Days with the Dorans

A picture of the whole fam... The Bigs were on FT. ZACH IS 19!!! I can't believe this is his last year as a teen! He's grown a ton I feel like since he's been away at school and it's so fun watching him get so excited for his future! He loves school and Traverse City and he has a girlfriend who could potentially keep him in Michigan... We'll see. The thought of not seeing him on his birthday felt wrong to me. I always take off Joey and Andrew's birthday, Ali is always home for hers (because of the holiday) and even Sean's felt weird so we made a point to all get together. Still we didn't TELL Z we were going to come up~ mostly because this was a kind of last minute idea of my own. His birthday was on a Thursday and so I had my class facetime with him and sing "Sto Lat" which he got a big kick out of! (but we woke him up). My friend Nicole, who also teaches music with me, has started her own cupcake business and so I told her to make a dozen cup...

  I can't believe Z is 15. The time is really flying! It was so nice that we could get together for a little birthday celebration! Nana and Papa were able to make it which was nice. Of course Papa had to mark the height. Z got some shirts, hoodies and a microscope! He was a happy kid- about all of it. You know you're getting older when you get excited for clothes! I love that he and his best buddy were born one day apart (albeit many years too). We love you so much, Z! Happy Happy Birthday!!

Well, the Goose is 14!!! I'm a bit in denial! We had fun celebrating him!

  So I am in a bit of denial that my baby is a TEENAGER!! Thankfully I already had decorations and let's face it... I get everything from Amazon anyway! The one thing that IS tough is not being able to see other people. There are a lot of people who are doing "Drive By" type birthdays where the birthday person stands outside and people drive by which sounds nice but since I'm a video person, I put out a call (kind of last minute) for people to wish our Goose a happy birthday and send it to me. We went over to Nana and Papa's in the sunroom again and showed it to him. HERE is the video with his reaction.

 I still can't believe that Zach is twelve (or that next year he's going to be a -GULP- teenager!!)! He's small but as we know the best things come in small packages! Nana and Papa were able to come and celebrate with dinner and cake and of course, presents! We had to laugh because as Z was opening his gifts, he just didn't seem all that excited! When we teased him about this he went over-board on the fake excitement and that made us laugh too! Still, I know he was appreciative of all his gifts! Glad I got to snap a moment like this! I feel like I'm bad at taking pictures lately. All the sibs were there to celebrate! There was this running joke when Z turned 8 (I think) that Papa wanted him to stay 7 and it has stuck! I laughed when Papa gave him this card! So typical my dad! Nana does all the shopping so the fact that Papa got this was a big deal, I'd say. If you ask Z how old he is, he'll say, "7."  Papa also does all the measur...

I still can't believe that my Goose is ELEVEN!! Although we celebrated his birthday over the weekend, I still had to do something for his actual "day." It landed on a Monday so I wrapped up a golden snitch (since he's a huge Harry Potter fan) and also a box of sour skittles (since he's a huge fan of those too). Sean ended up getting sick so Jeff stayed home with him. That allowed him to make donuts for Z so that was cool (but poor Seany). Sean was miserable and wanted mom so I left as soon as I could after work to be with him. Practice was cancelled because of weather which worked out for us. Jeff was able to pick up a cake on his way back from dropping Ali off and Nana came to stay with the sicky until I could get home. Sean couldn't eat the cake but he could celebrate with us by singing. We only had a "7" candle but that was appropriate because that is how old Z will tell you he is because he and Papa have decided he is "forever...

 April is a crazy busy month, so we got together to celebrate these great guys! Maddy's birthday is also in April but not until later in the month so we had a mini party just for the boys. Zach didn't mind opening some of his presents a wee bit early. Grandma wasn't able to make it because she wasn't feeling well and there was also a nasty ice storm that kept Auntie Jodi at home with the boys. The Drapals were able to make it though and we got Papa John's pizza and Leo's Coney Island salad (a favorite). Jeff also got 3 mini cakes so each of the guys could have their own candles to blow out.  It's kind of strange that we haven't thought to celebrate all 3 of them together before. The cousins had fun together. Z got a 2DS (which is the same thing that TZ got). They were all able to play together which was fun. TZ asked to spend the night which of course was cool with us because the girl cousins were heading to sleepovers themselves (differen...