Days with the Dorans

 I can't believe that Sean is FIVE!!  He turned five on a Thursday which also happens to be "Seanday" (seriously that is what it is called) because it is the day that my dad watches Sean.  My dad brought him up to school so we could have lunch together. My class sang to him which was sweet!  We have SIXTEEN kids in kindergarten who are younger than Sean right now (the world's gone crazy- and it's taking us younger ele teachers with them).  Thankfully, as I write this now, it is down to fifteen as one agreed to go back to preschool.  I feel bad for those K teachers (and I'll feel bad for me next year... but I digress). Our Thursdays are busy (well... all our days are busy) and so Ali missed much of the celebration we had ON Sean's birthday.  I took her to dance while Jeff took the three boys to Z's soccer practice.  After I dropped Al off at dance, I hit Meijer because the gift I bought Sean hadn't arrived from Amazon yet (I'm now saving...

Z insisted on wearing his uniform to his party. We had a difficult time figuring out when to have Z's birthday party.  Thankfully we don't do "friend" parties until the kids are in kindergarten and our families (and friends who are like family) are quite flexible.  I had to wait to plan his party until we got the finalized baseball information and for some reason, I thought Joe's baseball game would only be two hours so we could try to do everything (including the party) in one day... I hope to realize this next year and be more smart about it... We were waiting for Joe's game to start and we realized that there was no way we would be able to watch the game AND get back to our house in time, so... My mom took the kids back to our house, Jeff went and picked up the cake and ice cream and I stayed with Joe.  After a while, my dad said he would take Joe home after the game so I finally got to the party to see family and friends. After Joe's last ...

I can't believe that Ali Jane is already five! Since Sean hasn't been feeling well we had a small gathering for her birthday- no kids really (which means no new germs!) The good thing about having so many sibs - every day feels like a party! Ali Jane was so excited to pick out her special cake for her fifth birthday! It was so very cute and tasted even better! The only problem was in the excitement of looking at it, Zach smooshed one of the pretty flowers... I think that when you are a Christmas baby, your family tends to go overboard when it comes to the gift department- at least that was my experience growing up, and I'm finding I too want to give more for her having her birthday so close to Christmas. The boys put all her presents under the front room Christmas tree and there were quite a bit considering the small gathering that we had! When I think back, I can't remember much before Ali Jane was born... I can't remember Jonasen without hi...

It's hard to believe that it's been five years since we took Jonasen home from the hospital- we held him in our arms and saw our future- our hope. Still today he amazes us with his kindness towards others and we often wonder what we did so right that God let us keep him (not that God works that way of course). The weekend after his birthday we had family and Godparents over to celebrate this very special boy. Joey was so excited about his "Pirate Party." (Where he gets pirates from we'll never know... We had a beautiful day and so we took advantage of the beautiful weather and played and ate outside (Zach couldn't wait for me to get him a plate of food so just helped himself to Ali Jane's...) Joey's favorite part of the party... (Can you guess?) Was the presents... not the outside play... not all the kids that were there... not that Grandma came (those he was super excited about that...) He was so excited about those presents that he actually skipp...