Disney on Ice

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!

Rails of Fun

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

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

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!

Making Valentines

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!!

Being Thankful (again)

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

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

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

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

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

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.

Blood, Sweat and No Tears?

Emily had her first soccer game of the season yesterday. She is on the Fire this year and has a lot of girls on her team that she knows from school and that live in the neighborhood.

This year they start playing 6-on-6 on a 40x60 field instead of 4-on-4 format that they have been playing on a 25x45 field. So, quite a big jump for the girls. And they are now playing positions and having to keep track of a lot more. It is fun to watch, but a bit confusing for the girls for their first game. But the girls did great! I lost track of the score, but it was a whole lot to zero by the end of the game.

At one point in the game, Emily got the ball at mid-field and dribbled it down all by herself and shot and scored a goal!! It was so exciting! I had the camera in my hand, but was so excited watching it all unfold that I forgot to take pictures. She did great!

Towards the end of the game, Emily got hit in the mouth with a ball. Holding her mouth with her hand she came out of the game and the coach motioned for us to come over. Brian ran over to the players side and immediately brought her over to us, so I knew something wasn't good. When she got to us, I could see that her mouth was bleeding but Emily was uncharacteristically calm. A friend gave us tissues and we started to clean her up to figure out the source of the blood. I got her a bit cleaned up and realized that her wiggly tooth was just laying in the socket, no longer attached, and was the culprit. I dabbed at it a couple of times and told Emily to hold the tissues there and she said she didn't need them and then informed us that she wanted to go back into the game.

What? Who is this child and where did my drama child go? Never mind. I am quite proud of this one. As it turned out, the game was basically over by the time she got back to the sidelines and I don't know that she saw anymore playing time but I was just proud of her for handling it so maturely and wanting to get back in there!

My little girl is growing up!

Kid Updates

Just thought I'd give a quick update on the kids.

Tony: Just returned from a week at band camp and the strangest thing is happening ... he is enjoying band this year. Like really, really, really enjoying band. He had a ball at camp and has nothing but positive things to say about all things band. It is confusing, but good to see. I sent a schedule of his football game performances to many. If you want a copy, please email me.

Kristen: Finally got the all clear on her foot last week when she went to her follow-up appointment. She is cleared for all physical activity, so bring on soccer. She and Tony should be playing on the same soccer team this year and games will be on Sunday afternoons. We will keep you updated as soon as we know the schedule (although, this league isn't always forthcoming with details).

Also, Kristen got her stitches out on Friday and her finger is healing well. Hopefully we can keep her in one piece for the remainder of the year.

Emily: Emily is wrapping up summer camp. I can tell that that novelty has wore off. She started off the summer by wanting to go to camp every single day, even if I was home from work. That isn't the case anymore. I can barely get her there on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesdays. I think she is ready for the change of pace and for school to start.

One quick Emily story - last June we went to the the Dublin pool and we discovered that in order to go down the water slides, Emily needed to pass a swim test which was swimming in the area that the slides dump into. In June, she tried it twice and could not do it. I was surprised, but figured we'd do it again later. Due to the weather and the trip to Myrtle, we didn't make it back to the pool in July. We went back in August and Emily wanted to try to take the swim test again. We decided to try it on our own before the lifeguard test and I figured out what was going on ... there was quite a current in this area. Which I guess is why they require the test. But Emily did it twice and could not make it across. I figured she would give up the idea, but as soon as the whistle blew for break Emily announced she was going for the swim test.

I was hesitant to let her, but figured that I should let her go and let it play out. She went for the test and I was nervous for her and wondered how it would play out and if she would be disappointed. She started across and had no problems, but that was with the current. She started back across against the current and she kept going and going and going and going! SHE DID IT!! She made it across and got her wrist band so that she can go on the slide. I was so proud of her. (And so glad I kept my mouth shut and let her try.)

The kids start back to school on August 25th. I think Emily is ready. Tony is getting there with the band schedule. Kristen? This is going to be a complete shock to her system.

