Days with the Dorans

This year's costume was FUN! Jim (my retired coworker) gave me the boys' masks so all I had to get for them were the tuxedo shirts (thank you Amazon). They played with those masks all summer so it was an easy pick to go with a Muppet Theme this year. I got Joe's (Kermit) and Ali's (Piggy) costume on Amazon and then got creative with my (Honeydew) and Jeff's (Beaker) costumes. Marty's (Animal) costume was just a lion's mane costume painted red, red old ripped up shirt and chain from Dollar Tree. I think they turned out pretty well! Al turned out NOT to be a fan of her Piggy costume so she switched into Jeff's costume and was a happy camper treating with one of her BFF's (Maris). So I became Piggy (and yes- that nose was annoying). My Honeydew mask was impossible to see through (even though Amazon said you could). I wore the wig out treating but kept the nose off. I'm digging the wigs this year. Z's buddy Matthew came out with...

After a busy weekend of a Stranger Things Party, Soccer Games, Dance Rehearsal and Halloween Parties~ we had no energy left for carving pumpkins so we saved it for Monday night after Al's dance (after running to the store for last minute costume things...). I didn't actually have energy Monday night but I also didn't have any more time! I'd say we didn't get started until 7:30 which is awfully late for a school night~ but my troops impressed me! They had those pumpkins gutted in no time at all! I think my handy drill tool helped a ton. And THEY separated seeds from guts so I was thrilled! The Bigs did all the carving themselves too. I was able to work on some things while they were busy bees working. I got smart and bought a $1 table cloth from the Dollar Tree for them to work on (why didn't I do this before??). As I said, the BIGS did the carving. Sean had a harder time. Jeff had to get a new pumpkin for him since his (from the pumpkin patch) was...

We had fun at the Geary's Halloween Party (didn't get a pic of all of us- well Gearys weren't in it). The rest of us went for a Potter Theme. I was Luna Lovegood and got my costume (minus the wig) for $5! Jeff wore my old cleopatra wig and a cape from when he was Darth Vadar. I love Salvation Army and cheap costumes! To try to keep up my my talented foodie friends, we made some edible treats... Used Q-tips (marshmallows and caramel) for the kid and grown up parties and donut monsters (which started to fall apart) for the kid party. The kiddos went to Cosmans where they had a blast and made THIS awesome movie trailer (they're so creative!!) The grown-ups had a blast (as we always do). I'd say the majority of our night was spent at the euchre table where Eric and I remained undefeated against anyone who challenged us! It was amazing!!! I laughed because one guy asked me if my hair was real (and he was sadly serious... and perhaps over-served a bit). L...

This soccer season FLEW by and sadly today was Ali's last game! We ALMOST missed it! For whatever reason, I had it in my calendar for starting at 2 and my dad got to her game AT NOON and called to see where we were. Thank God he called!!! When Jeff got her there she said coach said, "Warm up... you're going in now!" Unfortunately I wasn't there because I was driving Seany to his game... Ali LOVES soccer and scored a nice goal today. I feel like she had lots of shots this year but they often went just wide- or the goalie would just get there in the knick of time... Jeff got some good pictures though so I could see a bit and imagine! She had her share of goals but not like the old days where she'd have them every game. The game has gotten tougher for sure!  Al plays hard and she plays to win. She was upset on Friday when she had to miss practice because... well... there's two of us and Joe had a meet and Jeff had to help get the boats ou...

So after we left the football game, we decided to hit the pumpkin patch. After all, we had a two soccer games the next day and the following weekend we have games and Halloween Parties so we were cutting it pretty close to the big day. The weather we have had has been unseasonably warm! Shorts and flip-flops?! Sean was so excited and couldn't wait to get on the hayride to choose the perfect pumpkin. We did get donuts and cider too of course! Jeff was less than thrilled to go on the hayride even though he was the one who stopped at an ATM to get cash for the pumpkins... We need to teach him the "fake it until you make it" line. He got on the hay ride with us though. My mom just had hip surgery so no fall family pic for us... (We'll have to get one in her yard or something.) Kind of sad since we have had 15 years of family pics at a pumpkin patch~ beginning when Joe was just a little baby no bigger than a pumpkin. There were lots of pumpkins to c...

Jeff and I were saying we wanted to get to more WMU games (at least one a year) and since they were coming to EMU, this choice was easy. We did have to miss one soccer game but figured it was worth it for the family experience! Danny actually has neighbors (a lot) who went to WMU, so one went and looked into getting big packaged deals and it was cheaper for him to get like 30 tickets! We got our six and paid a little over $3 for each which was cheaper than what it cost us to get into the high school game! We got there early to tailgate and it was fun chatting with their friends, eating food and having some drinks. The little girls were all excited to see Ali and they had fun doing her hair! Love her face in this pic! As game time drew near, we were off! I had never seen a game at EMU before but was looking forward to it. WMU had a good turn out from what I could see from the tailgate. We sat on the visitor side (of course) and there was lots of room. We even saw Buste...

 Can't begin to say how proud I am of this kid! He has never been that excited about cross country and usually after his races he complains that he hates running... but today something happened. Joe said he felt great and loved it~ and I'm talking IMMEDIATELY after he was done (he usually is OK with it after we get home). His school took the top 7 kids on the "Varsity Team" to run the Varsity race and then everyone else ran a later race. Well, Joe was in the top 5 for the race, second for his school (right behind the kid) and ran faster than two of the boys from his school that ran the Varsity Race! He said he can't wait for his next meet. I forgot to check to see if he had a fever... Regardless. So proud of this kid! Great time!!