heated competition

Tonight I took photos of our elementary school's spelling bee as a favor for a friend.

I haven't been to the spelling bee since Max was in it about four years ago. This one was a lot longer -- those kids are seriously good spellers!

One controversial word was "hazmat." I thought that was spelled with a hyphen. I thought it was considered an abbreviation. Apparently it's one of those newfangled words. The unfortunate boy who got that word was out, and his family was in a bit of an uproar. A low-key uproar, if you will.

Of course I was spelling all the words in my head to follow along. You'll be relieved to know that I knew them all. But I was wondering if I knew words like that when I was in elementary school, there were some really hard ones!

Anyway.

The most fun for me was watching all of the kids, their nervousness, their body language.

There was the kid who is totally offbeat, most likely a complete mystery to his peers, who joked with the judges in every round. The one who looked like a younger Avril Lavigne. The one who was chewing gum and looked like he was too cool for spelling bees, but lasted until quite late in the game. There were kids who mumbled and kids who had perfect enunciation. There was a girl who is a bit ungainly and wears glasses, but looks like she could become a supermodel. And then there was the winner, who looked shocked and heaved a huge sigh of relief after every word she got right.

It was awesome.

Pompidou revisited

We squeezed in one more visit to the Centre Pompidou -- before my parents visited, and before the museum strike. Huzzah!

Of course I was intrigued by the numbers and letters on the large square in front of the museum. Those weren't there before.

We were all charmed by the gigantic bubbles this man was making, and gave him a euro for his trouble.

Not so charmed by this "pigeon rampage," as Eva calls it. Even my pigeon-loving children had to admit that it was a big creepy.

Once we were up in the escalators, we could see that it was the museum calendar for the month. Cool, eh? (I drive Lucas crazy by stopping frequently to take photos. Oh well, sometimes it's rough being part of a family.)

How I love the views from the top! It doesn't get much better for me than Paris rooftops.

During this visit, we explored the museum's permanent collections. I found this painting very interesting, the whole (very large) canvas is covered with handwriting.

This was a portrait of someone or other (I really should take notes). It makes me think that maybe Woman in Pearls isn't so bad after all...

I don't even remember what piece of art this caption belongs to. I just loved the writing!

It's no secret that modern art is not my favorite, but I do love these colors. Besides, this makes a lot more sense to me than, say, an all-blue canvas.

Check out this collar and cuffs! That is my kind of dress.

A detail I enjoyed -- it reminded me of the Magritte museum we visited in Brussels.

This painting completely fascinated me. It reminds me of a half-finished page from a (masterful) coloring book!

A view of the Stravinsky Fountain from above. When I visit a modern art museum (well, any museum, really), it helps to have fabulous views!