Reflection Winner!!

I have to start this story back about a month ago. It all began when Ethan came home from school one day telling me about this great contest he needed to enter. Why... because there were prizes of course. I think that is all Ethan heard when they were introducing it...PRIZES! So I said okay, whatever, really thinking that he would forget about the whole thing, but alas he did not. He reminded me constantly that we had to do this and turn it in by the end of the week.

We talked about what he wanted to do and he decided that he wanted to write and illustrate a story. Fine. I looked up the rules and was really taken aback. There were rules to writing stories and if you illustrated them the pictures would not be judged, just the story, or vice versa. You needed three copies of your story turned in, which is no big deal, just a little harder to have to drive all the way to the UPS store for color copies. I was begining to think, is this really worth it? Honestly I will give you a ribbon and candy bar if you don't make me do this. I had a bad attitude and I just did not really want to deal with it.

Rambling sorry, Needless to say Ethan entered the Reflections contest for his school and he actually won top five in literature out of the whole school! I was shocked! I was proud! I thought I was done with this contest, but we are onto regionals! I have learned many lessons from this experience

#1. Bribery is good. Maybe if I need Ethan to clean his room I will mention PRIZES!

#2. Try new things, step out of your comfort zone, who knows you might just come out the winner.

#3. Don't let anyone tell you that you should not try, if you want to do it, DO IT!

#4. Don't hold your kids back because of your past experiences with something. I need to support my children more and let them spread their wings. It doesn't really matter if they win or lose, at least they had the guts to try.

#5. I saw my little guy's self esteem raise about 10 notches that night. He was proud, he felt good about himself, and that my friends was worth ALL of the effort we had to put into this contest.

I love my not-so-little-anymore-man! Congratulations buddy!