Last Days of School

The last days of school are always so much fun.

This is Jenna's castle book that was hung up at the mall. I don't know why the picture is turned sideways. Nor do I know how to fix it. Good job Jenna!
This is from Jenna's poetry reading day. The class wrote several poems and then picked two to read to the class and parents. You are a great writer, Jenna.
Jenna's class won the second grade tug of war contest. This picture was hung up in the hallway.
Natalie's teacher designed this tee shirt. The teacher help the class paint it. Very creative. On field day, the first graders stayed in doors because it was raining. There was no lack of smiles though. The games were fun.
The second graders had their picnic outside.
The girls in the morning before the bus arrived. Woo hoo!

Dance Recital

This year the girls took ballet and tap together. They had a ball. As you can see they love to pose in their recial costumes.

Enrichment Fair

This year Jenna has been a part of an enrichment program at school. She has gotten to do some fun projects with some of her friends. This week the projects were displayed for all to see. One of the projects that Jenna's group worked on was an amusement park made out of marshmellows.

All the students were proud of their work!

Orthodontist

Once Jenna began losing her baby teeth and her permanent teeth started coming in, it was clear that she had my mouth. (Sorry, honey). It also became clear that we were headed for the orthodontist.
Last Summer we went for, what I thought was, a consultation with the orthodontist. I thought we'd hear about what they wanted to do down the road. Much to my surprise, they were ready to start treatment right away.

So we did. After lots of x-rays and scans they gave laid out a plan of action. We were told of three different appliances that Jenna would use over the next two years.

The first was a pallette expander with a cage to hold her tongue back. She wore this for a few weeks before some problems began and it fell out. Thankfully, it did what it needed to do. I no longer had to turn the key to help expand her mouth. She did still need to have the cage to hold her tongue back. She wore that for about 6 months. She did awesome! Her friends were always supportive and interested. Jenna just has a great outlook on life and is laid back about the entire process.


Next came a temporary retainer that she wore at night. No big deal.

Now we're on to our next appliance....the bionator. This is a retainer with a cage. It's going to help her tongue thrust, but more importantly, it'll shift her bottom jaw out and her top jaw back. She has a significant overbite that needs to be fixed.

I was worried about this one. It takes up her whole mouth. It affects her speech. She has to wear it all the time for an entire year. I just wish her teeth weren't like mine. But, once again, Jenna has amazed me. She was excited to get it. She picked the color. She's been extremely responsible about wearing it. She's easy to understand. And her friends have been great. She was able to wear it gradually....a couple of hours a day the first week, a few more the next etc. Now she wears it all the time. She knows that in a year she'll look completely different.

Way to go Jenna!!

The First Day of School

The girls were VERY excited to start school. Thankfully I didn't cry this year!!

My Mom made their dresses.




Mema and Poppy came to see them off too. Grandma was also there, but somehow I missed taking her picture with them with my camera.

Notice that Catherine has her backpack on too. She's very excited to start preschool soon.


Dennis follows the bus to school so he can get some shots of them getting off the bus.

Karate- New Belts

Watch out, Jenna and Natalie passed their most recent belt test. They now have yellow belts with an orange stripe. They were so happy. Just a couple of months ago they were ready to quit. But we changed classes and now they are in with children their age and seem to like it alot.

Yellow Belts

Kung Fu Sisters!
Jenna and Natalie each passed the test and were awarded Yellow Belts.
They were very proud of themselves, and mom and dad were too!




When you're in trouble, and have no where else to turn for help.
It's the dynamic duo to the rescue!




Equal parts tough and cute!

An Invitation to the Science Center

Along with a small group of her classmates, Jenna was asked to participate in a display at the Maryland Science Center in Baltimore. She wrote a paragraph on the "Butterfly Nebula" which was shown alongside a large photograph of the space phenomenon.

Her science class has recently focused on Astronomy, which has captured Jenna's imagination. Ask her a question about the stars or planets and get comfortable.....






The above reads: The Bufferfly Nebula looks like a butterfly. It is the death of a star five times bigger than our star, the sun. In my opinion, it is very beautiful because it has many colors. Its colors are white, pink, orange, green, and cream. There are many stars in the background.

