Life MORINteresting: March 2017

Drew and Elle reading with their buddies at Kensington's Kid Care! This is where I have been working this year after leaving my KKIDS coordinator gig at the end of this summer. I still get to work at Kensington with all of their amazing peeps, bring my kids to work with me, but I have my weekends back with my family and I am here at the church T, W, and Th. after getting Luke on the bus in the morning. I love getting to hang out with my girls at work and spend the days with my own kids playing with other kids!!

All snuggled up for family movie night! This Friday night we watched Honey, I Shrunk the Kids. :)

Well, a staple for the last 7 years in the Morin household was dismantled...The Morin crib is now on it's last leg as we converted it into a toddle bed for Drew. It's crazy to think just how fast those 7 years flew by. Drew loves his new bed! He is a "big guy". It took him a few weeks to adjust falling asleep because he always wanted to sleep in Luke's bed. It was so cute we let it fly but Luke was waking up tired in the morning so we had to readjust with Drew falling asleep in his own big guy bed. He is now falling asleep and staying asleep like a champ in it!

Drew is seriously funny. For real, we all laugh with him so hard kind of funny AND he knows that it's funny which cracks us up even more.

He was on a kick of making "mad face". It made us all laugh! I was able to catch just a little bit of it. Watch below...Such a ham!

We celebrated Vaida's 7th birthday!! For us, it was bitter sweet because she had just moved out of our neighborhood and Luke's school the week prior. This was Luke's BFF on the bus to school everyday and we love her entire family. Thank goodness they stayed in the Rochester area.

Drew's 2 year old check up. Here are his stats:

My one concern about Drew (besides his asthma) has been how picky of an eater he was. He wasn't going much beyond carbs unless it was through a pouch or smoothie. Well, my friends, although he is still picky he is eating!! It all started when Ben was wroking late so I just made scrambled eggs and bacon for dinner. I was sitting there eating a piece of bacon when Drew reached over from his high chair and took the bacon right out of my hands and started eating it! He went on to eat a bunch of scrambled eggs and two more slices of bacon. AND he eats! Below is a clip I sent my mom showing him eating a turkey burger!!

Uncle Chad is pretty darn rad!!! This week Ben was working late so we asked Chad is he would take Elle to her Desserts with Dad at her Kensington Preschool event. Chad was all about it! He picked her up early all dressed up for the part and spoiled her the whole night!

Uncle Chad even took pics of all the events to come home and show me. :) Here they are eating their ice cream! Elle is sitting nest to her buddy Jack.

Now she is hitting the catapult!

"Lassoing" the herd of cows!

Digging for gold!

And we got a gold-digger on our hands!

"Shooting" at target practice!

Rounding up those pesky snakes! (ugh. I despise snakes)

All smiles with her favorite uncle!

This cowgirl had a bootin' scootin' grand ole time!

Luke was out by the time they got home but not this little dude.

Thanks to Grandpa and Grandma Cooley, all three of our children are in swim lessons at Goldfish!! Drew LOVES swimming! Look at all of these cheesy grins to prove it! He just isn't a fan of putting on goggles yet.

Drew swims first thing Sat. am at 8:30 and we all love to go to cheer him on!

After Drew's swim, Uncle Tom and Aunt Cathy treated Luke and Elle to a special day with them!! The y picked them up here at the house and took them to Cranbrook's Science Center for the day! How awesome is that?!

Below they are getting ready for the planetarium!

A special lunch...

And they're off to check out the rest of the exhibits!

They always have so much fun with Uncle Tom and Aunt Cathy!!!

Once they were home Ben and I decided on a whim to take the kiddos to Saturday night service at the church. We happened to get their early, which NEVER happens, so they got to go down the slide a few times that our church has in their lobby.

After church, we stopped by Gma and Papa Cooley's storage unit they have here in Rochester Hills. Ben took the convertible for a spin to make sure everything was properly running. It looks like Papa gets three thumbs up for a good workin' set of wheels.

We aren't officially potty training yet but Drew is very interested in the potty. He will talk about the potty and about his diaper. The latest thing is he will get a stack of books, pull over the sink stool and use it as a little table for his books as he reads on his potty.

This year our Valentine's were homemade because Luke wanted to share his bouncy balls that he had collected with Papa C. down in Florida. He had a little over 60 so Elle made her Valentine's out of them as well. The saying? " I hope you have a ball this Valentine's Day!" A Pinterest original.

And a break to watch a show. I will so miss the days when our three children choose (or just can't fit!) to sit somewhere else then all three smooshed together on the brown chair. It is their favorite and they all three sit there!!! Looking into the room, we have 2 more chairs and a couch that are empty but there they are and I LOVE that it's their favorite spot...together.

Well, we knew it would happen but our sweet, sweet Drew is now into full swing of the terrific ;) 2's! He is by far our best time outer and will sit in timeout and has never tried to get out...ever. I think it's probably because he sees what happens to Luke and Elle if they try to get out. :) Then when we get him out he says, " Sorry, Mama," and gives me the biggest hug. My heart swells for this little guy.

My Valentine princess! Ellie had fun celebrating Vday at her preschool with all of her friends! Ellie celebrated a day early because she is at preschool on M, W, F am's and Vday was on a Tuesday.

This was a proud Mom moment. I took all 3 kiddos and including myself, all four of us had dentist appts. at the same time!!! AND we all did it! Drew wasn't the biggest fan but because he is still so young they just checked his teeth and counted them. Thank goodness for insurance.

The other two had great checkups as well and we are happy to say that we all walked out that day with no cavities and clean teeth for everyone!

