Donovan's Birthday Update
Donovan is 9! When I think of Donovan the first thing I think of is how kind he is. He is my little peace-maker. He tries to find solutions when his sisters are angry, and is one of the few people who can make Maia laugh when she’s really upset. He is happy to be in the middle, because there are two great people to play with him. He is definitely a social person. He loves his sisters and his friends from school, and would rather always be with people. He is very sensitive to other people’s feelings and still loves to snuggle up and hang out with me. He plays games like a pro, including tournament games that Eric takes him to with adults.
Donovan loves reading! He is reading chapter books all the time now, and flew through all our Rainbow Magic Fairy books, lots of mystery books including the new Hardy Boys books, Unicorn Rescue Society, his Pokemon chapter books, and many more!
Summer Reading: Donovan just wrote down enough books to get the medal, he kept reading but he didn’t need the toy enough to write the titles down. He read lots of A-Z mysteries, Animal Jam chapter books, and some Rainbow Magic Faeries
Donovan loves games! He’s a total Wainright. He plays Destiny with Daddy and still beats adults in tournaments. But he likes all of them! Ann and John taught him bridge this year, and he sometimes plays online to keep in practice with them! So fun!!!
Donovan still LOVES games! Ann and John gave him Ticket to Ride Rails and Sails for his birthday. So much fun!
Dominoes with Grandma
Skylanders is still a big hit! The kids adore trading them and playing random games with the figures in addition to playing the video games.
Wingspan! Whenever we play with Donovan, everyone gets amazing scores because he loves playing birds that give stuff to other players too, like free food, eggs, or cards.
Bridge!
Zoom DND! He’s played this for months with Evan, and had a special game with Hatcher for his birthday party. He got this sword when he found treasure at his birthday dnd.
Donovan is an awesome friend. That’s the first thing we hear at teacher conferences, from other parents, just everyone can see what a great friend he is. He got to have lots of sleepovers this year, including an extra special week with Evan!
Evan came and stayed with us for a week in the summer of 2019. Donovan LOVED it! They are such good friends!
DZ loves his friend!
We went on lots of fun trips this year! Our favorite was the incredible Disney Cruise, but that was just the beginning!
We made DZ an Olaf costume to bring on the boat. He loved meeting Olaf!! =)
DZ picked a pluto hat for his cruise souvenir! He wore it everywhere this year! I think his favorite part of the cruise was getting to run around the ship with Evan on their own.
We went to a Ranch for Uncle Andrew’s 40th birthday. It was so much fun to spend time with friends! And Donovan adores being surrounded by friends!
We went on a road trip to Arkansas with the Richards! It was a blast! We went to a botanic garden (where DZ is feeding koi in this pic). We stayed at an Airbnb and the kids got to swim together. And then we went to Crater of Diamonds state park, which is one of B’s dreams. Donovan found a rock that we decided is a diamond! It was clear at least. =)
We went camping with Girl Scout friends! The kids loved it, even when we got lost on this trail ;) We were worried because the weather was cold and wet, but it turned out fine! We started out a little later on Saturday, and by the time we got there the rain had stopped and the temperature wasn’t bad. We got a little damp overnight since we squeezed five of us into a four-person tent, but I brought so much bedding DZ sat up in the middle of the night, incoherently said he was too hot, and threw off the covers. ;) Mission accomplished!
We drove to Texas for Allyse’s wedding. It was so much fun to get to spend time with all the Wainrights!
We drove back to Texas for the kids first concert, Pentatonix Christmas. They LOVED it! We sang Christmas songs the whole drive, we went to the Olive Garden for dinner, and then we made it to the concert. They all love Pentatonix Christmas music. Donovan asks for it in July! At the concert, Donovan even got to give Scott a high five when we danced by!!! So perfect!
Sports! Donovan visited the basketball court all the time this year! He would often play with neighbors, and when I was at the park with Maia while he played, neighbors would come ask “Are you Donovan’s Mom?! He’s so nice!” =)
Donovan loves to scooter and bike!
Halloween Fun! Donovan and Serenity decided they wanted to be My Singing Monsters this year. This kind of costume is the best because it means I get to make stuff! Eric went as a Mammott, with just minor alterations to his polar bear outfit. He was VERY thankful for the Mammott face mask because Halloween was freezing! Donovan’s costume was finished first. He wanted to be a Shugabush because Shugabush plays an instrument and he got to use his ukulele as part of his costume. It was perfect because I had the green fur fabric leftover from a teacher appreciation centerpiece. I just sewed two strips together for the vest, and use a strip for each leg. We got him some new brown jammies as a bottom layer and I decorated a hat we had with the flower. SO FUN!