Franklin County Fair

On Friday, Emily, Vinnie and I headed out to the Franklin County Fair for the afternoon. It was a bit warm, but Emily was excited to go!

Well, what is it they say about best laid plans? Yeah, well, that rang true on Friday afternoon. Vinnie screamed the entire way down to the fair. It wasn't until I got him in the stroller that I figured out that he had sunscreen (or something) in his eye. He never fully recovered from that. Poor guy rubbed his watery eye all afternoon.

Emily was doing well. She rode the pony, climbed the rock wall (until a bee scared her) and went into the Fun House. Then we went to get ride tickets and each ride was either 2 or 3 tickets ($1/each) and there was a "ride all day" pass for $12. Seemed like easy math to me. I got her the ride all day even though we were only going to be there for a few hours. I figured 5-6 rides and we were good.

Emily went down the slide and had a ball. Then we got in line for another ride and waited for awhile. Right as Emily was about to get on, she stepped out of line and complained that her stomach hurt. She instantly said she wanted to go home.

We found a bench and sat down for awhile, but Emily never fully recovered. We played a couple of games, but she never wanted to go on any rides.

So, in conclusion, we paid $12 for one trip down the slide. Add $12 for the entry fee for about an hour to walk around and pay more money for misc stuff ... and we did not get a lot of bang for our buck. Franklin County won that round.

We are home from Myrtle Beach

We had a wonderful time! Great weather! Great time spent with family. I've been posting pictures on facebook throughout the week, but thought I would share here for those not on facebook.

Saturday
Sunday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday

As you can see, Emily had a ball on the beach and in the pool. Vinnie actually had a ball in the pool and (sometimes) tolerated the beach.

Grocery Shopping

Emily, Vinnie and I were driving home from Zanesville this morning and I had her all set up with a video to watch, except that I charged it powered up so it didn't charge at all. So no video for her.

She got bored quickly and she asked to play a game. I wasn't in the mood for our normal 'I Spy', so I decided to teacher her "I went to the grocery store and bought something that begins with a ..." game that I used to play when traveling. Emily was excited by the prospect, so I started to give her an idea.

I started with, "I went to the grocery store and bought something that begins with a B". Her first guess was bananas and she got it right.

Emily is never one to take the easy route, said, "I went to the grocery store and bought something that begins with the letter Q".

Q?!?! What was she thinking? And everything I was coming up with, I knew she wouldn't know. But I tried anyway ... "quinoa" No. "quince" No.

Eventually Soon, I gave up and she was so excited that she has stumped me her first time playing. She said, "Do you want me to tell you?"

"Yes, please!"

"It was CUCUMBERS!!"

Of course! LOL

Reminds me of the time we played this when Jason and I were young and Jason had us guessing for something that begins with the letter S. Mom, Dad and I spent a lot of time guessing just about everything in the store and we couldn't come up with it. We finally gave up and Jason exclaimed, "CIGARETTES!"

Last Softball Game

Emily has her last softball game on Saturday. Thanks to all those that came to see her play. She enjoyed the season and says that she wants to play again next year. That says success to me! I'm not worried about all the other stuff ... as long as she is having fun that is good enough for me.

For some reason she decided to wear her big white glamour glasses for part of the game. She cracks me up. This is my favorite picture of her. It is just so "her": hat backwards, glamour glasses, shirt untucked, yawning, not in ready position ...

Here are some more pictures of the last game: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=121013&id=657663199&l=4487bea956

Happy Father's Day

We hope everyone had a wonderful Father's Day. We had a rather low-key day, but I hope that Brian enjoyed it. We tried to get a picture of Brian with the kids and I think we got a couple of good ones. We have some good outtakes too.

Emily, Vinnie and I are enjoying the zoo. Who knew it was going to be this sunny out? We got to see the baby elephant!

