Days with the Dorans

1 grandma + 3 kids + 3 outlaws + 10 grandchildren= FUN! Jeff has two older sibs and we always have such fun getting together with them and their kids. Unfortunately with so many kids, it is hard to always coordinate schedules. Thankfully we were able to have one last hoo -rah before the summer officially ended. This time we met up at Uncle Jim and Tia Trish's house (Jeff's brother and sister-in-law). They have the best backyard (in-ground pool, trampoline, vegetable garden, fire-pit, volleyball net, and land to play)! Unfortunately it was too cold to swim (though I think the Bigs were seriously considering it...) but that didn't stop the Bigs from having a great time. We played, laughed and ate some great food! The highlight of the day for me was when the sun began to set and the campfire was ablaze. Jeff had brought his guitar and I don't think there is anything better than a good-old summer sing-along around the bonfire. While Jeff brought some books of so...

Sometimes wishing you were a Big, starts when you're really Little.

Once upon a time... ( Ok ... it was last week) I was working late in my classroom when my cell phone rang. When I answered it, all I could hear on the other end was a hysterical child. Had I not heard the familiar, "Mom, Daddy's calling you" ring, I would have thought it was a prank call... but alas, it was my darling daughter. The sobs were so loud, I had to hold the phone away from my ear. There were words that I thought I could make out, but in the end I asked her to put her dad on the phone. He translated: Ali Jane was cleaning her room when she climbed on her dresser. Out the window she could see her dad's new grill, so she called for Zach to show him. While she was pulling him up to get a better look, the piggy bank that I had made her went crashing to the floor and broke. Soon after, Joe walked in and she quickly gathered up the pieces of her piggy and hid them. She explained to Joe what had happened and begged him not to tell. What did Joe do? Went...

There are people in this life who are so thoughtful. Regina (a neighbor growing up) is one of those people. For every occasion, birthday, anniversary, etc... we will go to our mailbox and find a card. Today is Regina's birthday, so the kids and I decided that, in our quest to be more thoughtful, we would make cards for Regina. After we made the cards, we drove to my folks' and took a walk down to Regina's (my niece, Maddy, was also there). When we got there, Regina's car was not there and there was no one home. As we got closer to the house, Joe began to think twice about the card he made for her. He saw a Michigan State flag in front of her house and had second thoughts... (you may remember that he and his sibs have a current love affair with the University of Michigan that I don't quite understand). In the end the Bigs learned that they can still be friends with people who cheer for the other team and put Regina's cards in her mailbox. Since we were there,...

Six months sure does fly by! It seems like it was just yesterday that we were at the dentist but the Bigs and I were off to get another check-up and teeth cleaning. Jeff had a meeting, so I left the L ittles with my folks and we were off. I am so thankful that the Bigs are so well behaved when we go places. They were great during my teeth cleaning. (I could never have taken Z- at least at this stage- and not had an adult there to keep tabs on him and make sure he wasn't getting into trouble.) When it was their turn, Joe volunteered to go first and get his teeth "all shiny" and he did a great job! Ali Jane couldn't wait to get into the dentist chair. When our dentist was checking Joe's teeth she kept whispering to me, "Is it my turn yet?" "When will it be my turn?" "Can I go now?" As soon as the hygienist was done cleaning Joe's teeth, Ali Jane jumped into the chair and sat there just like this waiting for her to clean up from...

Thirteen years ago around this time, I was spending hours setting up my first grade classroom. I was fresh out of college, knew "everything" and had the energy of a young twenty-two-year-old! Thirteen years later, I am spending hours setting up my first grade classroom, brushing up on some of my favorite 'teacher reads', admit that each year I learn perhaps more than my students and have all the energy of a thirty-four-year-old with four kids at home, a husband and two humane society specials... (sigh) It blows my mind that the first graders pictured are beginning a new chapter in their lives, perhaps heading off to college and naive to how fast life is going to suddenly fly by. I am still teaching in the same building but it has certainly changed... we now have carpeting, computers, phones in our room, and AIR-CONDITIONING! I remember that on some days it would get so hot, the PTA would buy Popsicles and we would sit in silence sucking away on the sweet, refreshin...

Today was my first day back in my classroom. It was a mess! Our district privatized our custodians (you get what you pay for...) and at the end of the last school year I pretty much moved all of my stuff to my new classroom and got the heck out of there! (That choice meant lots of work now, but at the time it was what I really needed to do.) One of the things that I found in my organizing/purging/cleaning spree was the sign above. My four at home have benefited from that sign - a sign I put on my door while I would pump the feeding they missed at lunch-time. I think when we had the Bigs , we had no idea what children 'cost', partly because we never had to buy formula (and at the time Jeff was a stay-at-home-dad...). My pump became my best friend and was by far the best investment any nursing mom could make! All but Joe had my milk for the first year of life (I only had to stop nursing Joe because I was pregnant with Ali Jane, but still went longer than I was supposed to...). I...