Easter Highlights

Just a TON of pictures from our Easter celebrations from yesterday!

 The Easter bunny was really cunning this year! He left a trail of eggs from Jesstine's door....

 all the way to her Easter basket.

 The haul. Emmitt's was a bit smaller.

 She was super excited about it when she woke up in the morning!

 The first thing she picked up!

 The green sticky hand was inspired by Aunt Jenni.

 Emmitt cuddling Yoda!

 Don't worry Aunt Jenni. The Easter bunny hid eggs outside too!

 "Look! An egg in my chair!"

 "Blue is my favorite color!"

 Emmitt in his Easter best!

 Jesstine's Easter best (they both matched, but no photo of them together).

 He was really sleepy when we dropped him off in class. He was the only boy though, so he stayed awake so he could eye all of the girls! :-)

 A bunny from good friends Kara and Johnna. I think he likes it!

 Jesstine got a friend too!

 Church egg hunt.

 My nephew, Corbin.

 Photos with friends from church (top: Aurora and bottom: Sydney).

 Corbin and my other nephew, Luke.

 They brought out a parachute for more Easter fun!

 My mom with the kiddos.

 Mom and Pops.

 Family on Easter

 Emmitt has a hold on Pop's heartstrings! He is in LOVE with my little guy!

After church party at Grandmom's!

In Him,

The Hutchins Family

Easter Party and Easter Eggs

More Easter festivities took place this week. Jesstine had a party at school. It was the first one that I have been able to be involved in. It was a bit.....different than I expected. Not bad, but just different. I felt really odd and out of place! There were almost as many parents as there were kids!

 There was an Easter egg hunt. It was interesting to see three and a half year-olds looking for one of each color. Some weren't sure what their colors were surprisingly!

 Here she is with her loot!

 Here is where the odd part comes in. I don't know if I was reading too much into it, or if it was really no big deal. Maybe parents were just focused on their kids too much to interact. In any case. I was in charge of the napkins plates. I picked up two packages of plates thinking there were eight in each and how perfect is that for a class of 16 kids. WRONG! There were SEVEN! Who packages plates in odd numbers like that?! So the first thing that I was informed upon entering the classroom was that there were not enough plates! UGH! That was GREAT to hear when I was just slightly late to begin with (Emmitt decided he couldn't wait until Grandmom's house to eat. So I fed him a bottle at 10:25 when I needed to be at Jesstine's school at 10:45!) All was well though! There were some left over from Valentine's Day (probably because they were packaged in groups of 7 and someone needed to buy a third package to get 16 total....) and the kids didn't seem to notice!

 Really neat cupcakes (or as my nephew Corbin called them, muffins). It had a jelly bean nose, but that was the first thing Jesstine devoured!

 One group of kids in Jesstine's class.

And a second group of kids. The little girl that is the third one from the door with long brown hair is Giniveve. Jesstine is ALWAYS mentioning her. She must play with her a lot. At the beginning of the year it was always, "Gigi was naughty! She is not a good listener!" Every time I tell that story, she has to pipe in with, "She was naughty again this week Mommy!"

We dyed Easter eggs today. I found this idea on Pinterest. If you are not familiar with it, it is basically a virtual bulletin board. You find a cool idea, you "pin it" and then you can go back to it later if you want to try it out! The idea came from HERE. ALSO, instead of boiling the eggs, I cooked them in the oven to help with the smell and to keep them from turning green around the yolk. Only downside was that it gave some of them brown spots. I just made sure to put those in the darker colors. Got that idea HERE.

 Basically you just mix a packet of Koolaid in 2/3 cup of water. Doesn't matter if it is warm or cold.

 All ready to be dipped!

 Just put the eggs in the water as long as you want to make the most vibrant colors. (Woody costume is optional...story on that some other time).

And here is the finished product. From left to right: Cherry, Strawberry, Orange, Lemonade (with a little orange mixed in), Lemon Lime, Berry Blue, and Grape (with a little berry blue mixed in). Jesstine had one leftover so she decided she wanted it to be yellow too.

