Donato Kids

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2010-04-05T18:23:00.001-04:00

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Tony Band Competition

2010-04-05T18:19:00.001-04:00

I just received this about Tony's State Band competition and wanted to pass it along:

State Concert Band Contest: Both the Concert and Symphonic Bands will perform at OMEA State Contest on Friday, April 23 at Gahanna Lincoln High School. The Concert Band will perform at 5:30 PM.

Parade Update

2010-03-12T09:00:00.001-05:00

I messed up on the time for the St Patrick's Day Parade. Tony has to report at 9am, but the actual parade doesn't start until 11am and will run 90 minutes.

Big Kids

2010-03-09T12:29:00.000-05:00

I wanted to update you on some of what has been happening and is coming up for the big kids.

Tony’s basketball team played in the championship game this past Saturday and won (decidedly). Which was very impressive considering they were the 8^th seed of the tournament. But they beat the 1^st, 4^th and 3^rd seeds in order to take it all!!

Tony’s marching band played in an OMEA district competition this weekend and performed well. Based on their performances, they are now heading to State championships (although I do not know when those are).

Speaking of marching band, Tony is marching in the Dublin St. Patrick’s Day Parade this Saturday at 9am. As long as the weather holds, we are planning on attending.

One more for marching band, they have their spring concert band performance on Wednesday, May 12th at 7pm. Please mark your calendars if you are interested in attending.

Tony has started his tennis team tryouts this week. I understand that he is currently playing a really good player and is up a set. He is feeling good about his improvement over last season due to his lessons and time spent on the court. We are hoping it pays off for him.

I hope you are sitting down for the next bit of news – but as of today Kristen qualifies for her temporary license. That’s right – she is now 15 ½ years old and can go take the test and get her temporary license and start practicing her driving. Hard to believe, huh? The girl that jokes about being distracted by shiny objects will be operating a 2 ton vehicle! Woo hoo! LOL

Also, it sounds like Kristen is being baptized in her church on Sunday, April 18^th at the 11:30AM service. We will keep you posted as we hear more details.

I am trying to attach a picture from the Sweetheart Dance that Kristen attended. We didn’t get any pictures so I am swiping someone’s off of Facebook. Hopefully it comes through. Kristen looked beautiful!

Disney on Ice

2010-02-27T21:22:00.000-05:00

We got tickets for Disney on Ice and took the 2 little kids today. I figured Emily would enjoy it, but was excited to introduce Vinnie to the experience and let him see Buzz. I was surprised when earlier in the week Emily was saying that she didn't want to go and was asking if one of us could stay home with her and one could take Vinnie.

But as the day came Emily wanted to go, but I was worried that she wouldn't be able to as she has been fighting a fever. No other symptoms, just a fever. She woke up with a fever still this morning and she wanted to make sure she could still go and wanted to make sure that she wasn't going to ruin things for Vinnie. But her fever stayed down with motrin so we made the decision to still go and to take her.

So we get there and the show starts and I was out getting snacks, but when I came back Vinnie was buried into Brian's shoulder and not exactly enjoying the show. We had skipped the nap today and we thought he may have falled asleep at one point in time, but it certainly wasn't the fun time that I had envisioned him having. He's always had a tendency to shut down when he gets overwhelmed by sights and sounds and today was proving to be more of the same. Between no nap and the loud sounds and flashing lights, he was checking out.

I don't remember what changed, but Brian did get him engaged about a quarter of the way into the show. Vinnie finally unburied himself and started watching and - dare I say - enjoying the show.

Brian did it just in time too, because one of the next groups on was the Toy Story group. Vinnie was cute to see watch them. He kept pointing and saying "Buzz! Woody! Jessie!" It was well worth the trip.

And little Miss Emily who didn't even want to come watched it all and enjoyed every minute of it. She was guessing what was coming next and correcting me when I was guessing wrong and explaining to me why I was wrong. I was glad she felt okay and ended up enjoying herself even if she wasn't thinking that she would!

Oh and at the finale they had all the characters come out onto the ice and Vinnie was so cute trying to find Buzz, Woody and Jessie. He would find them and point them out and then he'd lose sight of them and throw his hands up and ask, "Where'd go?" It was cute.

It was a fun afternoon for all of us!

Girl Scout Cookies

2010-02-23T14:37:00.000-05:00

Thanks to those of you that ordered Girl Scout cookies from Emily. We are picking up the cookie order tomorrow (Wednesday), so we’ll be delivering the cookies soon.

Rails of Fun

2010-02-17T21:55:00.001-05:00

I guess I should probably explain that we started limiting Emily's "screen time" (meaning TV, Nintendo ds and computer time) this week, so it has been interesting to see how she has filled her time without the constant entertainment of other devices. And it has been fun to do more together!

