Anvil - A-N-V...

 Avery was selected to represent her class in the school spelling bee.  Studying with her was excruciating.  Each word had to be commented upon and dramatized, making it difficult to get through more than 10 words in a sitting.  Eventually I just suggested that she watch Akeelah and the Bee and hoped that she would serendipitously get a word that she heard in the movie.  The night before the event she was a little more serious in her studies.

 It goes without saying that you would wear your (snow)leopard print pants for the main event.   She was cool and confident and I felt pretty darn nervous.  The setting instantly took me back a quarter century to my own participation in the district bee*.

Round one - R-O-B-O-T

Round two - L-I-L-A-C

Round three - A-N-V-I-L pause, E? ding.

She loved the experience and wore her everyone's a winner medal all day and evening long.

*I got out on BALLISTIC,  can't remember exactly but I think I put an O in there.