Days with the Dorans

Life has been a whirlwind lately, and everything seems to be the Joey show (as it should around graduation) but we still have some cool things happening with the others! Sean had a game today and it's so much fun to watch him. Jeff calls him the disruptor because he always wants to STOP people from scoring- even more than he wants to score. The boy is a born defender!

  With one last Sean game we were determined to get a few pictures! The problem is the field is HUGE and we like to sit up on a hill at his home field. We actually love it! It's shady, and you can really see everything open up. We used to sit up here for Zach's games too. For his last game the sibs were in attendance to show support and so was Nana... Papa was at a card show or maybe watching the Wolverines... I can't remember which but I do remember giving him grief about it. Sean had a great season in defense and was a real disruptor! 

Well, Ali had probably her last season with the Sharknados. It has been quite the ride for sure. I didn't take many pictures (it's hard on that big field) but it has been great seeing her play with these girls and coaches! Most of the team is graduating and the spring gets a bit nutty. Yay to Nana who snapped this picture. Similarly I was awful at taking pictures of Sean. I can't even tell you which kid he is in the picture! I just remember sitting up on the hill watching him and texting the others since Jeff was on Ali duty and I was with Seany. He is a blast to watch though! I think Covid has had an effect on my picture taking. I need to do better! I also need to add that Zach opted not to try out for soccer at WLN and his coaches didn't take a team in the fall because of the high school soccer season.

Masks are on and soccer is back!

 Sean started out this season not super excited. He aged out of the academy league and didn't want to go travel. He didn't know any of the boys on his team and was (I think) the only 4th grader with all the other boys in 5th grade. Thankfully, that changed and he ended up having a fun and exciting season and these boys went undefeated and were so much fun to watch! Sean had a couple goals but for the most part loved playing defense. It's still so fun to watch him play and see him kind of chill and then get into the zone. He's really good at staying in position and reading plays. It still blows our mind since he can be a bit scattered in other areas of life. His last game was a rainy mess but we were excited that they won and it was fun listening to the parents of the other team talk about how good our team was (they were talking about their stats and things). I should also mention that I got to play soccer with this team- they did a parents vs. kids scrimmag...

Kind of bummed I didn't get a picture of the Sharknados this season but they were kind of plagued with injury so it was rare to have the team together. The Littles both had great coaches and I'm so proud of how well they played. Sean will have to go back to playing travel rec next season. We're praying we get coaches as good as Zach and Ali Jane had!

 Sean is so funny. He didn't want to play soccer and then he did. And then he didn't. He is so indecisive about EVERYTHING. He did end up enjoying it!! Loved practices with Coach Jordan (a coach he's had and liked before) and learned and improved a lot!  It's fun to watch Sean. He is so all over the place in real life but during the game he gets on a laser focus and is all in. He is a great little defender (which he prefers) but he also did wonderful on offense and got some great goals! Proud of him. He tells me he may want to try tennis or even running next year (I do NOT see him as a runner- but we'll see). He did tell me he'll be returning to the soccer field. Wherever he goes, you'll find us there cheering him on!

 Last season Sean seemed to do a lot of skipping and dancing (still) and some soccer playing mixed in. This season he was much more business. I was worried though because he was playing with mostly (if not all) 3rd graders. He had a great team! They went undefeated and there was one kiddo in particular who was RIDICULOUS (in a good way). His name was Taj. Taj had a kick in the last game and one of the other defenders put is hands up touching the ball which caused Sean's team to have a penalty kick. Sean's coach had Sean take it. I was nervous for him (I wanted him to get it even though they had a very big lead) and HE DID!! And bonus... I got it in tape that you can see HERE .  After the game, Sean's coach treated them all to Slurpees (BIG ONES). While I wasn't a huge fan of some of the coach's decisions, they did have a good season and Sean certainly improved. I'm excited to watch him again next season!

Sean's soccer season didn't start off on the best foot. His first game he was so excited. Got up at 8 and put his uniform on for his 1pm game. We made the mistake of not checking to see that he had both jerseys for the game and guess what happened... Yup. He brought the wrong one! Since we drove separately, I turned around and Z raced up to get it and we got it to Seany well before halftime. Still his coach kept him out all of the first half which we understood since he hadn't had the right jersey. But... I could feel the anger boiling inside me when he didn't start the second half and when the boys on the bench raised their hands to go in (my boy's being the most eager), the coach called the other boys to line up to sub in while Sean remained on the bench. With less than 4 minutes left in the game, Sean was finally put in. He hustled, went after the ball but after the game when I told him he did well (even though I wanted to strangle his coach) he lo...