Christmas Concert

A very big musical day for this monkey today. She practised well at home, her piano pieces were sounding good, her clarinet was neat and well done. Then she headed out to school. She's spent the whole day on music. She arrived as the orchestra were getting all their stuff set up. They rehearsed for the morning, then performed to the school before playing in their concert this afternoon. She did a solo, which she played beautifully. The teacher paced it quite a bit too slow, but she played very well. She still looks quite tiny stood in front of the school orchestra. 

We had to leave straight after her solo as today she  took her Grade 3 piano exam in the city. She came out happy with it, she was pleased with her pieces and technical work. 

After her exam, we drove to see a friend's Christmas tree. He's known amongst his friends for having spectular(ly terrible), over the top decorations and holds a contest each year to vote the best decorations on his tree and crown the annual winner. We went to vote tonight! 

We got her exam results through at teatime and she was quite seriously disappointed - she didn't manage the distinction that she loves and is used to getting. She dropped 4 marks in her aural test (the first time she's done those in an exam) and it cost her the distinction. She got a very high merit, which is wonderful. Especially given the fact she took her grade 2 only in July. I am very proud of all that she's achieved this week. It's been a MASSIVE week. But to Katie it's felt like quite a few times of "learning hard lessons in life", even though to everyone else she's achieved incredible things. She wouldn't be Katie if she was happy to settle for anything other than reaching for the stars though. My little crazy, perfectionist, superstar.