Running through Fall!

Luke wrapped up his Fall ball season with the Pirates. We were short a coach for this game so Luke played 1st base coach during the inning. We started cracking up when he started coaching his players on first base on what they should do!

Luke scores!

Luke you are SO loved by everyone! At this game, you had your fam, Aunt Cathy, Gigi and your 3rd grade teacher ( Ms. Cunningham) AND your 4th grade teacher (Ms. Pas!). You are one lucky kiddo!

Ellie started her soccer season on the Rapids with Coach Garrick and Coach Dad!

This season Elle really shined at goalie!

Ellie, we are so proud of you baby girl. 

We had Harlow and Auntie Megs over for church and breakfast. Afterwards we all cheered on our sweetest niece at her swim lessons!

Ellie is still loving her gymnastics lessons! 

Ellie and Luke both ran their hearts out at the Fun Run at their school!

Here is Ellie with her 2nd grade class...

Ellie ran 13 laps! Great job, Ellie! We are so proud of you!

This monster ran 64 laps! Because Luke is in the 4/5 split he was given the choice to run in both grade-level time slots. Our all-in Luke, was of course in it to win it!

Look at that smile and long legs. Gosh, I love him!

A peek into our morning routine...

We were so lucky to see the Beagles and Mr. and Mrs. Farrand up at their cabin in Mio! We spent the most beautiful Fall day on their property. It is always so fun to reconnect with my Kelly and to have our families spend time together. 

The girls and their Dads on their quad ride!

Ellie and Addie hanging out in their fort they were working on. Ellie had an early soccer game that morning, so we headed up right afterwards and stayed until after we had a bonfire and s'mores.

The fort!

Friends' kids becoming friends themselves. It's one of life's greatest blessings!

We all took a walk to checkout the apple trees!

These two had the BEST time. Look at Drew cracking up!

Family reading time!

That week, I had my final interview for the IB Coordinator role. Here I am at Leo's looking over my notes one last time before my interview time. The next morning, I got the call...I accepted the job! My new role in the District will start January 6th when we get back from Holiday break.

That Friday morning, I was so lucky to go to Muffins and Moms with my sweeties! 

Mom and Dad came down from Traverse to spend one last weekend with us before heading down to Florida for the season. Dinner at Avery's...

Extra cuddles...

Going over Christmas wish lists...

And one last dinner together at Uno's.

I found Ellie writing this page in her diary. My heart absolutely skipped a beat to see that she listed Luke and Drew first on her friend list. And so sweet to see "lots more"!

Luke was in his Run Club again at school. He met once a week after school and ran the neighborhood streets with his friends, teachers, and parents. Before the race...

During the race. Luke ran with his Dad for about the first mile but then really took off with Jack (picture here with Luke) and Ben couldn't catch up! Ben tried but he couldn't do it. These 2 boys kept pace the whole time and crossed the finish line with Jack coming in first and Luke in second! I couldn't believe it when they called to tell me that Luke finished 2nd AND ran his 5k in 20 minutes and 55 seconds! Oh. my. word!!!! Luke keeps surprising us!

Ben trying to keep up! Good job, honey! ;) 

Jack, Luke and Charlotte!

We are so proud of you Luke and we love our McGregor family!

My new team! I was so sad to miss his race but I did get to spend the weekend in Chicago at an IB conference to get trained into my new job! Rita and Stephanie are my new partners and we had so much fun getting to know each other. We talked from the time we left at 9 am on Friday until we got home at 7 pm on Monday!

Ben held down the fort with a busy, busy weekend! We are talking soccer, 5k race, 2 bday parties, church, a Halloween party, grocery shopping and Monday morning routine! Ben also deserves a medal. I love him!

Uncle Chad, Auntie Meg and Harlow came to cheer on Luke as well!

This is another pic I got while I was in Chicago. So, the adults were supposed to dress up that night as well. Can you guess what Ben is???

....a ceiling fan!

