Valentines and Violins

It has been almost two months since I last updated the girls' blogs. Part of that is attributable to my own crazy teaching schedule, and part of it is attributable to the relatively stable, quiet pace of their lives these days. That being said, clearly there are events that have occurred since New Years Eve!

(from a random winter break "fashion show")

The girls finished out their winter break and got back to the business of being full time students. The spring semester has been filled with the usual events. Every January the Rodeo comes to town and the kids have Western Day at school. This year someone actually brought a horse to school for the event and all the kids got to have their picture taken with the sweet thing.

 

In February, the big event was Valentine's Day. Abbie put together a valentine for all 40+ kids in her class and for her 4 teachers. This year, however, there was also a special valentine card for a certain gentleman in her class. :) She slipped it into his bag when he wasn't looking, and presumably he opened it at home. She played it cool, though, so as to not scare him off - the note in the card just said, that she gave him the card because she thought that he would find the picture on the front funny. Of course, there is more to it than that, but it was a good cover story. :)

We have also had lots of violin events over the past couple of months. Abbie's teacher gave us tickets to an orchestra performance that featured a phenomenal, young female violinist. Abbie really enjoyed the show and then was able to find more performances by this woman on YouTube.

Speaking of performances on YouTube, Abbie participated in the Trophy Festival again this year. This event gives the kids the chance to play for, and receive feedback from a violin teacher other than their own. Each kid leaves with a trophy that acknowledges all of the hard work that these kids put in on a daily basis. This year, Abbie played Minute I by Bach, and I was able to record most of it (I hit record a bit late, but below is probably 80% of the piece).

 

It is actually fortunate that Abbie was able to play this year at all. The afternoon before the performance she managed to get a terrible burn on the middle finger of her right hand. There was a HUGE blister and it was really painful. Fortunately, however, it was on the outside of her hand and the fingers on the right hand really don't do much other than steady the bow on the strings. Had the burn been anyplace else, I don't think that the she could have played. She and I were both glad that it worked out, as Trophy Festival has started to become a tradition for us.