My First Piano Lesson of the Year

I nervously entered my piano teacher's house. My knees shook. I hadn't had a piano lesson for ages because of the long summer holidays. Would I have done enough practise? Would she say I had gone backwards?

"Hello!" my teacher said smiling at me and Charlotte. "Who will have the first lesson?" I didn't know if I wanted to get it over and done with or leave it as long as possible. Luckily I didn't have to choose.

"I think I will teach you first, Sophie," Christine decided. I took a deep breath and followed her into the music room.

I started on my scales, being very careful to get them all right. Christine tapped her fingers to help me keep the same pace. A few times she made me repeat a scale until I got it perfect.

Once I was finished with my scales I started on my exam pieces. My forehead furrowed in concentration. Imogen had helped me out with one of them over the holidays, so I wasn't really worried about it, but the others I had been practising on my own.

"That was really nice," Christine said as I finished one of my pieces. "I can tell you really enjoy that piece."

I sighed with relief. I did enjoy it a lot. It is really fun to play.

When my lesson was finished, I walked out and grinned at Charlotte. She smiled at me and walked into the music room for her lesson. I settled down on the sofa with my book to wait.

Later Christine walked us to the front door. We said goodbye and rushed over to the car where Mum and Imogen were waiting to pick us up.

"How did it go?" Mum asked.

"Great!" I said.

"Christine said we did wonderfully," Charlotte agreed.

The grin didn't leave my face the whole way home. I was so happy.

Epiphany on the Beach

It is Epiphany. Imogen, Charlotte, Gemma-Rose and I are all sitting in Mum and Dad's room talking.

"We have two options on what we could do today," Mum says. "We could stay home and have cake or we could go to the beach?"

What is Mum thinking? Of course we want to go to the beach. We grab our swimmers, towels, something to do in the car and water bottles.

Soon we are in the car. I settle down for the long drive. I have a favourite book on the go and I am listening to the Frozen soundtrack on my MP3 player. It doesn't seem to take very long before we arrive.

Immy

We head over to the changing rooms. We all change as fast as we can, put on our sunscreen and then meet Dad outside.

He leads us over to the beach and to a good spot on the sand.

"Can we go play in the water?" Gemma-Rose asks.

Me

"Come on," Imogen agrees and we run into the waves. The water isn't half as cold as we thought it would be and soon we are jumping waves. We call ourselves the Ninja Kipper Fish.

Gemma-Rose and Charlotte keep getting carried back to shore, but Imogen and I soon pick up how to jump a wave and then dig our heels into the sand.

After a little while we all decide to go make a sand castle. It is a tradition to make a sand castle every time we go to the beach.

"What should this one be like?" Charlotte asks.

"How about we give it two towers?" Imogen suggests.

"We could give it a tunnel all the way through," Charlotte adds.

"Come on then."

Soon we are digging and piling sand up. It is looking really impressive. I smile as I look at our handiwork.

"Lets call it the Two Towers," Imogen says. I giggle.

Gemma-Rose and Two Towers

"What should we do now?" Gemma-Rose asks.

"Well I have seen all these amazing pictures of sand mermaids. Does anyone want to try making one?" Imogen asks.

We all do. We have never made a sand mermaid before.

Charlotte and Imogen start by drawing out the shape and then we begin on the building.

The mermaid

"Try to stay in the lines," Charlotte calls.

It is a lot of fun. I get given the head to do. I build it a bit out of shape and Charlotte has to fix it for me. She and Imogen are good at doing things like this.

Mum comes over to have a look. She is soon off for her camera. She takes photos of everyone and, when we are finished, the mermaid itself. Dad comes over too. He takes the camera and takes a lot more photos. It is the most amazing thing we have ever done!

"Time to go and get some dinner," Mum says.

We go to the change room and have showers and get back into our clothes. We are all hungry and so we hurry. Dad is going to buy fish and chips.

Once he has bought them, we find a park and sit down to eat our dinner. Seagulls crowd around in hope of something to eat, but they are out of luck. We are too hungry to waste anything on birds.

When we have finished eating, we climb back in the car and go home to bed. It was a great day! I really enjoyed myself.

What did you do on the Feast of the Epiphany?

I Eat Snails

This is my first post from our new blog: Mothers, Daughters, Sisters!

Hi! I am Sophie. 

