Days with the Dorans

 October means "Window Painting" time!! This is the first year that I did absolutely NOTHING with the front window (outside of snapping some pictures of it)! Joe and Al were in charge of the outlines and actually did really well with it.  I was a bit surprised that the Littles didn't want to do this part, but they didn't... After the black outline was done and dried, it was time to make the pumpkins orange!  The kids did a great job!  Sean was so excited and I couldn't help but think back on past years when we've done this! It's been so much fun tracking the windows over the years and I love that I can sit back with my camera and sip some wine while they paint.  I laugh because I remember in the past smoothing out some of the orange on the pumpkins.  Ali is her mother's daughter and did that part for me without my suggesting it.  They keep telling me it's time to paint my witch on the front door (and I will... as soon as I FIND time.....

Don't let the above picture fool you... He may be a graduate and doing an AMAZING job with his training but Marty is still a puppy! We've learned that we MUST shut doors behind us.  This dog has a love (especially) of bathroom products. He's destroyed lots of toilet paper on multiple occasions.  I've been pretty frustrated with this but have remained cool. The other day I went into Joe's room and there was Marty with a box of chewed up tampons ALL over Joe's room.  Now obviously those have never been in Joe's room so Marty took them in there knowing that's not a place I frequent.  Maybe he's a smart dog after all! By the way... I did take a picture of that to send to Jeff and my family but will spare you.  I guess I should run back out to the store.  Another cost that pet owners don't always take into consideration...

 So Joe started playing the trumpet for school and I haven't heard him practice all that much (mostly I think because he hasn't been practicing). His practicing really consisted of just blowing into the trumpet (yikes!)  After less than two weeks of playing, I told Joe to practice.  He sat down (his stand was missing a part which is why he has to look down at music). To practice and said, "Mom, I am just supposed to blow into this.  Do you think I could try some of my piano music?"  I told him sure.  What happened next, I couldn't believe. I'm sitting there working on some school stuff and Joe starts playing not only a song I recognize but he's hitting EVERY note.  I told him to play it again and recorded it!  Click HERE to hear his second time playing this song.  I couldn't believe how well he did after such a short time!  He continued on and played more songs too!  I have no idea how he was able to learn that in such a s...

 Our lives are so crazy busy (which is one reason I'm writing about things that happened a month ago).  I've mentioned before that Jeff and I aren't "fair" people, but I have to say that this year was SO. MUCH. BETTER. I'm pretty sure it's because our kiddos are getting older! We had two (or was it three?) soccer games the day of the fair but since it's around the corner from our house, we really HAD to go.  It cost us $70 for tickets that we bought.  We decided next year, we'd go ahead and fork out a little extra money and let the kids get bracelets...  We liked the time limit before, but after this year, I think it's time. We really didn't see Joe at all.  He saw his friends and took off with them.  We'd see him occasionally to get more tickets but for the most part we'd spy him from far away and like good parents, we kept our distance!  All the other kids ran into friends, too... even Seany which was fun! Sean love...

So you'd never know it, but this boy is into his cards!!  Sean won a gift card to Tim Horton's at church a couple weeks ago and you'd have thought he'd won a million dollars!!  He was SO proud of his card.  He has kept it in his pocket for days (and I'm serious) and couldn't wait to buy donuts for all of us! Our lives are crazy busy (choosing to have so many children can do that to a person). Between games a week (or maybe two... did I mention I've been busy) ago, Sean REALLY wanted to buy us donuts and it was time so we hit Tim Horton's.  It was so much fun watching him place his order (Jeff had to lift him up so he could see what he wanted) and slide his "card" through the card reader!  I think the donut he bought me was the best I've ever had because he was SO proud of it! He kept his card and told me we can go again soon... I don't want to be the one to break it to him that there is no more money on that card.  I'm ...

Top 10 Things You need to know about  10 year old, Ali 10. I used to play softball. 9. People in my family have bad eyes and I wear contacts. 8. Me and my older brother (Joey) love Harry Potter. 7. My older brothr and I are 15 months apart. 6. I have three brothers and no sisters. :-( 5. We have a new puppy named Marty who is 4 months, fish, bird and a tortoise. 4. Both of my parents are teachers. 3. Soccer is a sport I play and we are called the Sharknados! 2. The Doran Family dresses up as a theme each year (Halloween). And the Number 1 thing is... I am a classy dancer at my studio and you have to audition for it.

Joe was so cute and excited for his birthday!  He was especially excited to go to school where his friend, Dom gave him a "shout out" at lunch (something where the principal or someone lets them say something over a microphone for birthdays...).  Having your birthday on a school day must be fun (I don't know... Christmas Eve) but I can say that it can be hard AFTER school. We had multiple things going on that day (Ali had dance that started at 4:30) so the only way to have a bit of time where ALL of us could be togethr with Joe was to get the Littles out of school 45 minutes early (so that's what I did)! We actually beat Joe home from the bus (which was cool).  Nana and Papa came over too and we tied a balloon to the mailbox (more in the house) and Joe was all smiles when he walked up.  We had the quickest "party" in history!  We ate   inhaled pizza (his choice), opened presesnts (Ali gave him a rock that said, "This is a rock.  Happy Birthday...

September 15th is never "easy" for me but this one seemed particularly hard.  Perhaps because Andrw would be off to middle school... I don't know. But in addition to things being emotionally hard- there were other 'things' that made it frustrating. The first was that I couldn't just take the day off.  I haven't worked on September 15th since I delivered my boys 12 years ago and I don't think I ever will.  If not on a weekend, I have scheduled my GYN appointment on that day so I can take it as a sick day (since that's how I feel anyway).  THIS year, it backed up to a Jewish holiday (which we had off for school).  My contract says that I can't be out the day before or after a holiday without being docked.  I explained that I would NOT be there because I DID have an appointment as well as the circumstances and was given a "one time exception" and allowed to take it as a personal day.  The only problem with this is I am not all...