Ladybug Land

I hesitate to even make this entry, but we'll give it a try ... We ordered ladybug larvae to put in Emily's Ladybug Land and it arrived yesterday. Emily was excited so we got everything all set up for her and put the ladybug larvae in the dome last night. We decided to take pictures to document the changes that we saw as it sounds like a fun process.

Well, 24 hours in and I haven't seen one of these things even flicker in movement. At first I figured that was okay, but reading more I'm thinking not. We'll give it some more time, but we may be cleaning this dome out and ordering more ladybug larvae.

Or maybe we'll got back to the butterflies. They seemed to arrive alive and we were able to keep them alive.

I am just bummed as normally we get the mail much earlier, but last night we didn't get home until about 7pm. I suspect that sitting in the mailbox for about 8 hours in that heat didn't help the ladybugs chances of survival.

Emily's Missing Tooth

Emily is so excited!! She lost a tooth at camp today. And technically it is her first lost tooth. Sure the bottom two were pulled by the dentist and the permanent teeth are already in ... but that isn't the same as the whole "oh my goodness my tooth fell out" experience.

I guess she was eating her snack today at camp and she bit in and the tooth basically came out, although it was hanging by a thread. But she was too freaked out to let the counselor take care of it because it was already hurting. Finally one of the counselors said, "Hey look, is that Lauren?" and when Emily looked, she yanked the rest of the tooth out and Emily barely knew.

Emily loves that it is out and has already gotten by the whole "I can only eat soft foods" phase. And she can't wait for the tooth fairy to come tonight.

Here comes summer!

Emily, Vinnie and I checked out the "new to us" pool today here in Dublin. We went to the south pool and loved it. I thought it was going to be packed, but was pleasantly surprised when it was not.

We had a fun time. Well, Emily and I did. Vinnie preferred to do anything except go near the water. He screamed when I put his toes in it and when I tried again later to sit in the water and put him on my lap, he clung to me. I'm thinking Myrtle Beach should be a blast with this kid.

Vinnie was happy as long as he had snacks. Emily was a complete water bug and (as you can see above) she jumped right in and had a ball. Before we left, she was asking if we could come back tomorrow. How can two kids be so opposite?

Last day of school

Tomorrow is the last day of school! I can't believe that this time tomorrow we will have a junior, freshman, 2nd grader and a Vinnie. Two years from now we will be celebrating Tony's high school graduation. It's going so fast, I'm afraid to blink!

A fun video fof Emily and Vinnie from the other night.

Emily's Fieldtrip

Emily's class went on a field trip on Friday. They went to Stratford Ecological Center in Delaware, OH. It focuses on teaching kids to respect nature. It was a fun field trip. Emily got to clean and dry an egg that a chicken had just laid, feed chickens, pet goats, see pigs and cows, see a prairie where they foster plants and have a man-made pond, check out the greenhouse where they pulled up swiss chard, beets and carrots right from the ground and let the kids taste them. Of course, Emily's favorite part of that was to use the beet to paint her face.

Emily had a great time and wants to go back again sometime.

She will do anything to prove me wrong

For 2 years now, Emily has been telling me that she can't ride a 2 wheeled bike "because she doesn't know how yet". I've been trying to impress upon her the lesson of having to work for her success and how things don't just fall in her lap, she has to work for them.

To that end, Emily jumped on the neighbor boy's bike tonight and just rode it. No training wheels, no one to push her off, no one to hold the bike. She "just knew how" and rode it like she's been doing it for years.

So much for that lesson.

But I learned this matter-of-factly when we were going to softball practice tonight so after we returned home, we got her bike out and gave it a try. And sure enough, she can ride the bike. We gave her a push off to start (her bike is bigger than the neighbor boy's) and she was off and riding.

Surprise!

We went to get Emily's hair trimmed last night. It has been sort of lifeless lately and brushing it out has been a battle. So we thought that we'd trim off a couple of inches. Well, 3-4 inches later and she has a cute little bob.

