Miss K. has been asking for a flute and the lessons to go with it for a few years. My marvelous friend Amy down the street is a talented flute player and promised to teach her, but said we ought to wait until K. turned eight so her arms would be long enough to reach.
I was able to find a used flute on Craigslist but not being very musical myself, I had no idea if it was in good shape. Amy said the brand was good, and the price was right, so we went for it. We took it to a place Amy recommended in town, and Dave was everything you could hope for in an instrument expert. Kind, knowledgeable, thorough, and fair. He told me I’d made a good purchase (phew) and said it’s a good silver plated Armstrong flute that would service her well through all her student years. He spent some time ironing out a few dents, and repairing the pads and keys, and said he’d call when it was ready.
We wanted to surprise K. with it for her birthday, but he wanted us to bring her in when the flute was ready to pick up. I played the flute very briefly during 5th grade, and it took me months to be able to get any sound out. But with Dave’s tutelage, Miss K. came home able to get her first sounds out of the piece. She was so thrilled! He showed her how to properly care for it, and she’s been so careful. We thought she might require a curved headjoint, but she’s all arms and legs like her parents, so she’s good to go.
She got her present a few weeks early, and started lessons with Amy. I’m always afraid the novelty will wear off, but she seems so excited and dedicated, practicing daily in the mirror, and taking care of her instrument so carefully.
My baby girl turns eight this week, and that means she’ll be getting baptized soon. My mom sent her a white dress, and she’s so excited. E. will take her and a couple of her friends to the movie theater on Saturday for her party — that seems to be the recipe for birthdays this year. So easy, and zero stress for me.
I thought I’d share the invitation I’ve been using for these easy, peasy birthday parties. The zip file contains two Photoshop files, one with filled in movie tickets where you can edit the text, or blank ones you can add text to yourself.
They are grayscale since my color printer bit the big green weenie, but if you print these on colored cardstock they’re super cute. There’s a back you can print, or you can just write in the details on the back of the main ticket. Clear as mud? What I’m saying is, you’ve got some options.
For those without Photoshop or a Photoshop compatible program, I’ve got the blank file in a PNG download here:
The fonts are Avenir Next Condensed and Cubano.
Enjoy!
p.s. Hey! I got the book orders in on Tuesday. We did great on Usborne, and scraped by with Barefoot. I’ll bribe my friends with treats to come help me sort and ship when they arrive. Those who ordered will get a tracking number via email. High fives for cooperation, folks.