Ellie and Luke have their swim lessons on Monday at 6:30 and they are just killing it. Elle jumps in with a big arm ready to pull with all of her might. She loves swimming and always is excited to go!

Luke is practicing his backstroke and I have to tell ya this kid might be a better swimmer than me! Last week he graduated another level and this is what he had to do:

Here he is practicing his backstroke. (watch below) The following week he nailed it and that's when he graduated to the next class!

Happy Valentine's Day!!! (officially!)

We have a tradition that has stared for Valentine's Day...Jacque pink-hearted pancakes, bacon, and letters for each of us telling them reasons why we love them. Well, the first couple hearts come out as pink hearts and then the rest of them are well, pink circles. :) I just love our mornings together and that we can eat breakfast as a family and some mornings Ben is still home to eat with us too! I mean how lucky are we?! It won't always be like this so we are sure enjoying it now!

Our three sweet Valentines...

Then after Luke gets on the bus around 8:30 the three of us are out the door to Kid Care at Kensington! Elle is one lucky girl to party hearty another day! Here she is with her best of the bestest, Lilah.

Our morning was so busy that guess what they had for lunch...Leftover pancakes from breakfast. :)

This growing Valentine stole my heart from Day 1. How handsome is Luke??! Just like his Daddy. Luke had a fun day at school passing out his bouncy ball Valentine's and reading his when he got home!

Painting hearts at Kid Care!

Elle helping me make blueberry muffins before Luke gets off the bus! She is also rocking her new apron that Gma and Papa C. sent her in the mail!!

And what is Drew doing? Walking around the house in Elle's dress up shoes saying, "pretty." I think this boy is missing his brother and Dad!

This week Ben had a lot of late nights at work, working at each of the 4 campuses each night. So, after dinner while I was cleaning up the kitchen, Luke had the idea to make fans and then he could sell them in the Spring for 10 cents a piece. He had Elle and Drew color the paper and then he folded them. :) This made everybody happy including me...The kitchen was clean and all three kiddos were happily playing together. Bliss.

If you are in need of a fan, let Luke know!

Ben's busy week was a success and we ended it together with a family venture out to Luke's elementary for International Festival night. The event really blew me away with how much the parents put into their individual booths which represented the country their family was from.

Below, Luke's music teacher invited some students up to chow us a traditional dance they had been practicing at school. Elle was a trooper and jumped in to be Luke's partner...She is so ready to be a part of the McGregor family!

Drew is NOT a big brother!!! Ben dressed him and I use this shirt for a long sleeve "undershirt" and I could have killed Ben when I saw him wearing it at Luke's school!!

But here he is looking all cute waving his Brazilian flag. So to be clear, he is not a big brother and we are not from Brazil. :)

Luke with a couple of his best buddies Max and Louis, from his class! Louis also plays on his soccer team with him.

After a long week, I had a weekend getaway with my banchie girls over at Bing's house in Grand Rapids! So much fun! Ben, being the rock star Dad that he is, took the kids biking around Oakland University's campus! Look how nice it is outside!!

Then, the next morning, Ben took the kiddos to church and Luke had crazy hair day at his small group! It is called Pineapple Mayhem and for a month the kids compete against the other small groups during their service time. You get points based on bringing your Bible, dressing up for the theme that week, or inviting a friend. Luke was at the Saturday service last weekend but normally we attend the 9 am service on Sundays and that is his regular small group. After attending the Sat. service, his substitute small group was winning by a lot in the competition so much so that he is now asking that we start going to church on Saturdays so he can be on the "winning team". Wow. Sorry, kid. Keep bringing your Bible!

That night, I came home from Grand Rapids and we were off to the Ziele's house to surprise Eric for his birthday! Ellie with her other BFF, Zaydee.

And Ben got a backyard game of football going with Luke, Ayrton and the kiddos there.

That night a stomach bug hit me and so I was off the map for a few days. Luke was off of school on Monday and Tuesday and Monday he was a huge helper for me with Elle and Drew because I literally didn't leave the couch. By Monday night though I was feeling MUCH better and so we were off to Kid Care on Tuesday and Luke got to come too! The kids love when Luke comes. He is like the " cool, big kid" so Luke loves coming too! Here he is reading the Crayon book from his Auntie Nae to a group of the kids. I am so proud of my little reader and it's always so cool to see him share his love of reading to his siblings but today their friends as well. :)

(I love how his feet are dangling from the chair's edge. It's a small reminder that even though he may be "the cool, big kid" he is still my sweet, little baby boy.)

On Friday Ben and I had the night off from adulting!!!! Yes, that's right! No adulting for us! All three kiddos headed over to Auntie Megs and Uncle Chad's for a sleep over visit! This was the first time for us to have all three children away. Ben and I called ahead to Sedona Taphouse in Troy around 5 and they said the first available table was at 8:00. I first hung up but then realized we can totally go then. No kids means no real schedules!! So, I called and booked the 8 o'clock and Ben and I relaxed on the couch watching the final episode in the OJ Simpson Trial series. Then drinks and filet mingon at the Taphouse...Yummo! We had our final training at Kensington the next am to become marriage mentors to pre-married couples and then we were off to pick up the kids! Auntie Meg had to leave early in the am to get to Ann Arbor for work so Uncle Chaddy held down the fort with all three kids until almost noon. The kids had a great time and they all fell asleep early Sat. night. :)

The next afternoon, Grandma U. stopped by! She had stayed the night at Meg's and Chad's the night before because she had gotten her hair done at the salon and then they took her out to eat for her birthday! She stopped by our house on the way back to Stan and we celebrated with cupcakes and ice cream. Here Luke is putting the finishing touches on her birthday necklace...