Tonight Emily decided that she was going to build a train track for her and Vinnie. It was quite elaborate where is split off into two separate tracks. I was impressed. She put a lot of time and effort into it. At one point I thought that there was no way she was going to be able to bring that 2nd track around to meet back at the beginning, but somehow she figured it out! I don't know if it was luck or design, but she pulled it off without much effort on her part. I've often sat and struggled (and cursed) trying to get those pieces to meet in the middle and I think she could have done it with one hand tied behind her back. (Maybe that will be tomorrow night's activity!)

I don't think Vinnie quite appreciated the complexity and effort, but I am 100% certain that he loved spending time with his big sister. I don't think she can grasp it at her young age, but he is absolutely her biggest fan. When he gets up in the morning and we walk into his room, the first word out of his mouth is always, "Emmy?". He can't wait to see her and play with her.

And she is so, so good with him. I remember when I was pregnant with Vinnie I was worried about the age difference between the two of them and wondered if they would still play together and they really do. Emily even got out her Whack-a-Mole game tonight and who did she want to play with her? Vinnie, of course.

I guess I don't really know who had more fun. The kids building the track or me watching them? I guess it was a win/win for the family!

Building Fun

2010-02-17T18:43:00.000-05:00

Yesterday was yet another day of being snowed in ... at least for the kids (and Brian). So when I came home from work I sat down with Emily to finish up her lego project that she had worked on earlier with Brian. Earlier in the day she had finished up the crabby patty mobile, so Emily and I started work on the Crab Shack. I didn't realize how much I enjoyed putting together legos until we started working on them. I am glad that Emily is finding it enjoyable too. We had fun putting it together.

Of course, a certain little boy thought that he should be involved too so I got his legos out for him to put together. He had fun playing with us. Although his fun with legos turned into dumping the tub on the floor and then throwing the rest of the legos off the table. But - hey - whatever floats your boat.

Here is Emily's finished project. She's pretty proud of it and so she should be. What a great project - she got to spend quality time with Mom and with Dad.

I just wish legos weren't so expensive! I want to go buy more to do together, but dang!!

Craft for a Snowy Day

2010-02-15T15:29:00.000-05:00

Originally I was hoping to get the kids out of the house today and do something fun, but the snow storm curtailed those plans pretty quick. Emily decided she wanted to do a craft. I thought that was a great idea and envisioned doing one of the many craft kits that are in the newly organized craft closet.

But my little creative, free-spirit had other ideas. The type of ideas that she couldn't put into words as she said things like "let's just start and then it will make sense to you". I caught something about decorating an origami dog?!?! All I knew is that she had up almost ALL the supplies: construction paper, glue, scissors, crayons, paint, paintbrushes, stamps, ink pads, markers and stickers.

She started by showing me how to fold the paper in the shape of a dog. She knows what she is doing! It was a cute little puppy. Then we had to color it and then paint it. Well, about this time little Vinnie thought that he should be in on this action. If Emily and Mommy were doing something, then he needed to be involved too. So I got out some paper and found some finger paints, put him in the highchair and let him to to town.

He started out just fine. He had paint up to his elbows, but he was having fun and was painting his pretty picture. And, more importantly, he felt like he was a part of the happenings!

Then he wanted a paintbrush, because Emily had a paintbrush. So we gave him a paintbrush. And then I was taking pictures of him and the need to perform came out and suddenly his hands were in his hair and he was painting his forehead. *sigh* I should have known that we wouldn't escape unscathed, but it was funny!! Vinnie had a good time too.

Until we stuck him in the sink and poured water over his head. He wasn't too thrilled with that to begin with, but eventually he even warmed up to that. But he even got paint on my roses in the process!!

Eventually, Emily and I finished our dogs. We had to do it in several phases as we had to wait on them to dry. But they are cute and Emily had a great, great idea and I loved spending the time with my girl!

Emily's Valentine Party

2010-02-11T08:33:00.000-05:00

I don't remember if pictures come thru this way, but this is emily all ready for her valentine party at school. She was worried school would be cancelled again.

2010-02-09T20:11:00.003-05:00

Okay, I'm trying this way of uploading a video and see how this plays. This is another video of Vinnie, but to tell you the truth I don't remember which one it is anymore. I just grabbed one and uploaded it.

Vinnie's Animal Sounds

2010-02-09T12:49:00.003-05:00

Vinnie loves to make animal sounds. He has two books where he just loves to turn the pages and make the sounds of the animals. In this particular book in the video, he has the book memorized and now says the animal sounds before we even turn the page. I thought I'd capture it on video to share with everyone.

