Fall 2021: Reading, Concerts, Soccer and Halloween!

 

Drew has grown so much as a reader and writer this fall! This guy who completed most of his first year of school online is working so hard and we are so proud of him!

Elle and Drew walking to school together on National Walk to School Day!

And Luke at his first Hart Middle School choir concert. Can you spot him? Last row with light, blue shirt and blue mask. When did he get so grown up?!

Click this link for the next song! Aladdin's "Friend Like Me" https://vimeo.com/658156847

Vanessa and I took our boys to their 1st middle school...event? I don't know the cool lingo on what to call this yet. Obviously not a playdate. Not a party. Hmmm. Well, their choir teacher organized a "meet up" at Blake's Apple Orchard for their spooky Halloween night. We got there at 7 and stayed till midnight. The boys loved their "freedom" of going on all of the scary things and haunted hayride with their friends by themselves and Vanessa and I loved getting their spiked cider and donuts. A win-win! But on the way home with all 4 of us and Vanessa driving, not even kidding, I fell ASLEEP! Who does that?! That pretty much sums me up on a Friday night.

Luke and Ellie are loving their Fall soccer season. Luke has been starting center D and will rotate in to play either goalie or left D. Luke made his way back up on the black team after breaking his leg! He started back on the white but halfway through the season, they asked him to play black as well. 2-7, we are so proud of you!!

Ellie improved so much during her fall season. She learned what Coach would be yelling like, " On the line. Ellie!" :) Ellie played a lot of midfield and defense. When our starting goalie was absent, she would often fill in for goalie too! We are so proud of you 9!!

Drew is the best little bro going to ALL of  Elle's games and Luke's black and white games! This little tiger will know all the things when he starts up!

This Fall was a little crazy with the bus situation. The first month of school or so, we were getting calls almost daily from the bus garage about "late arriving buses". I mean there were consecutive mornings where Luke's bus was 2 hours and 20 minutes late. Same with Elle and Drew's! All of this has been so hard on schools and we completely understand that the schools are doing their very best to keep up and when you don't have the people some things are going to give...but it's still hard on everyone. Thankfully, we have amazing friends who have been picking Luke up at 6:30 each morning and who can pick Luke up at 2:22 if the bus is late. They all have been a true blessing! The texting and organizing just starts at 5:55 am each day. 

For Drew and Ellie, they are still on the wait list for the school latchkey program (called SAC). Again, they didn't have enough people to fill these teaching latchkey positions so we are waitlisted until further notice for that program. Once again, we are so THANKFUL for our babysitter Bria! She is able to come each morning from 7:30-8:30 to help get them ready and on the bus. If their bus is late, she is able to drive them to school for us. 

It all came together for us and we are so grateful for our people!

Ellie and Drew on mismatch spirit day!

Getting ready for Fall at Yate's!

More Fall soccer...This is Ellie on the sideline 🤷

Halloween is here and Papa and Gma Uitti came over for the day and carved pumpkins with us!

Ellie put braces on her pumpkin :)

We almost had a pumpkin meltdown but Luke quickly problem-solved with some hot glue. Phew!

Happy Halloween from a Phantom/Death Eater (Harry Potter), Mia Hamm, and Spidey.

We love you Papa and Gma! Thank you for helping us carve pumpkins and getting all of the seeds out of the pumpkin slime!

And here we are with yet another Morin 1st. Last year we didn't go trick-or-treating because of Covid (we did the spooky egg hunt instead) so this year was Luke's first year going to another neighborhood altogether to go trick-or-treating with his buddies instead.

The four of us still had a blast though and made sure to stop at every house in the neighborhood! The weather was mild and a perfect night to be out and about.

Drew and Elle's pumpkins...

Luke's...(LED)

Checking over candy, organizing and sorting it!

Luke's home!

Wow. That's a lot of candy.

Elle at her 4th grade Halloween party!

For some pure love and a smile...watch. 💗

Surprise!! We're going to Harry Potter World!!

It was a Friday afternoon, and little did our kids know, the trip that has been planned since Cmas 2019 was about to happen!

Ben took off early from work and was able to surprise Elle by cheering her on at her school Fun Run. Luke even joined in on the fun and Mrs. Patton dropped him off at McG too. Elle nailed it and ran the entire 20 minutes. 

Luke was dropped off at middle school to meet Ben at the McG Fun Run and he ran a lap with Ellie! Click this link to watch: https://vimeo.com/658152098 

Ellie and her bestie Riley,

The girls.

Ben told the kids the mail had just arrived and to go get it. I don't know how this happened but by themselves all 3 kiddos ran back outside, down to the mailbox, and came running back up with a special piece of mail addressed just to them.

Luke reading the letter out loud and it tells them to go to the fireplace because Hedwig has stopped by!

 The BIG, HUGE, SURPIRSE! Click this link to watch: https://vimeo.com/643113988

At the airport ready to go!

We love that the kids get to sit on one side of the plane and we get to sit on the other. It's like...We've made it to this stage.

THIS is what I'm talking about.

We stayed at the pool ALL day. The crew eating lunch..

Ben and I getting our snooze on.

