Samantha and the violin

Samantha attempted to learn to play the violin this past year in 4th grade.  Even though she said she'd practice daily, we never saw her pick up the violin even once during the school year.  When asking her why she wasn't practicing, she said because she thought it would be more fun.  Ugh.

So it would come as no surprise to anyone that by the time Sam's strings concert was performing at the end of the year, we weren't expecting a masterpiece.   And it didn't disappoint in the least.  In fact I think the music teacher knew the 4th graders needed help and combined all 3 grades that play strings into one performance.

Samantha gave us the heads-up that she and her friend were being seated all the way in the back row.  The many rows were all at the same level and there were a lot of them.  So seeing Sam perform was going to be difficult at best.   The girls didn't follow instructions very well and when they saw two open seats up in front, they helped themselves to a very highly visible placement.

When the music teacher saw where Sam and her friend picked to sit, they quickly got moved back to their original seats.  But not before I was able to get some great pictures of them.

And this is where she got moved back to.

Due to the 4th, 5th, and 6th grade coming together to play at the Strings concert, the auditorium was packed.  Standing room only and everyone was packed in there like sardines.  I had to go early to drop Sam off and my plan was to save seats for Jeff, Ian and me.  Even 40 minutes before the performance start time, every single seat was taken.  And many more people were walking in behind me looking for seats too.  I finally found one seat and was able to find a seat for Jeff a few rows back. Ian took one look at the packed room and decided to walk back home.

Here's the funny part to this story:

When the concert was over and Sam asked where Ian was, we told her when he saw how crowded the room was, he walked back home.  Sam was less than pleased that Ian missed her big concert.  She said she had to sit through 3 years worth of Ian's concerts and plays and it wasn't fair that he missed hers.  Samantha came up with a plan to even the score.  She was going to play for Ian when she got home and make him listen to her.  And this is where we finally hear Sam play and realize just how bad she is.  Remember, we never got to hear her practice so this was all new to Jeff and I too.

Yep, that's bad!  However, this wasn't even one of the songs that Sam performed in the concert.  I requested Samantha to play the music she played earlier in the evening at school.  Sam's reply?  "I can't.  I lost the folder with that music a long time ago."  Ha!

And with that, we packaged up the violin and got it ready to return.  Samantha's musical career has officially ended.