By the way, I think Vinnie's individual blog may be coming to an end soon. My plan was always to keep his blog separate until he turned 2 and then stop it and post his stuff over here with the other kids. But the AboutMyBaby company that hosts the other site is shutting down and is going to be gone by August. I thought that I could hold on until the end of May, but their email notices aren't going out and videos aren't processing. Added to that they aren't responding to any emails and I don't think they are going to since the company is shutting down in six months. I will let you know when the official cut-over is ... You should have received an email earlier today letting you know about new content at Vinnie's site: http://vincentmichael.aboutmybaby.com

Grandparents reminder: if you get an email of the blog post and it is a video (such as this one) you have to go visit the http://donatokids.com/blog/ site in order to see the videos as the videos do not get emailed out.

Winter Band Concert

2010-02-09T10:29:00.003-05:00

We always appear to be late in finding out about Tony's band concerts, but I think we are ahead of the game this time. The Winter Band Concert is at his high school on Wednesday, March 3rd at 7pm.

Making Valentines

2010-02-07T22:39:00.003-05:00

Emily has been hard at work on her Valentines for her class. She is making "ipods" for each of her classmates. You take a box of sweethearts and cover it with construction paper and then we added Hershey kisses to the end of strings for the ear buds. On Family Fun's website they had a template for the front dial and screen. I thought they turned out cute and Emily's happy with them. We stuck a sticker on the back and Emily did the To:/From: dealio on them and she's ready for Thursday's party!!

Vinnie's Birth Video

2010-02-07T16:03:00.003-05:00

There are some advantages to foot surgery ... I finally worked on Vinnie's birth video and finished it. We had video and pictures that we used this time around. It is long, so you might want to watch it when you have some free time.

Songs are: A New Day Has Come by Celine Dione and My Wish by Rascal Flatts

Snow Days!

2010-02-05T16:36:00.002-05:00

Just FYI - the snow is cancelling most of the activities this weekend. Emily and Tony's basketball games are cancelled on Saturday. They will not make a decision until later about Kristen's Sunday game.

Also, Tony & Kristen both were scheduled to go to the Sweetheart Dance at their school this weekend. Tony with his sweetheart and Kristen with a friend - but that dance has been postponed until Febuary 27th.

Have a good weekend and stay warm and drive safe!

Cookies!!

2009-12-17T11:04:00.000-05:00

I just received word that Emily’s brownie troop is going to start Girl Scout cookie sales on January 4^th. Be thinking about what you want to order as Emily will be in contact soon!!

Sorry for the lateness

2009-12-15T14:08:00.000-05:00

I should have sent something out prior to now, but we aren’t exactly exhibiting our A-game recently. However, Tony and Vinnie both have Christmas programs tomorrow evening. Vinnie’s is his daycare center program. They are doing a holiday program at the local recreation center at 6pm tomorrow (12/16). Then at 7pm, Tony’s high school band is having their concert.

Being Thankful (again)

2009-11-28T20:18:00.003-05:00

Emily was talking about a Thanksgiving card she had to give the family on Thanksgiving. I forgot about it and Emily remembered on Thanksgiving day while we were in Zanesville. She was quite upset that she couldn't give her card to the family because she had made it all by herself.

We got home late on Thanksgiving and didn't have a chance to remember the card and Emily finally remembered on Friday evening when we were sitting down to dinner and she ran upstairs and got it. It was cute ... had a hand print on the front that was made to look like a turkey and a lovely poem inside about how much she loves us.

We all gushed about it and told her how much we loved the card and what a great job she did on it. She accepted her praise and we continued dinner. As I was cleaning up, I happened to turn the card over and noticed a date written in my handwriting ... it said 11/2007. It took me a second to figure it out, but it appeared as if she has gone into her keepsake box and grabbed the card she made in kindergarten and re-gave it to us for Thanksgiving this year.

The ultimate in recycling.

Bon Voyage

2009-11-18T10:29:00.003-05:00

Here is a cute video of Emily and Jack dancing on stage at the Bon Voyage party on the Disney Cruise. They got right in the middle of things and were having a ball. Emily is in the orange and white stripe shirt and Jack is to the left of her in the pink and navy shirt.

Halloween Fun

2009-11-01T21:20:00.002-05:00

I wanted to share some pictures from Halloween. Emily went as Hannah Montana, Vinnie went as Captain Kirk. Kristen even dressed up as a baseball player to pass out candy. And Brian got into the action with is Spock shirt. It was a fun night! We don't have any pictures of Tony, but he was there. He passed out candy and had some friends stop by to help him out.