Also, Harry, Hermione and Leonardo showed up!

I could find 2 of our 3?

But here's that 3rd. My baby is looking so grown up.

Ben took the kids to Elle's gymnastics that Monday night as I was just getting home. First time on the rope!

Home sweet, home. I love it right here!

4th Grade, 2nd Grade, Preschool!

Another chapter of a Morin summer has come to a close. Our summers go by just so fast and we treasure every last drop of the sunshine, carefree routine, and togetherness. I asked each of the kiddos what their favorite part of this last summer was....Here are their responses from Summer 2019.

Drew: Wearing short sleeve shirts and shorts.

Ellie: All of the trips, Nickelodeon World, and Noah's Ark

Luke: Baseball trip, all of the trips, playing outside and relaxing

The last few days of summer!

Ben took the kiddos on a bike ride to the Cider Mill! They saw Ayrton on the way so picked him up and came too!

 I headed out to Royal Oak for a girls night! Ally's husband is the manager of the place we went to so yes we will have everything on the menu, yes we will try all of the drinks, and yes we will be the last people to leave at closing time. So much fun!

 This weekend was Luke's first game he played on his new travel soccer team and it just happened to be a tournament! He played 2 games on Saturday and 2 games on Sunday. They walked away undefeated and won the tourney! Luke also got 2 goals!

 Monday, Labor Day, at the Salvation Army. Yes, we totally shop for our kids at the "TSA". Look at that cart!

 After lunch, we completed our yearly grade-level reflection sheets. Here they are looking back at their old reflection sheets in their school binders. 

 And here we are. The first day of school! Pics are inside this year because it was still so dark outside! These early times. Grrrr.

4th Grade (In a 4/5 split this year)

Teacher: Ms. Pas

2nd Grade

Teacher: Ms. McConachie 

Preschool (Last year at NC3!)

Teacher: Ms. Meghan, Ms. Taylor, Ms. Carrie & Ms. Jessie 

A major shift happened at our beloved NC3 this year. Mr. Todd and Ms. Mary who started the Preschool 40 years ago retired and guess who bought it and is now running the school?? Meghan Zeile! We are the luckiest that she started us off on our daycare journey when she first watched Luke out of their home and now she is ending our journey by preparing Drew for the magical world of Kindergarten! 

 Here's to the best year yet!

Ellie is starting piano this year!! She has practice every Tuesday. Thank you, Aunt Cathy and Uncle Tom!

 Sweet Luke change the sign for her 1st practice.

Tuesday, Thursday, and weekends baseball still reigns.

 Ben still loves coaching!

We are all adjusting to our "new normal" with our schedule and routines. Drew is so my kid.

Ellie wanted to try gymnastics this year. We talked to her about not being able to dance and gymnastics and she still wanted to switch. Monday nights are practice. She LOVES it!

Ben took Drew on his first Daddy & Son trip to the doughnut shop downtown! 

Welp, it wouldn't be a Morin start of the year without someone having to go in for surgery. This year, Luke won the spot. Poor kiddo. While on our baseball trip Luke got a stye in his eye and we didn't think much about it because it was a stye, it didn't bother him, and it seemed to eventually go away. Fast forward to a Sunday morning back at home and when he woke up the same eye was swollen. We took him and they gave us eye drops and a referral to a pediatric eye specialist. After 3 visits, hot compresses, and different eye drops and ointments, the styes had multiplied and weren't going away. And this puts us here at Children's downtown Detroit to remove the styes from both of his eyes. 

Luke was diagnosed with Blepharitis and this is caused when the oil in the eye isn't lubricating the eyeball as it should. His cause was the balances were off in his oil because of his body changes. That's right...Hormonal changes! EEEEK! My baby, I'm not ready for this!!!

Yes, hormonal changes but he still hold his bear, Bennett, for comfort and all seems right in the world.

When Luke woke up afterwards and slowly reached his had toward my face, the tears just dripped down my cheek.

We love you so much, sweet Luke!