Today was Ella's first piano recital after completing her first year of piano lessons. Although she started off the school year taking back to back lessons with Logan on Wednesday afternoons, this sadly only lasted one month. Logan was so not interested in learning how to play the piano that the four weeks he took lessons was full of tears and tantrums whenever it was time to practice the piano. So, I reluctantly called the piano teacher at the beginning of October and pulled him out of lessons. On the other hand, Ella has loved every bit of her piano playing experience! Unlike Lia who had to be helped with newly assigned music each week, Ella almost refused to ever get any help from me. She always wanted to be 100% independent which actually was a blessing to me as I just don't have the time and energy to help Ella like I did when Lia was taking lessons. In addition, Lia only played the piano when it was time for her to practice her assigned music. Ella has done the opposite thing and can be found playing the piano "for fun" several times throughout the day. Ella loves to find songs on YouTube to learn how to play in addition to practicing the music that her teacher has assigned her to learn every week. So, overall, this first year has been a very positive experience for Ella.
Since Ella tried out for and was invited to join the competitive gymnastics team at her gym this Spring, Ella is now practicing 3.5 hours twice a week in Auburn throughout the next year (including over the summer break). As a result, I am only allowing Ella to participate in one other activity or sport at a time to prevent her from getting overbook, exhausted, and burned out. So, she has chosen to return to her rec soccer team this fall with her best friend, Elise, that is coached by Elise's dad, Ben. Ella has to wait until she is finished with the soccer season before returning to piano lessons sometime in November. As a result, she is going to have take about a five month break from lessons, but there is no doubt in my mind that Ella will continue to play the piano for fun throughout these next several months. I can't wait to hear what she learns on her own!
Ella's teacher, Miss Tammie, decided to host an outdoor piano recital months ago when she first announced the date. I thought that she was a little crazy to do this since June can still be a very rainy month in Western Washington. Although this has turned out to be one of the rainiest springs in Washington history, we lucked out with beautiful, sunny weather after a string of rainy, cold days. So we enjoyed sitting on camping chairs in Tammie's front yard while listening to all of the students play their pieces. Unfortunately, a neighbor, a few houses down from Tammie's house, was mowing the lawn when it was Ella's turn to play the piano. Luckily, he was far enough away that it didn't ruin her performance, but it will forever be in the background of the video Lia took of Ella playing.
Ella was so excited to play both of her numbers. She bravely ran down to the piano and played "Hawk on a Mountain Peak" and "Crocodile in the Nile."
At the end of the "Crocodile in the Nile" number, Ella gets to slam her arms down on the piano keyboard to simulate the sound of a crocodile eating another animal. It is a very funny piece of music and it got quite the laugh out of the audience. Here is the picture I manage to get of Ella right as she looked up at the audience while she slammed down her arms.
Ella taking a bow after finishing playing both of her piano pieces.
Ella running back to her seat while getting "high fives" from her friend, Amelia, and her mom.
My cute girl running towards me.
After the recital was over, Miss Tammie called up each student one at a time to give them a certificate. Here is Ella shaking her hand after being handed her certificate.
Miss Tammie standing with all of her students.
Ella posing with her teacher after eating refreshments. Way to go, Ella! I am so proud of you!
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