, followed the team around all morning too. Can you even stand it?! It was a Saturday! She's young and cute! The Lightning Llamas at District Battle of the Books team was Bridget, Lola, Sami, Braylee and Aiden. They didn't get into the top five, but there were 44 schools there and it truly didn't matter. We found out later they placed 12th. Awesome. :)

The Tuesday after Battle of the Books was the science fair. Bridget did everything herself. No, really! I drove her to the eye doctor to interview him, but it was her idea and she asked the questions. We'd been discussing the science fair for months! Brian and I encouraged Bridget to find a question from her real life to research and experiment on for the science fair. When she and Brian saw the color of bricks on a church differently, I pointed out that she could use that question for her project - Do People See Color Differently?

The eye doctor gave Bridget Ishihara's Color Blindness Test and she went around our neighborhood giving it to whomever answered the door. Brian helped her make graphs with her data and I helped her cut out some of the paper, but she did all the research and typed everything and created her tri-fold. It was a masterpiece! (By the way, 7% of males have a color deficiency and 1% of females have a color deficiency. And other very interesting facts! Your peripheral vision is black and white! Science!)

Thank goodness not every month is as busy as March, but Bridget seems happiest when she is engaged to capacity. Brian and I spent the month bursting with pride in her more so than usual. She works so hard and I've never met anyone her age who is so responsible! She's the best girl.