Second Piano Recital

Elina had her 2nd piano recital this weekend. Again, she was the youngest one there so she started the whole show off. She did an incredible job with her piece, La Donna e Mobile (from the opera, Rigoletto). She only made one mistake and she bounced right back from it. I love that she's still at that age where she doesn't really get stage fright or nervous. She just knows that it's about having fun.

In the picture below, she had just finished her piece and did her curtsy. She was so happy!
We were wary when we first got this recital piece from the piano teacher. B really had his doubts because it's a pretty difficult piece for a 4 1/2 year old. But after we started working with her on it, she improved tremendously with every passing week. After the 1st 2 weeks she already had half of it memorized. It was pretty amazing. The second page was trickier because of all the triplets, but she managed to pick it up quickly. She's had the whole thing memorized for a few weeks now. In the picture on the right, she got her certificate and her goody bag. In all honesty, she was more excited about the chocolate in the goody bag than anything else.

Here she is playing the piece right before we left for the recital (We used the camcorder to tape the real thing and the camera to take pictures during the actual recital, so I thought I'd just post the pre-recital performance.)--


Anyway, we are so proud of her. She always tries her best and practices all the time (because she wants to) and it really shows. She wore a beautiful dress that Ah-Ma bought for her in Taiwan and she looked so grown up. (In the picture to the right, she's with her awesome piano teacher, Ms. Kim.) We're amazed at how much Elina has improved since she first started playing last August. It hasn't even been a year yet. Another piano teacher at the recital told us that Elina really has a talent for the piano because she already reads notes and understands tempo and dynamics. We're so proud. I have to admit that I even got goosebumps when Elina was up there playing her piece...even though I practice it with her almost every day and know the piece inside and out. It's just one of those moments.
Speaking of "knowing" the piece...Eli knows Elina's piece as well. Since Elina played the piece multiple times every day, Eli started to hum it. It's cute when your 2 1/2 year old is humming a piece from an opera! So here's Eli's version--


Elina was also very excited to invite her best friend, L, to the recital this time. (The week before Elina attended L's dance recital, too.) After the recital, we all went out to Elina's favorite restaurant to eat. You guessed it! It's still LUBY'S (to B's dismay)! Elina and L just chatted non-stop and laughed at each other's jokes. It was too cute.
After a fun dinner, we all headed home to put the kids to bed...and this time L was staying over for a sleepover!! (But that needs to be a different post...so stay tuned!)