Days with the Dorans

 Jeff and I aren't really 'fair' people... but there isn't an easy way to avoid them when you have to drive roads where tents, light up rides and music are screaming... "COME KIDS!"  We managed two fairs in one day last Sunday (or I should say I did... Jeff only came to the second fair).  The first "End of Summer" fair was at my Nan's. It was actually pretty neat.  They had food but we didn't get home from church until after noon so I opted to feed the kiddos and then walk over to my Nan's.  The first thing we did was check out the ponies.  Both middles took a turn riding them but Joe and Sean both showed no interest.  Joe seemed eager to leave right away to get to the 'other' fair and Seany just wanted to go in the bounce house. It actually worked great because as everyone was heading to an "Exotic Zoo" show, the bounce house cleared out so that the Doran kids pretty much had the entire place to themselves!  ...

 Joe was so excited for his birthday party this year.  He opted to pass on the big friend party and instead wanted to invite just his two best friends over for a sleepover.  We've nixed sleepovers in general (which has made it easy for us since we don't always know our kids' friends' parents well), but we've OK'd sleepovers for birthday parties.  Joe was so excited for his friends to arrive.  He stared at the clock for what felt like forever.  When his friends arrived, they were all so excited.  They flew up to Joe's room and played.  I got each boy a little Lego Chima to make which was fun for them.  Zach wanted to chum with the boys but stayed away for a bit.  Ali said she wanted nothing to do with them, but I found it interesting where she chose to read her book as the boys played in Joe's room.  Joe recently told me another of his friends has a crush on his sister!  I guess this is one of the downfalls of having two...

 I can hardly believe that my baby has reached double digits!!  A decade!!! I feel like I'm not old enough to have a ten year old.  When you're ten in our house I guess the celebration lasts a long time.  Jeff's mom, brother and sister-in-law came down to celebrate Joe's birthday with us on Saturday, and my family came over on Sunday  (busy schedules can make it hard for people to get together on one day).  Joe would have some friends over the following weekend!  Our weekend was busy.  Zach had a game on Saturday and Ali had her game on Sunday (which was also Joe's birthday).  Jeff bought a cake for Saturday and I made one for Sunday.  Of course both days were topped off by singing in English AND Polish!  Sto Lat! Joe got some money from the Dorans and a Lego set from Grandma!  He opted to have pizza which actually made it really easy for us since we just ordered out and Jeff picked it up.  We had a nice visi...

 It's hard to believe that it has been ten years since I delivered my boys.  The picture of me right before I delivered seems a distant memory.  I can almost remember how she felt (nervous about labor but excited to see her babies for the first time). September 15th always has two parts for me and sadly again it fell on a weekend (a Sunday) and so I left my birthday boy for Andrew's garden. The garden has changed. I had visited the 'new' garden a few times and it's been hard.  This was like my cemetery and I had spent so many hours there.  I remember moments I've had in that garden so clearly and now that too seems a distant memory.  The garden itself will grow on me (as long as they add some trees so it's not so open to the world).  I was sad when I saw the Mother Tree though.  It seems smaller and hardly able to fit all our trinkets from the walks.  Colleen (God Bless Her) had added our walk trinkets back on the tree but they were ...

Sean had his first day of school a day after the rest of us.  My dad came early (he comes on Wednesdays to get kids on the bus) because we never know what "Sean" will greet us in the morning.  I had been wondering how the first day would go.  Sean is quite the Mama's Boy, perhaps even more so than the other two boys (may be his age?).  He always needs a cuddle or sugar (kisses) and 9 times out of 10 Jeff and I find him sleeping between us when we wake up.  Reminds me of the early days when Pele' used to do that and we'd wonder how we'd sleep through someone new in our bed.  To my surprise (and delight), Sean got into the car eagerly.  It did help that I promised to let him play with my phone on the drive.  When we got there though he happily handed me my phone and went to school.  I tried really hard to get him to stop and smile so I could get a first day picture but the only picture he did this for was the one with his lunch box in f...