Day 5

Day 5 of 7 in 7. My wee machine of child has been working so incredibly hard for today. Today was Exam Day. Her first ABRSM exams, for both clarinet and piano within an hour of each other. The date has been looming in our lives for weeks and she played a blinder. She didn’t go to school this morning; I gave her time to potter at home and stay relaxed. This was blown a little out of the water after I realised upon arrival that I had got the time wrong by ten minutes and they were also running early, so instead of being early they were waiting for her to arrive. All was well though and instead of panicking, she just quietly got on with her preparation and went in happily. She said her piano exam went “well apart from a little hesitation in her sight reading, a couple of wrong notes in one piece and a mistake in one scale”. She’s such a perfectionist with her analysis of herself. I took her off for something to eat after her first exam and to pick a treat to enjoy when she’d finish. She picked her first ever Krispie Kreme donut! A salted caramel creation.

We arrived back in proper time for the second exam! This one I was actually able to hear. Her pieces sounded delightful. I was quite confused when I heard her two accompanied pieces then a break before her third. She found it very funny that the examiner had said she could do her aural between them if she fancied breaking them up a bit! Her third piece then sounded good. Her scales sounded great apart from one but she said she got that perfect the second time. She’s done trinity up until now and those exam results are available the same day, so waiting for ABRSM who probably won’t release them until after New Year now is new territory for us!

She was quite unhappy about returning to school this afternoon but I reminded her that she had to if she wanted to go to dancing as her friend was taking her from school!

The other photo today is what I’d have used if it wasn’t exam day. My little love adores getting all prettied up for Christmas ballet classes and this leotard is my favourite that I have made for her to date. I made her a matching bun wrap too, the first I’ve done. She’s had two leotards (one made of awesome Santa fabric!), a gold sparkly skirt and the bun wrap all by me this year plus some lovely bits I have found for her. She’s such a bundle of festive