I was worried as the lady was cutting as Emily wasn't paying attention and I thought she was going to be upset, but she LOVES it! She couldn't wait to get to school today to show it off. And she was asking me this morning if we can get it cut like this again when it starts to grow out.

WHEW!

Horseback Riding Take Two

Emily went to horseback riding lessons again on Monday. No big surprise, she still loves it! She is now asking for a riding helmet like the other girls. And she made a friend named Lauren this lesson that they got on like two peas in a pod.

Emily rode a different horse this time. This one was named Cash and Emily loved taking care of him.

It is just so wonderful to see her so sure of herself during an activity.

Simon says, "Trot"

Tonight was Emily's first horseback riding lesson. She won a gift certificate for 2 lessons at an event at Vinnie's daycare last October and we finally signed her up for lessons which started tonight.

We showed up and they don't let the kids get afraid of the horse. They gave her the lead and told her to stay there while they went to get the saddle with instructions "just pull back if she starts walking away". Emily didn't even hesitate and stood there like she had complete control over this huge beast. Then Emily lead the horse through the stable areas and into the arena all by herself. The instructor put her up on the horse, adjusted the stirrups and then walked away and told Emily to walk to the back along the wall. The instructor went back and closed the door. I was a nervous wreck watching from the viewing area, but my girl did awesome! I mean really, really awesome. I wish you could have seen her. She grinned from ear to ear the entire lesson. She was just beaming! She had a great time.

She walked around the arena. Then the teacher lead the horse to trotting and let Emily take off while Emily went around and around the ring all by herself. And the the teacher set out 4 cones in the middle of the ring and told Emily to lead her horse through them ... that was the only instruction. And Emily did it! She didn't even hesitate.

I just loved seeing her take to something so quickly! She has tried so many different things and has had fun at them, but she has never taken to something like this. No nervousness. No floundering. Just Emily and the horse. I really enjoyed watching her.

More pictures found here: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=94862&id=657663199&l=89653

Hiding Out

Emily built a fort tonight with blankets and wanted Vinnie to play with her. They had a ball hanging out under the blanket together and giggling. It warmed my heart to see them play so well together. Emily loves the audience and Vinnie loves someone to entertain him. It is a perfect match!!

February Homework

I didn't get a picture this month, but Emily's monthly homework was to "make a poster about someone you love". Anyone want to take a guess at who peppered Emily's poster?

Why it was VINNIE, of course!! Emily did her whole poster about her baby brother. She was quite proud to take it in. They were going to share them today and she was so excited!

Basketball

Today was Emily's last day of basketball. She did well today! It has been a bit tough on her as there are 3 2nd graders and 2 1st graders. The 2nd graders are all friends and ... well, they are better ball players, so those two factors led to the first graders not seeing the ball a lot which was quite frustrating to Emily. I can't blame her, but it was a good lesson for her. She still says she enjoyed basketball and she loves to dribble the ball around the house. We are shopping for a basketball hoop for the driveway now so that she can get in some more practice before next season.

Tony & Kristen have both wanted to get more practice in also and haven't been able to recently. We didn't realize how much the kids used it at the other house.

Tony & Kristen both are in the middle of tournaments now. Tony had his first tournament game today and they won!!! His team plays next Saturday, but Tony won't be in town as he is traveling with the Robotics team. If they win next Saturday, he plays again on March 7th.

Kristen's first tournament game is tomorrow at 1pm. We'll keep you posted.

Expert Extravaganza!

Emily's homework assignment for January was to share something that she felt she was an expert at ... and she selected playing the wii. I think that Grandpa Donato has helped bolster her confidence a bit. LOL

Brian videotaped her and we put it into a slideshow. So, our first grader has a DVD to turn in for her homework. Oh how the times have changed.

Holes

We made a quick trip to the mall tonight so that Emily and Vinnie could see Santa. The plan was to go immediately after Emily got off the bus and get there before the crowd.

Well, there was no crowd there, that is for sure! But there was no Santa either. Santa's sign said that he wouldn't be back for an hour.

