Breakfast, Sickies and Her Last Preschool Program

I know it has been a while since my last post. That just means more to post this time right?! And there is a LOT. We are gearing up for summer and it can't come quickly enough! So, here it goes:

Just a little something I made for Jesstine at work when we were working on Dr, Seuss activities.

Emmitt is growing and changing daily! His hair is getting longer. Daddy doesn't like it, but I keep putting a mohawk in his hair. Grandmom thinks it looks like Sweet Pea of Popeye fame! He is talking SO much more lately and cutting two more teeth. Twice he has peed in the potty without a potty seat or anything!!! I don't know if that means he is READY to pee in the potty more consistently, but twice is more than before!

A friend of mine ran a consignment sale with a few friends of hers last week. She said she made over $1000!!!! Her son is in Jesstine's class and I agreed to let him come over and play last week in return for a presale pass! These are some of the treasures I found!

Where's Emmitt??? There he is! The mohawk strikes again!

I hadn't seen my mom in two weeks (we live in the same town!!!). Stephen, the kids, and I decided to go to breakfast Saturday morning. We were there for maybe 15 minutes and lo and behold, my mom and step dad show up! We were able to get a table pulled up along side ours and they joined us! This boy was in HEAVEN!! Grandma brought him some little cars to play with too!

That day when we got home, we noticed that Jesstine was acting a little lethargic and just didn't seem herself. I checked her temp and sure enough, she had a fever! It was JUST like what Emmitt just got over! She stayed home from church the next day and still ran a fever off and on. She had a program on Monday, so we made the decision to take her in and get her checked out in hopes of getting a handle on it before Monday. Sure enough, she had a really raw throat. The doctor in the MEO was actually the doctor Jesstine went to when she was a baby until she was about 3. He was quick to treat her especially considering I had the same symptoms 4 weeks ago and Emmitt had just finished his round of antibiotics for what we assume was the same thing!

Jesstine woke up fever free the next morning so off to school it was for her! Meanwhile Emmitt had his last day of music class for this school year.

Jesstine earns marbles for doing chores each day. She puts the in a mug and when it is full, she gets a reward. This time she got a movie, "Wreck it Ralph!" Both kids LOVE it! This is how they look the entire time it is on!

Jesstine was well enough to go to her final preschool program. Get ready for picture and video overload!

The them was "Summer Fun" and the kids were told to dress for summer or the beach. Swimsuits and flip flops were not allowed. I had two clothing options for Jesstine. One was a dress; the other a tank with jean shorts. She chose the latter. And she was the only little girl in her class that wasn't dressed up! Oh well! Lesson learned! She was still SO cute and her tank was perfectly shiny on stage!

Just as they did last year, there were scenes set up so the kids had plenty of photo opportunities. We took advantage of all of them!

This little girl with Jesstine is the little girl she hit it off with at the meet your teacher night before school started. I didn't really hear much about her throughout the year, but it was obvious they liked each other! Just not best friends!

Kylie really wanted in on some of the pictures. So the rest prominently feature her. That is fantastic! I was able to get some great shots of these two best friends in their last year in the same grade. Kylie will be going to preschool for another year while Jesstine goes to Kindergarten.

One of my favorites from the night!

These were pretty cute too! Showed a little of the different personalities of the two of these girls! Opposites attract! I am excited to see how this friendship goes from here. Her mom and I are determined to still get the girls together to play and keep it going as best as we can!

Emmitt and Daddy playing a game before the show!

And of course the sister I never had came to enjoy the show with us! Emmitt enjoyed some lap time with Auntie Johnna (or Johnnaer as Jesstine calls her).

And the show begins!!

They called this the "Waving Welcome." This is what we have to train our elementary age music students NOT to do! 

Actually participating in the movements and singing! SO proud of her and SO much different from the other programs we have been to!

And now for the videos.

Kids Going Out To Play

We're Going on a Picnic

That's Part of Summer Too

Muddy!

I'm Going On Vacation

We're Going to Have a Beach Day

Swimming in the Sea

Ice Cream

Awesome God!

We Love You Mrs. Underkofler!

(Mrs. Underkofler is the director of the preschool. She is retiring after this year. She has been involved with the preschool for its entire existence!So glad to hear that her assistant is stepping into her role next year. Although we won't be there for another three years (Emmitt has to wait a year longer and will be nearly 4 by the time he goes to preschool).

As per tradition, we went to Orange Leaf to celebrate a job well done.

Mr. Independent!

Jesstine wanted me to read her a book. For once I read to her instead of asking her to read to me!

