1st post of 2017!

Its hard to believe that we are already two months into 2017. I guess that we have been busy! What has Abbie been up to? Well, in January, she held a recital to celebrate the completion of Suzuki Book One. Grandma P. and Abigail's friend Vivian were able to attend, which was nice. As it turns out the entire experience made her incredibly nervous, but I wasn't really able to tell until she told us afterwards about how freaked out she had been. She played all 17 pieces in the book, but here are two of them:

(Gavotte)

(Long, Long Ago) 

Gavotte by Gossec is the most technical piece in the book, but Long, Long Ago by Bayly was probably my favorite that afternoon. In case you are curious about her accompanist (who can be heard, but not seen - oops!), we were fortunate enough to have Evan Mitchell (http://www.evanmitchell.net/), a pretty accomplished pianist. Abbie will also participate in the annual Trophy Festival again this year. It will be held on the 25th and she is planning to play Musette by Bach, which is also one of my favorites.

Abbie has also kept herself busy by entering a Duke TIP writing contest that required an original story of no more than 1,000 words based on a given topic. Her story is entitled, "All because of diet cat food" and is very cute. We should find out within the next month if she is one the three winners from her grade level. I have no idea how many other kids she is up against, but I assume that there must be quite a few given that it is a national contest. One of the motivating factors for her was that the winners receive cash prizes, and she seems to be very interested in cash. :)

Fortunately, one of the other things that has been keeping Abbie busy is a budding dog business. She has been taking care of a neighbor's dog three afternoons a week, and now another neighbor has hired her to take care of her two dogs two afternoons a week. We are inflicting a $4/hour pay rate, so her current requirements give her an income of $9/week. Not too shabby, given that she has virtually nothing to spend it on.

Finally, after four years at a Montessori school, we are yet again thinking of moving Abbie to a different private school in town that has a more rigorous curriculum and more opportunities. She will be visiting for a day next week and then taking entrance exams shortly after that. Admission decisions are not announced until April, so we'll keep you posted on this potential move.