Days with the Dorans

I feel like my Mother's Day this year was so full that if I don't break it up into two posts it could take forever- so I thought for tonight I would write about the wonderful gifts I received this Mother's Day. I always associate Mother's Day with fun gifts made by the kids straight from the heart and love when my classroom kids work on their Mother's Day projects. The Bigs must have done some clay projects in school because from Joe I got a mug (and tea bag) and Ali Jane made me a basket complete with 'pretend candies' inside! I LOVE tea, but Joe let me know that I probably shouldn't really drink out of his mug but that it would be a great place to put other things. Their creations were so cute, but I am a lover of words so my most precious things from the Bigs were the things that they wrote! Joe gave me a "Wanted- World's Greatest Mom" poster. I was so excited that he thought I only weighed 20 pounds... that is until I saw how tall he ...

It has been so fun to see my pigeon toed, jock, princess become a ballerina this year! Ali Jane has fully enjoyed her intro kindergarten ballet classes and remembers the names of all the steps (and they're even learning the spellings). She has loved giving us mini lessons in the living room (which should come as no surprise if you've seen any of the videos of "Miss Doran " teaching us). Last Saturday was picture day at her dance studio and it was such fun. The competition dancers have a 'salon' where they will do the other dancers' hair, make-up and nails for them. Ali had 'the works' and I hardly recognized her! I wasn't really allowed back there (and I can see why... It can get super busy and some stage moms can be super pushy). I am a bit nervous about putting Al's hair in a bun and slicking it back like is required but I figured I'll spend some dough on cheap hair gel and have a few practice sessions and all should be well... ...

After learning early on that Sean had a big head (97 th percentile at one point), I was not really alarmed or surprised. His older brothers both had giant heads and I wrote here about it when Z was just 9 months old. Because of that trend, I hardly thought that they would tell us something could be wrong with our youngest son. At his 18 month check up (and Z's 4 year old check up which took AN HOUR AND A HALF), I learned that Sean's head percentile actually went DOWN- from 97 th to 90 th , so was very surprised when the doctor felt his head and told me she thought we should have an ultrasound of his brain (his percentiles in both weight and height were 25-50 th ). I questioned why they were doing this now (and not earlier) and suggested that this was just a genetic thing because it has been the case with all of my boys. She said it may be nothing, but it could be something and if we didn't do it now (when they could do an ultrasound through his soft-spot while it was s...

I sometimes feel like I wish I had a tape recorder on me at all times- or at least my journal (but I have problems keeping track of purses as you may recall- so keeping a journal in one would never really work). As difficult as my mornings can be- (getting everyone up and moving in the morning and then dropping the Littles at school before I finally get to my classroom)- I do enjoy my drives with my Little passengers- namely my silly goose. The other day I was talking to Z and I called him "Goosey" (which is quite common for me) and for some reason I asked him, "Z, do you like it when I call you Goose" and he said, "No." So then I asked him why and he said, "Because I am not a duck, I am a boy!" I laughed and I tried to explain to him about the term "Silly Goose" and that it doesn't really mean you are a Goose- but more that you are silly and funny. Thankfully he decided that his old mom could keep calling him Goose (good thing bec...

Today was one of those days I have been dreaming about for a LONG time! It was Ali Jane's first softball game and it was on the same fields I played on growing up (though they are much nicer than I recall!). I spent half of my life on those fields and just driving up to them brought back so much emotion! It was a crazy day! With Jeff having P/T Conferences, my lifesaver (aka mom) helped me by taking Joe to practice. My dad is the scorekeeper for my brother's team (he coaches Varsity baseball at his school) and so I was the only one cheering Al on! Well... Z and Sean were there too... I knew early on that I was in trouble with them... Sean wanted to make a dash for the lake (aka huge puddle from the last few days of rain) and Z started to get cold and was whiny and miserable! Somehow I managed to still see my babe play! Her first time up to bat was AWESOME! She walked up tentatively and the ump helped her set up- batting right!!! Ali Jane can actually swing both ways ...

Tonight wasn't Joe's first baseball game, it was his second. I spent all day praying for good weather since thunderstorms were predicted and I was thrilled to look out my classroom window and see sunny skies. What I didn't expect was a message from Ali's coach that her game had been cancelled because of Tornado warnings! The blue skies didn't stop the boys from playing though (and that tornado never hit)! We switched Joe to a new baseball league this year to make it easier on us (this league's fields are in walking distance to the girls' fields and so it would make it easier on days like today when they have games scheduled at the same time). I think that when we switched Joe though, he forgot much of what he learned from last year! This year Joe has kids and coaches pitching to him. His first game he only had kids pitching to him (kids aren't too accurate at pitching in first grade) and he swung at EVERYTHING! And as the game went on his swing g...

The kids were excited to wake up on Easter morning (they were all sleeping in Ali's room- sleepover!). They spied an egg on the table at the bottom of the stairs and they couldn't wait to see what surprises awaited them. Though they had picked up their toys the night before (prior to coloring eggs), they woke to a mess. The Easter Bunny came right through the front door and left a trail of paper mess to where the kids' Easter Bins were! That Bunny must have had a hard time finding the old Easter Baskets- but I like the new bin look and each one had the name of one of our kiddos! I was shocked that the kids didn't dive right in to see what was in their bins. Instead, they were on a hunt for eggs! Even Sean found some eggs at his eye level (he must have been paying closer attention at Grandma's than I thought!). After the jelly bean filled eggs were found, they were off to see what treasures the Easter Bunny brought them! Much of the treats were things that the...