In Him,

The Hutchins Family

My Mom

Often times kids tell their parents they want to be like them when they grow up. I was no different. I wanted to be a nurse when I was little because my mom was a nurse. As I grew older I went through the rebellious teenage years (yes, even perfect ME, *natch*) and hit a rough patch with my mom. Things weren't always the greatest growing up. I do remember my mom did her best! I am SO proud of what my mom has become! Way back before I was born, her parents helped her to start her career in nursing by helping her, a single mom, to succeed at achieving an associates degree and became an RN. It wouldn't be until her children were all grown and (most) living on our own that she would be able to achieve a bachelor's degree in nursing. She decided that wasn't enough. She wanted to obtain a masters....yup...you guessed it...in nursing! Starting last fall, just before Emmitt was born in fact, (another story in itself) she started her job as a nurse practitioner at a local medical clinic. This particular clinic caters to the under and uninsured. I am so proud of her! She has beaten such odds to do something she loves doing and that she is quite good at! Today, my Pops (stepfather), sent me an email with this in it. I guess we aren't the only ones who have noticed that my mom is quite the gal! Great work Mom! We are all so very proud of you!

In Him,

The Hutchins Family

More Hair, Easter Eggs, Clean Carpet and MORE!!

So what's with the title? Well, sit back and relax because there is a LOT to see in this post!

Okay, so this may not mean much to the average reader, but to anyone who knows us at all knows that our kids....well, they just don't have much hair! They get that from their Daddy too! :-) Emmitt's is starting to grow ever so slightly. It is really apparent after bath when I put lotion and aquafor on his head.

 In other news, this little guy is rolling over and I will leave him on his play mat only to return a few minutes later and find him a few feet from his play mat! Needless to say, it was time to clean the carpets. We knew that he will be moving before too long. So while the carpets were being cleaned, we couldn't play upstairs. So, the kids and I camped out in the basement. Jesstine was having a picnic breakfast and thought that Emmitt needed a place setting as well.

 He quickly grew bored, so I got him some toys.

Also, there is something I have been wanting to try. I FINALLY found the supplies to do so. Today was the perfect opportunity. I got the idea from Kaylee from playgroups. Her pictures turned out MUCH better than mine! Basically I put glow bracelets ($2 for 16 at Walmart in the party supply section) and shoved them in Easter Eggs. Then after putting a blanket on the window in the office room, I hid the eggs for Jesstine to find! She had a blast! After a little while, I found some snacks to put in other eggs and hid them both in the basement bathroom and the office. She used a flashlight to find the non-glowing eggs.

 Terrible picture of glowing eggs.

 She wore the bracelets after she was done searching for the eggs.

 Flashlight Egg Hunt.

Later I hope to do another fun Easter egg activity for her. See HERE.

 It is summer like weather here and has been for a month almost. Spring essentially has been bypassed. Okay, so maybe it isn't that bad. It means that I had to once again investigate the kids' wardrobes! I got it easy last year because Jesstine pretty much wore the same shorts for two years in a row! Not so much this year! Also had to find more dresses for the same reason. Here is one that I picked up. She had to accessorize.

 Oh, and here is my little monster (Mike Wyzowski from Monster's Inc.).

 He is LOVING peek-a-boo!

Oh, and last but certainly not least....I debated this for a month. Finally I broke down and did it. Emmitt is officially riding in his big car seat in my car. There have been drawbacks, don't get me wrong. For one when he falls asleep in the car (which he still does), his head falls forward. I remember that with Jesstine too. Another is what to do with him while I have to get Jesstine out. May have to try a few things to see what works best. For now the umbrella stroller is a LIFE saver!

More on the Easter Egg lunch idea later! And maybe some better pictures of the glow eggs!

In Him,

The Hutchins Family

P.S. Easter Egg Dinner:

Wheat thins, cheese, turkey, hummus, bananas apples, carrots yogurt and yogurt raisins. She also had one with chocolate chips for dessert!

Where My Kids Get Their Cute

(Top: Emmitt and Jesstine having a picnic downstairs while carpet being cleaned. Bottom: Stephen and his brother, Seth, watching tv as youngsters. One of my favorite pictures of Stephen when he was a little boy.)

In Him,

The Hutchins