Days with the Dorans

I slept so wonderful last night... I think being out of that car and having no more worries was just what the doctor ordered.  We didn't have much planned for the day and decided to go with the flow~ which is how vacations should be!  My mom and I headed to the gym in the morning and once we got back the kids headed to the pool (all but Sean because Jeff had to get swim diapers... after yesterday's drive we decided it's not too bad that he doesn't have potty-power at the moment).  The kids had a blast swimming and it wasn't too bad keeping Seany occupied back home.  After lunch, there was an Easter Egg Hunt.  Things were going great until Sean decided that he didn't want to go on the hunt and instead wanted to swim (of course the hunt took place right during nap time).  Thank God for green balloons because once he had one tied to his bucket, he was good to go.  He did a good job getting eggs but preferred the blue and yellow ones (I guess Mich...

Yesterday we said goodbye to our pups and tort (who have a wonderful sitter staying with them), packed up the van, piled in and were off to make new adventures in Tennessee!  Before we headed out, we ran through a car wash (that's poor Sean pictured below in it, he was petrified). The traffic coming here was AWFUL!! Of course we always hate Ohio, but this was worse than usual!  WAY worse!  It took us over 12 hours to get here (way more than it should have), and because of that, we had to cancel a visit with my dear friend Lynn and her family!  As it was we only stopped twice (to gas up and hit the bathrooms... we ate on the road).   At one point in Kentucky, we were at a standstill for at least 20 minutes (I mean, turn off your car stand-still)!  I have an app on my phone (Waze) which works as a GPS and also will alert you to traffic and things of that nature... People were posting, "GET OFF NOW!"  "Exit if you can!" and that paired with p...

Without getting into too much detail, we had a pretty serious medical emergency yesterday (and today) in my family which caused me little sleep.  Thankfully, now everything is fine but the lack of sleep and amount of worry, paired with the stresses of a day with 6-years-olds and one (pictured) three year old nearly killed me today. Because of a change in plans, Sean had to go to school today which meant that I got to take him to the eye doctor with me after school for a "quick" visit while they changed the lenses out in my glasses (while I don't wear my glasses often, I am NOT a fan of the transitional lenses, so went back to 'normal' lenses).  I was a bit nervous about bringing Seany with me, but it's near his school and I was told it wouldn't be long. And it wasn't long... that is unless you have a child who goes and throws a full-blown temper tantrum in the middle of the eye-doctors office!!!  Yup!  That was MY kid today!!! Throwing h...

Hands down the thing I hate most about my job, is missing moments with my own kids.  The kindergartners at my kids' school always have a character parade in March to end reading month (an idea I may steal next year!).  When Joe was in kindergarten he became "Jack" from the Magic Tree House book, Ali Jane became "Pinkalicious" and this year, the Goose became a turtle... Mack (to be more specific).  Last year for his birthday he longed for a turtle, but instead we got him a Tortoise (Mortoise or Morty). The inspiration for his name came from Yertle the Turtle but if you're familiar with the book, you'll recall that Yertle is not a very nice character. So Z decided to be Mack! I took a white shirt from my dresser (I can always get another one) and drew a grid on the back and put x's where Z needed to paint black.  When he was done, he painted the remaining squares blue (just like Mack's shell).  While he was working he said, "You know ...

Well Ali just finished up her first dance competition/workshop for Dance Masters. I danced (competitions) when I was younger and it was sure strange being the 'dance mom' instead of the 'dancer'.  To be honest, I think I was more nervous in the audience than I ever was on the stage, but Ali did GREAT! She didn't look nervous at all~ in fact she had a huge smile on her face and danced her little heart out!  I was so proud of her!! When I picked Ali up from dance class last week, she ran up to me all smiles, grabbed my hand, squeezed it tight and said, "Let's go!"  She got ready faster than I had ever seen her before and as soon as we got out of the doors of the studio, I asked her what was going on!  She was so excited and said, "Mom!  If we get an award at the competition, they picked ME to go get it for everyone!"  She was over the moon!  It was late and as she spoke (a mile a minute) from the back seat, although it was dark, I co...

I feel like I need to update here on what's been going on with Joe... Mainly because I was so transparent in another post that has been read by so many. As I had mentioned before, Joe was having a horrible time staying organized, focused, turning in homework, etc.  We took him to a psychologist and pediatrician and since they agreed that I had exhausted all the tools in my teacher 'bag of tricks' (which was quite extensive), we should try a low dose med. At first it seemed to really work, but then Joe was starting to slip a bit with remembering to turn things in. We increased his dose and Joe was doing well.  His math scores went back into the 90s and we were getting good reports from his teacher on his attention.  I should mention that Joe was never hyper in his inattention, just a dreamer~ lost in thought. Things seemed to be going well, but something was gnawing at me... perhaps Joe had gotten it, perhaps a light bulb had clicked in his head that schoo...

Well, it's time for an update...  Poor Joey didn't catch that Leprechaun, but a friend of mine told me that she's been making traps since she was five and the key to catching them is baby carrots!  I didn't know that (and either did Joe), but Joe has decided that he is definitely going to try it next year.  The Leprechaun DID come though!  He turned the sink and toilet water green, left green footprints and a trail of shamrocks everywhere and messed up all the kids' rooms by dumping out their laundry!  But Joe did fine a note left on his trap (the "gold" was gone).  It read: You almost had me with that trap door but alas, I broke free now there's trouble in store! I messed up your rooms and I took your gold but if you're clever, there's treasure to behold. If you're smart and really think, boy you can solve my riddles, you'll find some joy. But to find my treasure, you'll need some friends. So grab Ali, Zach and...

Last year, Joe (very cleverly) came up with a leprechaun trap.  It included a restaurant with food and beer and glue on the floor in hopes to catch the leprechaun.  Sadly, it didn't work.  Ali thought it was because Joe had all these signs telling the leprechaun about the trap... perhaps she had a point.   I wasn't sure if Joe was going to try to catch himself another leprechaun this year.  We haven't heard too much about St. Patrick's Day except that the kids were hoping for Lucky Charms for breakfast.  After we got home from dinner (we were celebrating my Great-Uncle Ziggy's 88th birthday), Joe and Al hit the snow covered back yard in search of sticks.  I was reading with Z and Jeff was watching the 3 Amigos with Al and Sean and it didn't dawn on me right away that Joe was gone. When he appeared he had a box with him and a new leprechaun trap.  This one has some real money and a secret trap door... Here's to hoping he has better luc...

As I mentioned in a previous post back in January, we got tickets to a Michigan Basketball game from my dad.  We needed to talk to someone about our tickets but the man at the door wouldn't let us in and told us it was a sold out game, so we sold our tickets and headed to watch the game at the bar and later hit the Hands-On Museum in Ann Arbor.  The day ended up being fun, but Z was still crushed since he was the only "Big" not to ever see the Wolverine's play (in person).  My dad wrote to the athletic director (or someone in charge of season tickets or alumni or something) and we got FIVE TICKETS TO THE INDIANA GAME! For those of you who don't follow college basketball, Indiana is number one!  As a bonus, my dad had his two tickets to that game so he and my brother got to go too!  The kids were so excited and when they got there, Papa got them some new duds to wear at the game! It had been years since I had been back to a game and I couldn't belie...