Halloween Parade

The girls were so excited about their school halloween parade. It was a nice day to be outside. In these pictures Jenna and Natalie see Grandma, Mema, cousin Nora, Uncle Jim and me. They were surprised to see us all there.

Karate Competition

Both Natalie and Jenna began taking Karate lessons this year. They go every Saturday for one hour of very basic instruction. It's been good exercise, but they are not really showing great interest.

This Saturday, Natalie was sick and I took Jenna by herself for a lesson. Due to a communication problem, we did not know that they were having a tournament instead. They invited Jenna to join.

All daddy could think of was "oh, I hope she doesn't get hurt". She was the only white belt in the place and clearly the other kids were more serious about it. But she was very happy to participate.

She was one of only two kids in her weight class. The other was a boy with a yellow belt, so I thought she wouldn't get more than a bump or bruise.

First round the boy came at her and Jenna mostly covered herself, moved away and broke away when she was caught. The boy did get her to the ground one time and when the long three minute round was over, he won but Jenna had fun. It was announced that they would rematch in 30 minutes.

During the other fights, I took her aside and suggested that she try the "take down" move she had learned. It was the only thing Jenna practiced at home, mostly on dad. She said she would try.

When the rematch began the boy came after her again and Jenna backed away as she had the first time. I called to her "Jenna, do the take down". She smiled at me, ran at the boy, grabbed his shirt and threw him to the ground over her leg. She laughed and the ref looked shocked.

The boy got up and chased after Jenna again, who backed away. "Jenna, do it again" Daddy said. Jenna ran right at the boy and did the exact same thing. He hopped up. "Again Jenna" came the call. Thump, down went the yellow-belted boy a third time. He got up and backed away as they both heard daddy call "Do it again". The boy's mother was seated next me and I turned to her and said "She only knows one move, but she's pretty good at it".

Time ran out and the ref called them together and raised Jenna's hand as the winner. No one looked more shocked than her. Because they had only two kids in the weight class, she got the trophy.

Book Festival

We had the chance today to go to the Book Festival in town. It was a dreary day, but the girls had a great time. We saw the characters Madeline, Franklin and Corduroy.

The Festival sets up a nice array of children's crafts. The girls made a stamp books, book markers, decorated pumpkins and then made their own masks.

We left just before the skies opened up. It was great couple of hours.

Priceless

A new backpack and lunch box - $20


Buying lunch once a week - $2.50


The note that Jenna chose to write and put in Natalie's lunch box - PRICELESS

The First Day of School '09

First day of school for the DiMaggio girls. They woke up happy, finding notes taped to their doorknobs from mom and dad wishing them a great day. The rushed downstairs to wake up Aunt Ashley who had spent the night, gobbled up a big pancake and scrambled eggs breakfast and welcomed grandma who came to see them off.











They have been waiting all summer to use their backpacks and proudly showed them off.








When it came time to go to the bus, they paced with excitement. They confidently climbed the stairs, thankfully oblivious to mom and dad's anxiety.







Grandma and Daddy followed the bus so that Daddy could meet them between the bus and the front door. They came off the bus together hand in hand smiling for the day ahead.

Mommy and Daddy came up to the school a couple of hours later to help with lunch time. While the girls were happy to see them, they were having fun playing and chatting with friends.

By the time the day was over they got off the bus (30 minutes late) tired but very happy.

A better first day than we could have asked for.

What a difference a (school) year makes

Getting on the bus, with our neighbor Katelin, on the first day.

It was a mere nine months ago that we placed our fearless first born on the scary (to her parents) school bus and sent her off to kindergarten. There were days of sadness, tears and pride in Jenna as she took this step out of our view.

As the leaves turned, we rang in the holidays, the snow fell, and finally spring returned warm days her parents adjusted to her growing up. Somehow June was upon us and we realized that in the blink of an eye this milestone was behind us.

As Jenna’s summer begins, she joins her great sisters to create fun memories and share time together.

Getting off the bus on the last day.