Summer!

Summer break is here at last and Abbie is thrilled about it. The last few weeks of school were really good, but really busy. She won two awards at the awards ceremony this year - one for having the highest score in English class (among the 80ish students that have her same teacher) and one for being the outstanding strings performer among the 6th graders. She was so surprised to have won anything at all and, of course, we are proud of all of her efforts this year.

As for final exams, she had English and Earth Science on Monday, then Math and Geography on Tuesday, and French on Wednesday this week. The Math test was cumulative, but English and Earth Science were not. The Geography final was actually a final project about the strengths, weaknesses, and culture of a foreign country of their choosing. Abbie chose Japan (good choice!) and, as part of the project, she was required to prepare a traditional Japanese dish. She chose Yakisoba (buckwheat noodles with pork belly and veggies), which is easy to make and popular at picnics this time of year.

Prepped and ready to make Yakisoba

We decided to create some synergy with our regular meals, so we doubled the recipe and had some for dinner and then sent some to school with her the next day. I was shocked at how good the meal was. I didn't know what to expect, having never had it, and it was awesome. The flavors were oddly addictive and we struggled to save any for her to take to school. This is definitely a meal that we have again and now we can put Abbie to work making it for us!
 
Abbie also had her final orchestra concert of the season with the group that she plays with outside of school. They did a fabulous job and then, just when we though they were done, they sat back down and surprised us with a rendition of Wipe Out. It was really fun to hear that song played by a string orchestra and I think the kids liked having a surprise for us. As for next year, Abbie has been admitted into the String Orchestra again but is still debating whether she wants to do it or whether she wants to take a break from it. Now that she has a group to play with at school, it may not be as critical for her to also have a group outside of school, but I leave the decision to her.

Although school is over for the summer, there is still one more semi-school-related event this Saturday. The ballet teacher got a bunch of tickets to a performance of Swan Lake in which the ballet and orchestra in town will be performing together. Abbie snagged one of the tickets, so she will be joining her teacher and a group of fellow dancers to watch the show. Other than that, I'm sure that her immediate plans involve doing as little as possible. Most likely she'll spend the next few days completely engrossed in a good book!