When trying to think up a fun way to introduce myself, Mum suggested writing this post like an interview. So after going around and getting a few questions from everyone in my family, I set about answering them. Some questions were really hard, but I managed it in the end!

Facts about me:

Name: Sophie

Age: 12

Place in the family: second youngest of eight, fourth of five girls.

If you were a sound, what would it be and why: 

I'd be a laugh because I can’t stop laughing. If something funny is said, you can be sure I will laughing. I love jokes and quotes. 

If you were a colour, what would it be and why: 

I'd be red. It seems such a fun colour. It is one of my favourite colours. I love red flowers, red sharpies and red earrings.

If you could be a book character, which one would you be and why: 

I'd be Betony from The Divide. She leads such an exciting life and doesn’t seem to care how different she is from all other elves. I am different as well. I look different being darker than everyone else in my family. 

What would your perfect day be like: 

My perfect day would be a day at home with plenty of time to read, write and doodle.

What is your favourite outfit: 

It's a denim skirt and pink T shirt. They are nice and comfy. I like casual clothes better than being dressed up and I love skirts a lot more than pants. You won't catch me dead in jeans. On special days I like the flowery dress Mum made me best though. It is about knee length and has two buttons on the shoulder.

What is the strangest thing you have ever eaten: 

I have eaten snails! When I was little I used to eat snails out of their shells. I found them in the garden. I still get teased about it! I don't mind being teased and I can't sulk for too long, however hard I try. (I don't eat snails any more!)

What is your favourite kind of shoes: 

I like wearing ballet flats or sneakers. Something comfy because I get sore feet easily.

What kind of music would you be: 

I'd be something exciting, like the How to Train Your Dragon soundtrack. I am always having heaps of fun and I usually have a huge grin all over my face.

Here's one of my doodles:

E for Elvis

The Best Christmas Present Ever

Gemma-Rose and the doll

A few weeks ago Mum and I were Christmas shopping.

"Do you think if I work hard I can finish that doll I am making and give it to Gemma-Rose?" I asked.

"I don't see why not," Mum said.  

So I set out to make the best Christmas present ever! Every night instead of reading in bed I worked on the doll, sewing it's very long legs.

Book the doll came from

About a week before Christmas though I still had half of the second leg to sew, and the clothes still needed to be made. I didn't panic though. I knew just who to go to for help.

"Mum I haven't finished my doll," I told her.

"Don't worry, I will get out my sewing machine tomorrow," Mum said, "and you can use it to finish the sewing. It will be quicker." I was excited. I had never used a sewing machine before.

The next day I sat down and Mum taught me what to do. It was easier than I thought and very soon we were almost done. I just had to put the elastic in the skirt, sew the doll's pieces together and finish stuffing it. It wouldn't be hard at all.

Once I was done, I showed the doll to Mum.

"Don't you think the doll's eyes are a bit dark?" she asked.

I looked at it. She was right. 

"What should I do?" I asked.

Mum thought about it. "I know, I have a wonderful white pen. We will draw around the centre of the eye to make it stand out more," she said.

It was a brilliant plan and soon my doll was perfect. I put her in a shoe box and wrapped it. I couldn't wait until Gemma-Rose saw what I had made her.

On Christmas Gemma-Rose tore open her present. She stopped and stared.

"It is the doll you were making! It is finished," she said smiling. She was delighted with it and couldn't put it down for the next few days.

"What are you going to name her?" I asked.

"Mary-Kathrine," Gemma-Rose said, "after the girl from Epic." The name suits the doll very well, even though she doesn't look a thing like the heroine from Epic. To tell the truth she looks more like me. It wasn't really meant to be that way, but it is!

I am so happy my Christmas present turned out well. 

The Pen Pot

I also got a special present. It is a pen pot Gemma-Rose made me out of salt dough. It is multicoloured and very useful. She also gave me some pencils to go in it!

I don't know who got the better present, Gemma-Rose or me. 

Did you make any of your Christmas presents?

The Tardis

One of the last picture we have of the van

A few days ago I walked into Mum's room to find Callum showing her pictures of vans and big cars.

"We're thinking of buying a new car," Mum said. "We will sell the van and get something newer."

Sell the van? I couldn't believe it. We had owned the van for fourteen years. It would be hard to imagine life without it.

