Surprise

The biggest thing today is the one thing I can't share with Katie today! So I'm blipping it so that in the future she can read how damned hard it was to not tell her. For today her very first Bb clarinet arrived. She doesn't know we have even been looking. B trialled her on one a few weeks ago and she's ready, but we haven't told her that the hunt was on. But on Sunday I found The One. It was absolutely the amount I had budgeted and today it came. It's immaculate. I snuck out whilst Katie was playing with grandad as B wanted to inspect it. She's declared it perfect. Barely ever played. And it sounded so beautiful when she played me it. I paid less than a quarter of its current retail price. I'm so grateful. B called me a jammy thing!

The plan now is to give Katie chance to have a really good test out of one, probably this one without her knowing its hers, to make sure she's ready right now. And if she is, she will make the switch. If not, it will wait in B's music room a few months until she's grown just a little more. She is going to be SO delighted when the day comes. I can't wait to see her face. But I desperately don't want to rush it because she loves the clarinet so much, we don't want to put her on too early and it be tricky and demoralise her. I'm incredibly grateful we have the amazing teacher we do, who is thinking so hard about guiding Katie on this journey as best as possible.

In other news, it was report day. She's done fantastically, very proud of the little pickle. A whole host of areas where she's exceeding expectations, particularly in literacy, music (ha, such a surprise!) and PE (which has been very dominated by dance/gymnastics/athletics this year, so no surprise!) My favourite sentences in the "traditional" report section were "Katie has a zest for life. She is a super dancer and certainly shone during our dance lessons. She has a true performing flair". The ending sentence was "it has been a pleasure to teach Katie this year because she is such a happy, helpful and kind little girl and we will miss her". Well done, BabyGirl.