So what else could we do but go get Emily's ears pierced?

Actually we just went to see if we could watch someone get their ears pierced as Emily was interested in having it done, but was afraid. Next thing you know she is determined to get it done.

I didn't know if she was going to go through with it, but luckily two girls did it together so both ears were pierced simultaniously. I don't know if she would have done the 2nd one if they did it one at a time.

I was proud of her. She handled it great and, while there were tears immediately after, she recovered quickly and was tickled pink with her earrings. Well, tickled green. She picked the birthstone for December as her earrings?!?! It was her choice so I didn't argue with her.

She is thrilled with the resuts and before bed tonight was amazed that they didn't hurt at all and she even forgot that they were there!

More Thanksgiving Pictures

Similar to our earlier pictures of Vinnie and Miley, here are some pictures from Thanksgiving Day.

We can take pictures but only in 5 minute segments, it appears.

I should have waited

Emily got into the spirit of the game too! And the black on her face? Totally her idea!

November Project

Emily's November project was due in school today. They are studying the food pyramid and she had to create her favorite healthy meal using the pyramid. Emily? A healthy meal? This should be interesting.

Let's just say I hope that her teacher doesn't make her actually prove that this is her favorite meal. She did good with chicken, apples and strawberries - she will eat those. But it was a bit of a stretch when she selected broccoli and salad as the veggies.

She was happy with the end result and that was what counts. The picture was taken this morning as she was heading out the door.

She did great!

Emily did great! She was a bit loopy from the valium, but didn't seem all that different than normal. They gave her the "happy air" during the procedure and nothing really phased her. She just laid back and let them do their work.

At first they did the two cavities and then they pulled the front two teeth.

The only thing she did not like was keeping the gauze in her mouth once the procedure was done. She complained about that. She got upset over the gauze and then kept complaining that "it hurt", but it was just that she was numb and she wasn't used to it. She wasn't in any pain.

After about 5 minutes of complaining, I haven't heard another word out of her today. She ate lunch (well, okay it was donuts, but it was around the lunch hour) and hung out on the couch watching a movie. For the past 30 minutes she has been wanting to go find friends to play with and I have had to explain that they are still in school.

In retrospect, I could have taken her to school after the procedure. She could have gotten a couple of hours in (the day was short anyway though as it was a late start day and school didn't start until 11am).

Wish us luck

Emily has some dental work being done today at 11:50. She has two cavities and is having her front 2 teeth pulled. Her permanent teeth are coming in behind the baby teeth, so the dentist is taking care of them. One is really loose, so that shouldn't be too big a deal.

The doctor prescribed a valium for Emily to take one hour before her appointment.

I am hoping all goes well.

Future Film Maker

Do you think Emily has a future as a film maker?

Fine. We'll continue to save for college.

Trick - or - Treat!

My stupid camera was acting up, so I got hardly any pictures from trick-or-treat night. Our friends, the Mandell's, came over to join us and Renae and I set out with the 4 kids while Brad and Brian passed out candy. For about 45 minutes we wound our way around parts of the neighborhood. Most of the time was spent yelling for Emily and Lydia to wait up for us and trying to navigate the stroller through the crowds. Vinnie didn't make a peep and slept through most of it!

We headed back to the house to trade off and let the guys take the girls out and the girls didn't want to go! Go figure! Worked for us as we don't need all of that candy in the house anyway.

Emily has fond memories of it and doesn't feel like she missed out on anything and she got to play with Lydia and Julia a bit more in the house. I think we can count this one a success too.

Pumpkin Carving

Tonight we carved pumpkins with the kids. We missed doing it last year due to scheduling, so it was fun to restart the tradition. Here is Kristen with her pumpkin.

I swear Tony was smiling before I asked him to look at the camera. Something has happened the past few years where Tony developed a not-so-rare condition where he is unable to smile for the camera. I guess as a teen you have a reputation to keep when it comes to family events.