Imogen and Charlotte started bagging seats before we have even decided which car we were getting. They were just as excited as me.

On Saturday, Mum and Dad went to the car dealers to look at all the choices. Everyone else waited around at home to hear which one they were going to buy.

The Tardis

The phone rang. Charlotte grabbed it. "Hello," she said. Her face lit up as she talked to Dad.

When she hung up, she turned to us. "We have a car," she said.

"Which one?" Immy asked.

"I didn't catch the name but it is silver, has seven seats, four doors, a boot and wheels," Charlotte told us.

"Yes," I yelled and danced around the room.

By Tuesday the car was ready for us to pick up. Dad swapped the van for it after work.

We sat around in the living room, waiting to see what the new car looked like. Dad took a long time getting home. We were all very anxious by the time he turned into the drive way.

"He's here," I called as I raced out the front door, everyone on my heels.

"What do you think?" Dad asked as we crowded around the new car.

"It is wonderful," we all chorused.

"It is the Toyota Tardis," Dad said, "because it seems tiny on the outside and huge on the inside."

The name suits it perfectly.

"We need to go somewhere in it," Immy said.

"The beach?" I asked. We hardly ever go to the beach.

"I don't see why not," Mum agreed.

So now we are looking forward to the holidays. We are off to the beach!

Wrapping my Presents

This morning Mum suggested I wrap my presents.

I found the wrapping paper, sticky tape and scissors. I also asked Gemma-Rose to help me find some bubble wrap so that I could use it to wrap up the salt dough nativity I made.

Soon I was ready. I started to wrap the first present. As I wrapped I hummed Christmas carols to myself. I really felt Christmas is almost here.

At ten o'clock I took a break from wrapping presents for morning tea. I was almost finished. Smiling I took a bite into my biscuit.

As soon as I had finished wrapping up my presents, Gemma-Rose wanted to wrap hers. With my presents wrapped I can hardly wait for Christmas day. It will be a lot of fun. I can't wait to see the look on everyone's faces when they see what I have bought them!

Getting Braces

A month ago, Mum, Immy and I were sitting on the train. Next stop would be ours. I grabbed my book and MP3 player and put them into my bag.

We were going to get my braces put on. I was a bit nervous. I had been assured by Imogen and Charlotte, who have both had braces, that it isn't as bad as it is made out to be. I was trying to believe them.

We rushed off the train and onto the street. It was pouring with rain. I dug in my bag and pulled out my amazing cat umbrella.

We walked down the busy street, trying to find somewhere for morning tea. After a lot of walking we found a cafe and Mum bought me a milkshake and apple pie. The milkshake was very yummy and the apple pie warmed me up. I hurriedly ate them up before we had to dash over to the orthodontist's. We went up the lift and came out in a waiting room.

After brushing my teeth, we sat down to wait. I had only just put my bag down when a lady came out of a room.

"Sophie?" she asked. I got up again and followed her in.

The orthodontist smiled and told me to sit down. He talked me through what they were doing. I soon forgot to be scared as I listened.

While finding fitting metal bands for my teeth, he found that no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't get the metal band onto one of my teeth. I felt scared again as they picked up a piece of sand paper.

"You won't like this," the orthodontist said and he was right. He sandpapered the tooth until it fitted into the band. I was very relieved when it finally fitted in.

After taking some new x rays, the old ones being out of date, he started to put the braces onto my teeth. It took a long time and was very boring. It didn't actually hurt at all.

"What colour bands would you like?" I was asked.

I looked at the colours shown to me and picked a nice bright purple. It didn't take long after that for them to finish putting the braces on and Mum to be allowed in. She smiled.

"Immy said you would pick that colour," she told me.

I smiled as best I could. My mouth felt like it couldn't fit everything in it.

After being told all about how to look after my braces and what not to eat, we went back to the train station.

On the way home I told Immy all about.

"You look like a chipmunk," she told me and took a photo.

Mum and Imogen ate their lunch on the way home, but after trying to nibble some of mine I gave up. I knew someone would make me something soft to eat when we got home. I was right. Charlotte was willing to make me some custard to eat instead.

The next day my braces started to hurt, but after a few days they calmed down and I got used to them.

As I still have baby teeth I will have to go back to the dentist next week and have two of them pulled out. I am not looking forward to it!