From bad to dad to fad to mad, Becca is learning to spell.

Welcome to first grade, where there are Friday spelling tests and real homework.

These days, the focus in our house is largely on three-letter words, although there are a few four-letter offerings too, like glad and like.

A recent set of words began with bad dad. But I didn't take it personally. This week, Becca learned how to spell pan, ran, tan, van, fan, can, man and a few other words.

Next week's reading list includes not and dot, hot and cot, pot, lot and even spot. This spot, however, is lower case. Clearly, it's not the dog.

Sometimes, it's the little words that count the most, like "I do."

As I wrote this Saturday morning, we were preparing to celebrate my parents' 50th wedding anniversary in St. Louis with some 60 of their closest friends and relatives.

These days, it's rare to find anyone who has been married that long.

In the hands of those who have been married half a century, marriage is an art form, every bit as beautiful as a Roman fountain and just as enduring.

Planning for a 50th anniversary party isn't something you do at the last minute. It takes months of preparations. NASA couldn't have been more meticulous than our family when it came to this celebration.

Our only concern is just how well will our children act. Becca and Bailey aren't the sit-down dinner type. They regularly eat on the run as do Joni and I.

But at our age, we've learned to sit still. I don't know about Becca and Bailey.

To them, the celebration at a St. Louis area restaurant will likely seem a little overwhelming. Hopefully, it won't be anything like the time last week when Joni was working and I took the kids to a local, fast-food restaurant.

There were few customers in the place. Becca and Bailey moved from table to table like they were playing musical chairs. Once we had our food, they had to make repeated trips to the counter to get more little paper cups of ketchup. At one point, Becca spilled a whole cup of ketchup on the floor. She also managed to get the bright red stuff on her pants.

In the middle of our mad dash through dinner, Bailey suddenly yelled out, "I pee pee in my panties." This is not something that any parent wants to hear shouted out in public for all to hear. I quickly rushed her to the bathroom where I discovered that Bailey's exclamation was really a false alarm.

We returned to finish our chicken fingers.

I spent the rest of dinner instructing my children on the importance of sitting at the dinner table. We ended up getting ice cream for dessert. Much of the chocolate-covered stuff ended up on Bailey's face rather than in it. At age 2, she still likes to wear her meals on her face. Quite the fashion statement.

Six-year-old Becca generally does better, although eating isn't as much of a challenge for her anyway. That's because she doesn't eat much, unless, of course, it's dessert.

I had hoped our dining out experience would help prepare our children for the big anniversary dinner. But as we left the restaurant, I could only hope that there wouldn't be too much ketchup at the celebration.

For Becca and Bailey, ketchup is a full-course meal.

At any rate, I'm sure even a little spilled ketchup won't upset mom and dad. In a half century of wedded bliss, they've learned that most things can be cleaned up if you work at it.

Come to think of it, "I do" isn't a bad motto for life or a spelling test.

~Mark Bliss is a staff writer for the Southeast Missourian.