We all had fun at Maia’s Wild Kratt’s party! The kids love dressing up in their creature power suits! DZ picked a Tiger (green to match his Chris vest).
School Fun! Donovan loves school! His favorite class is geography, and they got to practice using compasses on a mini field trip around the school. So much fun!!! Spelling is a challenge that he has to work for, but his teacher was really proud one day that he figured out the mystery word of the week! They have a pile of letters they can rearrange, and after just one small hint he figured out the word searched! Yay! He really wants to get the challenge words on his spelling test, and takes it hard when he doesn’t score well enough on the pre-test to get them. He still works on them anyway. He flies through math so he rarely has any left to bring home. He enjoyed playing four square on the playground and told me he managed to hold his own with some fourth graders he played with. This is a big deal since four square is the main playground activity for all the upper school kids. Sometimes they play soccer or football, but there is always a four square game going. When we had to move to distance learning it was hardest on Donovan because he missed his friends so much! His teachers did a great job though planning fun activities and he still learned a lot!
DZ made a painting for Creative Producers at home! It’s beautiful, and he made a dragon lantern to hang above it like Dragon is flying above the painting.
Pan Project! The kids researched Greek Mythology and Donovan got Pan! I love this project.
We discovered in February that Donovan has diabetes. There is a LOT to learn but he is already trying to be positive and tell himself that he can handle it and even that’s it’s interesting to learn about. Most of the time he handles all the shots and finger pricks required. He’s sad or upset sometimes, wondering why he has to deal with all this (which we all wish he didn’t), but he’s doing great. We’ve had LOTS of help, especially from Aunt Tina. She has sent him all of her favorite diabetes tools and snacks, answered all of our questions, and gotten him excited about being on Team Cyborg. The continuous blood glucose monitor is absolutely amazing. She recommended we get it ASAP and it really does help so much to always know what his level is. He knows more what it feels like to be really low and what he has to do to fix that. He’s been telling his teachers what he needs for his diabetes, and teaching his friends about it too. It’s amazing. Plus it’s a good thing he’s good at math. There’s lots of math figuring out carbohydrates and doses of insulin.
We got him this monkey the day we found out about the diabetes, and he used him as a cuddly friend for every shot until he got used to things! Monksy
Donovan Month by Month
Ted’s is still his #1 choice! 8th Birthday 2019
June 2019 Still loves tigers =)
July 2019: On our Disney Cruise!
August 2019! This is the last time he' got a haircut ;)
September 2019. DZ bought a ukulele with his birthday money! He played for about six months. Super fun!
DZ in October
Donovan in November! He used this pic for a game he made as a school project for the book Fantastic Mr. Fox. He used Epic Duels as a base and designed special cards and a board! He LOVED this project! His teachers are really cool.
November 2019. DZ still loves Magformers, especially when Far Far visits. I love that he’s in a onesie, because that was the theme for the winter. All three kids wore them, and Donovan loved it. He wore this zebra one for weeks, and he got a new Chewbacca one this year.
December 2019! Boxy the Snowman got a family this year. DZ loved Boxy so much the first time I wrapped their gifts as a snowman, this year I made a whole family of snow people! Donovan was SUPER excited about his new board game and bow and arrow set. He and Eric immediately played two new games Christmas morning. I played Legos with both kids.
January 2019. DZ at a Destiny Tournament in OKC with Daddy
Science Saturday. Rainbow glasses ;)
DZ in February. He loved sledding with Sasha!
March 2020. Random sprinkler day!
March 2020. DZ is a really responsible guy and always got all his checks done for school. He is still doing that for summer!
April 2020. Our annual Bunny Hunt! DZ loves it! This year we made a huge string maze the kids had to follow to find their goodies.
May 2020 in our favorite tree in the green belt
June 2020. We snuck by school to get end of the year pictures at the sign =)
Donovan had a DND birthday! He played DND on zoom with Hatcher and Evan, got real swords and amulets when he found treasure in the game, and then got to sleepover in the dungeon with his whole family. We played all the dnd related board games and did choose your own adventure stories until after midnight!
