Days with the Dorans

 I have to admit that I was thrilled when the kids decided to go the 'theme' route again for Halloween!  Joe and Zach picked out the costumes this year but Ali certainly had to say she was in or I think they would have gone back to the drawing board.  They chose to go as the characters from the "Super Mario Brothers" game and so naturally Jeff and I would go as the controllers since we are the people in control.... right??  Actually the controller idea came very last minute (as in a half hour before we left) since I had a piece of foam board and a few sharpie markers.  I do think it turned out cute though!  I don't think that the weather could have been much worse than it was.  When I woke up, it said that there was a "100%" chance of rain.  I don't think I have ever seen that before.  It wasn't the rain that was bad though, it was the wind!  My and Jeff's costumes were trashed by the time we got home (I should mention that Jeff ...

It's not a good sign when all day they are predicting rain and not just predicting it, but saying that there is a 100% chance of rain!  Sadly they were right~ so all school parades were inside too.  I was too busy at my own school parade and party (I went as a crayon box) to get to the kids' parties.  My wonderful mother went in my place though and took some pictures for me!!!  She also passed out candy so that Jeff and I could both go trick-or-treating with the kids! Love you, Mom!! Z at the Parade Ali with one of her BFFs Joe Cool- Don't make eye-contact! Z's Class Al and her 3rd Grade Teacher At his party (always Joe Cool) And I just LOVE this... and so did my mom since she snapped the picture!

Soccer is now officially over so we will have (a little) more time on our hands.  The first opportunity that we had to carve the pumpkins we got from the patch was on Sunday.  Before you think that I am so cutesy that I dress my kiddos the same everyday, I must admit that (in the picture posted above) those are the shirts they wear to Sunday School.  I love that the kids got shirts to wear every Sunday... saves me from having to find something for them~ but back to the pumpkins... Before we even got started, the kids planned what they wanted their pumpkins to look like.  They did this while I was at a baby shower and the moment I walked into the door they were pushing pictures in my hand. They were pretty creative and I decided to let the kids do the carving this year (I'm getting lazy).  I cut the tops of the pumpkins and used my new (favorite) tool to clean them out.  Then it was up to the kids to separate guts from seeds. Again, Joey wa...

Zach FINALLY got to play soccer this year.  I say "finally" because we lied  told him that soccer doesn't start until first grade.  Truth be told, we normally don't do 'organized' stuff until kindergarten but last year we figured we'd give it another year since K soccer (from what we recalled) was a swarm of bees chasing honey.  Of course some of that still happened this year but we were glad we waited. Z was the youngest (and smallest) on his team but he was a little scrapper!  He had his head in every game and really watched the ball.  He did well at playing position and not being one of the bees that sticks on the ball.  He played mostly defense and it was so fun to watch him get reads on balls and know which way to go. It was also fun because I knew one of his coaches when I was high school.  He did a great job coaching the team!  Z's team wasn't the best and I suspect they may have been a young team (since Z played some third...

Ali really blossomed this year as a soccer player!  This was her first year playing offense and she did great!  She was only able to make three practices because they were held on Tuesdays (which is the same day she already committed to dance).  I felt horrible about that and explained to the coach that I would understand if he didn't want her to play.  He's excellent though and told us not to worry about it and that Ali could absolutely still play. After her first game the coach told us (because she had done so well), "Ali is never allowed to come to practice again!" Just because she couldn't practice with the team didn't mean that she didn't practice.  Jeff worked with her all the time (mostly on trapping which was tough for her at first).  She really improved her control, passing and shooting!  She was the second fastest girl on the team (when they ran at the practices she did make) which is why I think they may have put her on offense. ...

It hasn't been a secret that Joe has struggled in math recently.  Last year, to get him to do math homework was a challenge (to put it lightly) and he fought with us every day.  When I made him practice math facts (which happened almost everyday), he would tell us how "stupid" he was. Of course this broke my heart.  This was when we realized that, in general, Joe is not an 'attention to detail' kid.  Sure he can inhale books and spit back lines from them (and often does) but when it came to spelling a word or remembering how to do a math problem, he was like a deer in headlights (or more like he wasn't even looking at those headlights... just humming a song that was in his head or something).  We did take him off meds and hoped and prayed that something we say or something we do in this house will make a difference.  We don't need a whiz kid~ but we do need a happy one!  One that is HIS best!  I do hope that all our kids realize that...

 It's been a long time in the making but we've been really enjoying our new deck!  The only thing left to do is stain it (which will happen next summer after the wood has been 'out' a year).  It is now much bigger than the deck we had prior to our new kitchen and I love it.  I thought I took more pictures of the progress, but I didn't.  Here's a bit of a recap.  It started with (of course) deck demolition.  We were able to keep many of the original braces (is that the word~ maybe joists?) from our lower deck. During demolition, Jeff stepped on a rusty nail.  It was the first (but not the last) trip to the ER.  We were able to get the boards all cut and out of our yard which was nice.  It was also a good work out!  The next step was digging post holes for the new portion of the deck.  Danny put a deck on his house too and so we worked together renting materials.  Danny's yard (sadly) had a lot of clay which ma...