Marisa's First Dance Recital

On May 4, 2013, Marisa danced in her first recital.  She loved the idea of dressing up and getting on stage for the dress rehearsal, but she was highly annoyed that she couldn't have a new costume for the night of the performance.  She emphatically insisted that she had already performed in this costume and (though she liked her costume) she would need one now in blue.
She also asked me why she received flowers after the recital and I said, "It's a tradition to give flowers to a dancer who performs such a beautiful dance and does such a wonderful job."  So she follows with, "I guess I didn't pay enough attention last time."  It took me a minute to catch up with her brain, but I eventually figured out that she thought she must have performed badly the night of the dress rehearsal or she would have gotten flowers afterward then, too.
So many rules to explain....  :)

Luciano Lost a Tooth Yesterday

Before

"Other than a dimple

in a cute little chin,

What's more adorable

than a toothless grin?"

 - Azu Betty Espezia

After

Luciano has lost his third tooth now.  He put it in a baggy - because I haven't gotten around to making a pillow - I should really get on that...  And he wrote a letter to the tooth fairy asking if he could please keep his tooth.  It said, "Dear Tooth Fairy,  I would like to keep my tooth please.  Thank you.  Your friend, Luciano." 

So the Tooth Fairy left the note under his pillow, but she must have read it because she left his tooth along with a gold dollar coin. 
I wonder if he would have gotten more money if he had let the Tooth Fairy keep it?  :0 )

Ballerina Marisa at her first dance class

Marisa's 'arabesque' (did I spell that right?)

Isn't she just so sweet?

 This week Marisa had her very first dance class.  She started with ballet and then had her tap class right after.  I think she had a really great time with it and she was surprisingly attentive. 



They danced to the Tinkerbell movie soundtrack, which was beautiful.  Combine incredible amounts of cuteness -all those tiny ballerinas twirling around - with that music and you'll get tears every time.

Dance is the hidden

language of the soul.

-Martha Graham

The beginnings of graceful awareness...

What a joy it was to share this special day with Marisa! 

Paolo's five!

When you turn five in the Tonelli home it's a big deal. You can chew gum for the first time, watch Star Wars, Episode 4 with your dad (special date with dad), and have a party where you can invite friends. Paolo turned five on August 7th. He was a gracious host and I was so proud of him. What a special day!

We were so happy to visit with grammy Suzie and Papa Bob who came to celebrate Paolo's birthday with us! The kids had such a fun time with them.

Paolo had a Pokemon party (yes, that's a Poke-ball cake). Like Luciano, he had his party at the West Point train station, complete with passing train every 30 minutes. It was a lot of fun. Grammy Suzie and Papa Bob were able to come from K.C. and Nonna and Papa came from Jersey to help us celebrate.

Not knowing much about pokemon, made it a little bit challenging to figure things out. In the end, though, I think the kids all had a lot of fun.

La Famiglia Tonelli

It's been a little moment since we've had a family photo session. Two or so years have gone by. So here are the kids and the parents in October when the leaves were looking so beautiful at West Point.

Luciano and Paolo and Marisa had a great time playing and posing for the photographer. Since then, we've accomplished almost a whole year of school, and everyone seems to be sprouting well. Did I ever tell you how much I love these cheeky little monkeys? All the way to the galaxy and back. (That's also Paolo's love declaration.)

Smiley Marisa

On Snow Day no. 3, I sat at the dining room table with the kids and we played at the table. The boys played play doh, and then star wars legos while I tried to play peek a boo with Marisa. I laughed my self silly and then got the camera. She wont peek a boo, but she has such a sweet smile and laugh that I couldn't resist sharing. (You may hear a snippit of some kind of clone wars attack happening on the opposite side of the galaxy - I mean, table.)

Oh - and please disregard Marisa's brief second of nose picking :-).

Major Snow Days

This is our neighborhood under a foot and a half of snow. You can't see it through the haze, but above the tree line next to that evergreen tree, there's a mountain side. Monroe, NY, about 12 miles from our house, recorded 31 inches of snow today. It's not done falling, yet.

So, Luciano has been to school only one day this past week. Last week he only attended twice. Altogether he has missed around 7 days of school in the past three weeks due to inclement weather. Paolo goes to school in the afternoon, so he has been to class a bit more than Luciano. They have the "2 hour delay" here, which means that if you are in the morning class you don't come, but if you are in the afternoon class you do come. Here are some highlights from our snowy past two weeks...

This morning when we woke up, about 14 inches had fallen already. We thought surely that would be it, but it continued to snow through out the morning off and on as well as through out the evening.

Mark shoveled, I shoveled, the plows shoveled and yet we'll be shovelling again in the morning.

What do kids do on a snow day? (The 4th snow day in a row?) Well, they stay in their jammies and play with their light sabers (despite what it looks like, Luciano was actually handing the purple light saber to Paolo, but the picture looks more like he's taking it away). After we got done playing, we suited up for a romp outside in the snow.

The snow was way above my knees, which made me think that next year I might actually buy a proper snow suit so I can worry less about getting soaked. Maybe I would even take the boys sledding if I had some proper gear. Definitely something to think about.