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.

No Mono

Kristen does not have mono. Whew!

She went back to the doctor's and the test had come back negative. As did the strep test. They do not really know what she had.

However, the fever has broke and she is starting to feel better, so she is back at school. Now she just needs to catch up from what she missed.

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.

It's a Dogs World

Vinnie has a love of sitting in Lucy's dog bed. We're not really sure where it came from. But he is in there daily. It really, really confuses the heck out of Lucy. On Thursday Lucy was trying to hold her ground and Vinnie was okay with sharing. I was *thisclose* to get a picture of them lounging together in the bed. But I jumped up and ran to get the camera. Lucy must have thought I was going for food as she jumped up and followed me, thus ruining the chance at a picture.

But Brian got a couple of good pictures today. Kristen decided to follow Vinnie into Lucy's dog bed. I love the picture of Vinnie looking up at her like, "What are you doing here?" I think it really threw Vinnie for a loop.

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.

No good news

Kristen has been counting down the days to her doctor's appointment today as she was to get her cast off.

The good news is that she did indeed get her cast off.

The bad news is that the bone is not healed yet ... "not even close" was the words Brian used. So she is in a boot now and goes back in 3 weeks to try again.

Understandably, Kristen is less than thrilled with this new turn of events. It was very disappointing news.

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!

Them's the breaks!

As many of you know already, Kristen tripped over her rabbit's litter box on Sunday and fell, breaking her foot in 3 places. She is in a splint and on crutches. She has to go to an orthopedic doctor on Thursday (they want the swelling to go down before attending to the breaks). Hopefully we'll know more after Thursday. We have no idea how they will treat it or how long she will be laid up.

We'll keep you posted.

Kristen's Team Won

Kristen's basketball team won today!! So they are advancing in the tourament. They play again next Sunday at 1pm.

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.

Babysitter Kristen

Kristen has been working hard on learning the things she needs to know to babysit Vinnie. Like changing his diaper and such.

She got her first chance to watch him on Monday while Brian and I had an appointment. She did great! Vinnie didn't exactly go to bed for her, but that wasn't her fault. I think he just knew it was someone new and he was playing her.

We are proud of her!

Grades are in!!

Tony & Kristen received their report cards last week. Oh my goodness, they did so well. We are really proud of them.

Tony
English II - B+
Spanish II - C+
AP US History - B+
Biology - A
Chemistry - A-
Algebra II - A-
Band - A
GPA: 3.619

Kristen
Spanish I - A-
Algebra I - A-
Exploratory Art - A
Language Arts - A-
Science Seminar - B+
Social Studies Seminar - A-
GPA: 3.668

Kristen's DC Pics

Previously, I had promised pictures from Kristen's DC trip once she pulled them off her camera. Well, she went through them last night for her project and we uploaded them this morning. I am sure she can give you the details of what each one is, but it certainly looks like they covered a lot of ground in the few short days that they were in DC.

http://picasaweb.google.com/jcdonato/KristenDC#slideshow

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.

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:

Grades are in!

It is time for the interim grades to come home for the kids. We are proud as all of the kids are doing well this year.

Tony has taken a heavy load this year and is learning a bit more about having to work for grades. Nothing wrong with that lesson.
Algebra II - B-
AP US History - B
Band - A
Biology - A
Chemistry - B+
English II - C
Spanish II - B+

Kristen is continuing to show that she is quite the little student!
Algebra - A
Language Arts - A
Science - B+
Social Studies - A-
Spanish - B

We had Emily's parent/teacher conference last night, but I am running out of time so I'll try to come back later and update.

Sports Update

Emily is enjoying soccer this season. She still runs hot & cold with her attention during the games, but she is having fun so I am trying to relax a bit about when she starts wandering around the field.

The Saturday before last she had a great game and scored 3 goals!! I hope to get the pictures uploaded soon. Her next game is this Saturday at noon.

Tony's soccer team won yesterday. He is having fun playing this year and has commented that all of his cross country running is helping his soccer playing. He has energy to spare and when other kids are coming off winded, he is still ready to go!

His cross country is going well and he is enjoying it. He does better when it isn't so hot out as seen by his times on Saturday. He said that the heat took it out of him, plus there were a lot of hills. He only has a handful of matches left. This Saturday it appears that he is traveling out Andrea's way for a meet. He is at the Community Center in her town.

It sounds like Kristen is going to give tennis lessons a go and see if she likes it! I am glad that she is trying something and going to get active again!

Happy Birthday, Kristen

Thanks to all of those that came to Kristen's birthday celebration yesterday. She had a wonderful time and had a difficult time picking something to wear today ... and it is going to be 80 degrees. Can you imagine if it was cooler out and she had to pick from the sweaters and sweatshirts?

Click here to view pictures from the party!

Kristen's Birthday

We had a nice little celebration last night for Kristen's birthday. She loves cheesecake, so we took her to The Cheesecake Factory. (As a side note, they accept reservations for large parties only and they consider a large party 7 or more. It cracked me up to think that our family night out - party of 6 - was only 1 short of being a large party.) It was a nice dinner with fabulous desserts. You'll have to ask Tony about his "Tons of Fun Burger" experience and how that went for him.

We came home and opened presents and had a nice evening. We gave Kristen clothes, necklaces and a couple of books. She was distraught as the clothing was for the fall and it was going to be 80 degrees today. She wanted to wear something new.

For those interested in Kristen's wish list, I have some items that I will add and then distribute. It is mainly clothes and gift cards for more clothing that she is asking for. She is such a teenager. You should ask her sometime to describe her clothing rules. Like you can't wear sports shirts two days in a row, you can't repeat an outfit for at least 2 weeks, etc. There was some rule yesterday about wearing a shirt that was bigger on the top and skinny at the bottom based on how she was wearing her BANGS?!?! She's come a long way from the little girl that wouldn't comb her hair and then would pick a red top and a red pair of pants (no matter the shades of red) to wear!