Each night, Aunt Cathy and Kate had us over for dinner for tacos and cookies. Having two places was so fun!

After dinner the kids all sorted us into our houses.

Swimming at Aunt Cathy's!

Ready to go to Harry Potter World!! 

Ricardo, the best shuttle driver, here to take us!

The first stop Ollivander's Wand Shop, obvi. 

Next up, Gringott's Wizarding Bank operated by the goblins.

We exchanged our US currency for Gringotts bank notes. I mean, " When in Rome..."

We got our wand flicks down to swish and flick to make the magic happen!

Even Grandma was a pro :) 

Waiting in line for the Escape from Gringotts rollercoaster ride! We learned quickly that the lockers to store your stuff was too much of a hassle, so after this ride we were lucky to have all of the adults so one of them could hang back with our stuff instead. Much easier!

I LOVE when I hold Drew and he strokes my hair. It is my favorite.

Once we looked all around Diagon Alley, we were off to platform 9 3/4 to take a ride on the Hogwarts Express to visit Hogsmeade.

We were so lucky to be there on the days we were because there were no lines. Look at the Hogwarts Express. The lines were setup to hold so many people and we just walked right on!

In the train's cabin...

Walking through the train station into...

Hogsmeade...

It was a HOT day. First up, BUTTERBEER!

Cheers!

Our first show, Triwizard Cup show!

Lunch at the Three Broomsticks...

Honeydukes was a sweet spot...

Back on the Hogwarts Express to head back to Diagon Alley...

The Knight Bus

Luke looking over the wands at a corner wand shop.

We saw Sirius Black's apt. and Kreacher peeked through the curtain to say hello.

Our next show was the story of the Deathly Hollows.

At Ollivander's Wand Shop, you can wait to go in the back room where one person (1 out of 16) gets chosen by an Ollivander assistant to step up in front of the group and offers you different wands to try. After different trials using different wands, the wand finally chooses you!

Waiting to go back to the small room in Olivanders. 

The ladies.

And gentlemen.

And Luke was chosen!

 Luke was picked and it was for sure magical. Click on the link to watch the clip: https://vimeo.com/658140690

Outside Ollivanders where Luke was "chosen." Ellie didn't really hide how she felt about her big brother being chosen and not her. (see pic) Love you sweet girl. 

In line for the Fast and Furious ride , and Elle and Luke were a tad nervous.

Once we took all of these pics on the rock then we noticed the sign...BUSTED.

Waiting in line for Flight of the Hippogriff and we spied Buckbeak.

This was Drew's 1st big rollercoaster!

Hands up, baby.

Jurassic Park was an added bonus especially because Drew loves dinosaurs!

On the Pteranodon Flyers...

Drew meeting a real Raptor. Drew had to take his hat off because it almost snatched it!

The kids stayed the night with Aunt Cathy and Kate. They even helped Kate make more of her famous chocolate chip cookies!

We had another pool day and said goodbye to Aunt Cathy and Kate before day 2 at the park.

Day 2, here we come!

The Race Through New York starring Jimmy Fallon show!

The Kang & Kodos' Twirl and Hurl became a crowd favorite and we went on it over and over again and I'm proud to say we only twirled and no one hurled.

Love you, Mom.

The Woody Woodpecker's Nuthouse Coaster was another favorite and one that we went on over and over again.

One of our favorite shows was The Bourne Stuntacular. It was so cool!

Lunch at Mel's Drive-In...

Back on the train to Hogsmeade.

Onto the water rides, these are Ben's and the kids' absolute favorites. Their first was the Dudley's Do-Right Ripsaw Falls. I LOVE Ben's face!

A trip we will remember for a long time.

Love you, Mom and Dad. You guys are such troopers!

The Skull Island: Reign of Kong ride...

This was one of my favorite moments! Ben convinced Mom that this ride (Popeye & Bluto's Bilge-Rat Barges) was not going to be scary or really wet and welp, they were both! Everyone was drenched and laughing so hard. There was no line and they went on it over and over again!

Papa was even convinced that he had to go on ride #3 after Grandma had already gone twice in a row!

When the kids and Ben went on it the 4th time, Mom and Dad went in the human drier :) 

You think we would learn after the first night. We had to book it through the park as fast as we could to try and make our shuttle to go back to the hotel. It was the kind of run where good thing we had on matching shirts because you could barely see the matching shirt in front of you, as all 9 of us were running as fast as we could to make it. We were just hoping one person would make it to have Ricardo hold it for the rest of us! The 2nd night was no different. After that last water ride, we ran again as fast as we could and we barely made it, but we did! The first night we all were laughing so hard. The 2nd night, well here is Dad as the shuttle pulled up. Once we were on, then everyone was laughing again. I can assure you, if there was a 3rd night it would be the same. We love getting as much as we can from the day, just be ready to run! :) 

That was it. We showered and to bed. It was a great trip!!

Harry Potter Word, you were just as magical and wonderful as we had dreamt about. Thank you Mom, Dad, Aunt Cathy and Kate for making it so special for all of us. 

" It does not do well to dwell on dreams and forget to live"- Albus Dumbledore