Here is a link to some photos: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=156097&id=657663199&l=ca543261b7

Also, here are some photos from a few weeks ago when I took Emily and Vinnie to the pumpkin patch: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=150329&id=657663199&l=a46a08489c

Soccer Season Coming to a Close

2009-10-22T14:13:00.001-04:00

Fall soccer season is nearing the end. Emily has a game the 24^th and the 31^st and then her season is complete. Both games are in Dublin at the fields that are walking distance from our house.

Tony and Kristen appear to have a game on Sunday somewhere near Easton at 2pm? That is the information that Tony gave me last night when I spoke to him briefly. He said that is what the coach told them at the end of the game last week. We do not have any more details than that.

They also have a game in Dublin on Sunday, November 1^st. I suspect that this will be their final game. I do not know if their team will play in any tournaments, but we leave for Disney that next weekend so they would probably miss the tournament.

So, if you were looking to get to a game this season, those are your remaining options.

The mind of a 7 year old

2009-10-22T14:02:00.001-04:00

Yesterday we were driving down the road and Emily started rambling on about fences. I could not follow what she was talking about at all and asked her to clarify and the conversation went something like this:

Me: Back up … what fences are you talking about? The ones along the road? The ones around a yard? Where are these fences?

Emily: I don’t know. They are everywhere.

Me: But you are talking about a specific fence. Where is it?

Emily: I’m not talking about one fence. I’m talking about all of them. They are in the ground.

Me: Okay, I get that. But that doesn’t narrow it down for me. What do the fences look like?

Emily: (rather frustrated with me at this point) They have lines in them and things like socks can go through them. There is one at my school.

Me: Do the lines look like Xs?
(and socks?!? Seriously, how is this a clue?)

Emily: No, Mom! They look like LINES! STRAIGHT LINES?!?! All beside each other.

Me: I’ve seen fences that are made up of lines and sometimes people put white, Styrofoam cups in them to spell out words. Is that what you mean by putting things through them?

Emily: No, those are Xs. I said these fences have straight lines. Plus these are in the ground.

Me: But aren’t all fences in the ground?

Emily: No, the ones I am talking about lay down on the ground. Like they are flat on the ground.

*long pause*

Me: Emily, do you mean grates that water runs down and the straight lines keep things like big sticks and leaves from getting stuck?

Emily: YES!! Those type of fences.

*MUCH CHEERING ENSUES*

Me: Okay, those aren’t fences, honey. They are called grates. What is it that you wanted to tell me about grates?

Emily: Oh I don’t remember anymore.

And that is when my head exploded.

The Toothless Wonder

2009-10-04T20:20:00.003-04:00

It has been a long time waiting (at least it felt that way), but Emily's tooth finally came out yesterday. Well, with a little help from Daddy. It had been just hanging on - literally -for days and days. We had gotten down to where her lunches were coming home uneaten because it hurt to eat. Then on Saturday afternoon she couldn't even eat Spaghettios because it hurt her tooth. That was when Daddy decided to take action.

It really didn't take much and the drama was over quickly. He just wanted to "see how wiggly it is" and they agreed that Emily would put her hand up if it hurt and Daddy would stop. There seems to be some confusion as to whether or not the hand went up. Daddy didn't see it.

However, the tooth fairy was very generous due to the extraction methods. She takes that into consideration, you know.

So far Emily has lost 5 teeth and only 2 permanent teeth have come in and she has another wiggly one on the bottom. She is a bit slim when it comes to teeth. We are having fun asking her to say things requiring the use of her front two teeth although I don't think she is finding it as funny as we are.

This morning I challenged her to eat an apple. I was just kidding her, but she was pretty incredulous that she could do it and do it she did. She didn't get the entire thing down, but she ate way more than I ever thought that she would.

Tony's Band Update

2009-09-29T12:02:00.000-04:00

Tony’s band has started their competition schedule so not only do they have football games on Friday nights, but (at least) every other Saturday they have one maybe two competitions. I do not have a schedule, but I will let you know when I do see one.

The first competition was last Saturday and was in Springfield. Tony was really excited as they basically “won everything” was the report I got. They took first in visuals, technical, music, etc and were Grand Champions! So it was a lot of fun for them.

I think his bubble was popped a bit on Monday when they reviewed the tapes from the performance and Mr. Stevens was pointing out where they could do better next time. Tony walked away with the “we were horrible” message, but hopefully that is tempered a bit. I suspect everyone’s performance is a bit rusty the first time out.

They compete again a week from Saturday, but I am not sure where. They have a 2pm and then a 7pm competition.