 

 And last but not least. This is what Jesstine's hair looks like after sleeping in braids for two nights! It was full and beautiful! She is growing up all too fast. She has decided that she wants short hair for the summer! :-(

In Him,

The Hutchins Family

Crafts, Cookie Bookie, and Cousins

It has been a full few days here. I figured it was time for a blog post! So, here is what we have been up to:

Jesstine and Stephen's clay projects were finished this week, so I went to pick them up! I think they are pretty cool! I will give you three guesses as to who did which piece and the first two don't count! ;-)

Also, a facebook friend (mother of one of Jesstine's former classmates) posted this AWESOME bow the other day and I told her I just HAD to have it for Jesstine! In the process I also got a few others and hope to post those sometime too! This is Merida from the latest Disney Pixar movie, Brave.

I also mentioned how one of Emmitt's favorite things to do is to look at bicycles? Well, he has no problems going to Target because there are SO many fun things for him! It all starts as soon as we walk to the doors. He loves the "Behh Bawwww!" (big ball) at the front of the store!

There is a little table and chairs in an alcove where I line up to pick Jesstine up at preschool. Emmitt is FASCINATED with this! I think he feels like a big boy sitting up to this table!

We are a part of our school district's Parents As Teachers organization. It is SO cool! Since Jesstine was about 6 months old, we have had a parent educator come in and meet with us once a month during the school year. She tells us all of the milestones the kids should be meeting and just gives us general information about various things. Sometimes she tests them to see if they meet the developmental benchmarks. Also she brings a homemade toy that meets them at their developmental stage. Jesstine stopped having her come at age 3 and Emmitt picked right up where Jesstine left off. We have had the same parent educator for 4 years now, so it has been really fun! Also there are plenty of opportunities for PAT playgroups and activities that we can go and be a part of. Jesstine was really big into the music classes as is Emmitt. We have only made it a few times with Emmitt, but hopefully when he is a little older it will be easier. Also every month or so there is something called a "Cookie Bookie." I never went with Jesstine because there were other parent nights where it was just MASS chaos! I decided that since one of them was during the time Jesstine was in school, Emmitt may really enjoy going. So I took him to this one! The theme was turtles. He had a BLAST! There was a music/story time, lots of different play centers, a cookie center, a craft center and even a center with a live turtle! He was fascinated! Furthermore, Kylie's (Jesstine's best friend since she was about Emmitt's age) brother, Carter, was there too! They are becoming buddies, slowly but surely! So here are some photos from that. Oh and after the kids are finished doing the centers, they get to take a book home! Emmitt came home with "Hot Rod Hamster." It had wheels on it so I figured he would be interested (if not right away, sometime very soon).

Water table at which Emmitt got DRENCHED!

Story/music time dancing to Head and Shoulders.

I have discovered what Emmitt needs for Christmas. He went back to this train table many times! The only way to pull him away from it was to offer him a cookie.

Cookie!

Carter eating his cookie.

And back to the trains!

After Kelly and I picked our girls up from school, Kylie and Carter came to play. At one point, Kelly and I looked over to see the boys just playing away along side each other, perfectly happy!

These pictures actually took place the day before, but kind of tie into the last pictures so they are only SLIGHTLY out of place!

Our weekly Freddy's trip proved that as much as Jesstine screams that Emmitt is bothering her, they really DO love each other!

Oh, and of course, how about winter hats in the middle/end of April!? Yup, it got cold AGAIN! It is supposed to get cold this week too! Can't put the winter coats/hats/gloves away JUST yet!

Thursday was Grandmom's birthday. I had to work in the morning because we had an inservice, but it worked out pretty well! Stephen dropped the kids off with Grandmom. I got done a little earlier than I anticipated which gave me plenty of time to stop by and get her a lemon cake at a local bakery. And the kids and I made a card for her the day before! Then this weekend, Seth, Jenni, Noah, Ian and Connor came up to further the celebrations with Grandmom! Here is a little of the weekend fun!

Grandmom's card: top left-Happy Birthday Grandmom, from the bottoms of our hearts to the tips of our toes!; top right-Hand (and foot) made with much love! From, Stephen, Lacie, Jesstine and Emmitt (this was actually the back of the card); bottom-The buz is all about you today! Our hearts flutter for you! (Inside of the card).

Brotherly love!

Jenni quickly discovered the quickest way to get Emmitt to cuddle; read a book!

A little outdoor fun! It was a little chilly, enough that the kids needed jackets. I asked Stephen to get Emmitt one when he went home to get some socks and shoes instead of sandals. He forgot, so I had to dig in some clothes I was sending with Jenni for something warm for Emmitt to wear. Hence the pink shirt on my very boyish boy! As you can tell too, Jesstine and Connor were buddies a lot of the time!

We had some delicious cake from Merrit's bakery in Tulsa (Broken Arrow actually) that Seth and Jenni brought up. Jesstine didn't finish hers and we forgot to pick it up. I looked over several minutes later to see what is happening in the above picture! We laughed for a while about this one!

And last but CERTAINLY not least, Emmitt and Connor jaming to the Demo button on the keyboard. Emmitt has some mad skilz when it comes to dancing! Flashdance, Emmitt style!

In Him,

The Hutchins Family