Poor Vinnie did not get a pumpkin, but Emily shared her camera time with him. Maybe next year he can get a pumpkin of his very own.

Here is Tony's final result. He did a cool lion. Reminds me of a Lion King pumpkin.

Kristen, always the creative one, did not use a pattern and freehanded her design and then carved it.

Emily did a spooky pumpkin carving.

Now the neighborhood hooligans that have been smashing pumpkins late at night had better leave our pumpkins alone or we are going to have some upset kids on our hands. They put a lot of work into these and did a great job!

School bells still ringing

Kristen just returned from her 8th grade trip! Sounds like they had a great time. They left early, early Tuesday morning for Washington D.C. They saw the sights for 2.5 days and then came home Thursday night and returned home early Friday morning. Sounds exhausting to me, but Kristen had fun. If we get to see any of her pictures from the trip, we'll share them with you.



Emily had another school project due this week. She had to build a creature out of leaves. We took a walk on Thursday night (some things never change, I still procrastinate) and she picked up a bunch of leaves - thank goodness the weather cooperated.



Emily was picking up leaves talking about body parts and this and that and I couldn't figure out what she was talking about. But she had a plan. We got home and she put all the leaves on her poster board and it was a caterpillar! We ended up using some construction paper to define it a bit better, but she did a great job. She had to write a story which is below it and I was going to share here ... but I forgot to write it down before she turned it in. Whoops!

D.S.P.N.

Donato Sports Programming Network - D.S.P.N.



Today was Emily's last soccer game for the fall season. She scored a goal and got a medal for participating. She had a GREAT 4th quarter to end it all. When they blew the whistle to end the game, I wanted them to keep going. It was fun to see her so engaged.

Tony's last soccer game is tomorrow. He is enjoying soccer this year and is even talking about finding an indoor league to play in.

Both Tony and Kristen are taking tennis lessons. Kristen had her first ever lesson last week. She immediately retracted her "tennis isn't a real sport" comment that she had made to Tony earlier. I guess she figured out it wasn't as easy as it looked and it took a bit more ability. She said she was tired after lessons and I overheard her complaining to her Dad about her arm hurting her. Emily is going to start up tennis lessons again during the next session which will be right after Thanksgiving.

Also after Thanksgiving Tony and Kristen will start basketball. They are playing with the same league as previous years. We won't have schedules until right before the season (as they wait to form teams until the school teams are formed). We will distribute schedules as soon as we receive them and their first game will be December 6th.

We also got word that for the first time ever they will start a basketball league for 1st and 2nd graders in January '09. I asked Emily if she was interested and, surprisingly (at least to me), she got really excited about playing. So, we might have basketball games for Emily too.

So, if anyone is bored out there, just give us a call and you can help shuttle these three kids to basketball, tennis, and indoor soccer.

Fall Festival

Last night was the Fall Festival at Vinnie's daycare. Brian, Emily, Vinnie and I attended. Emily was thrilled to wear her halloween costume. She couldn't decide if she wanted to be a leopard or a cheetah. I think she was calling herself a cheetah. And can you believe she put that snake around her neck?

Vinnie just hung out in his lion costume. He was pretty overwhelmed by all the commotion, but "overwhelmed" in Vinnie just means very quiet.

The school held a raffle and we purchased some tickets. Shortly after we purchased our tickets they called one of our numbers. Emily went up to get the prize and they picked something perfect for her - a gift certificate for horseback riding lessons at the farm that is right behind our development. She was estatic!! It is for 2 private lessons or 4 semi-private lessons.

I thought it was cute as Emily's first reaction was that she was excited to tell her first grade teacher!

Pumpkin Patch

Last Thursday Emily's school had a family night at a local pumpkin patch. It ended up that we got there late and had to leave early but we tried to make the best of it. Vinnie just hung out in his wrap and checked it all out.

Kristen tortured Tony - which is what she enjoys the most.

And Emily did the zip line: