The Hutchins Family: Catching up!!!!!

Well, I think I may have figured out a way to continue blogging! So, here is a recap of what has been going down in the Hutchins household since....February! LOL! This post will be very picture heavy if I can get it to work!

First I have to start with the one of my guys showing off their muscles:

Next, I think I mentioned it already, but we got word that Jesstine's school was going to close at the end of the school year. I have really felt blessed to have her at the school she is at this year! Here are a few photos of her last Kindergarten field trip.

Her whole class including her teacher at the zoo!

Peacock doing his thing.

Her teacher, Mrs. Coleman, doubled as the tortise whisperer. The tortoise relieved him/herself shortly after this picture was taken.

Kindergartners in their natural habitat.

This is cool because their school mascot is the Lion!

We also celebrated Easter around that time. Here are a few pictures (including one of my favorite bloopers) from Easter.

Easter baskets!

Going on an Easter egg hunt!

Easter eggs Jesstine decorated. She didn't have school on Good Friday, so we invited a friend from school over to come join us for Easter activities! They dyed eggs, ate lunch from an egg carton filled with plastic eggs full of food, had a glow in the dark egg hunt and made stain glass crosses. Unfortunately when I attempted to upload all of these pictures from my phone, something failed. So you will just have to trust me when I say they did all of these cool things!

Easter best!

Blooper number one.

Church Egg hunt.

Emmitt with the photobomb creating blooper number 2.

A couple of years ago, Jesstine got a butterfly kit for her birthday. We decided it was the perfect time to use it! Both kids were absolutely enamored! We sent for the caterpillars which later came in the mail. Then we watched them eat and grow larger and larger! They eventually all crawled to the top and hung upside down from the lid, each turning into a chrysalis. The lid had a paper disc that they attached too. I removed the paper disc and attached it to the net on the inside of their habitat. A few days later, they became butterflies! We had ten butterflies! They were certainly a conversation starter for visitors to our house!

I was pretty proud of Jesstine! One happened to fly onto her arm before flying away. At first she threw a fit. I helped her to maintain control long enough to take a picture and not harm the butterfly. Eventually she couldn't stand the sensation of it crawling on her, so she moved too much and it flew off.

I joined Jesstine at her school for Muffins with Mom. It was a bit underwhelming compared to Donuts with Dad. It was great to spend time with my girl nonetheless!

We also attended a Walk MS event with some people from our church. While there, the kids got to meet WuShock!

Emmitt found this little guy on the playground.

I have been babysitting once a week for a friend at church. I used to watch her oldest when I was pregnant with Emmitt. One day, I got brave and took them to the zoo while Jesstine was in school.

The littlest girl is named Emalyn. Each time she would see a different animal, she would say, "Aww!" and reach out as if to pet it. Here she got her chance with a baby goat!

First, I have to ask, who DOESN'T stop to take pictures with their kids at all of the statues of animals at the zoo?! We went again today and of course the kids at to stop at each animal statue. We got to where we pretended to take the picture! Second, I laugh at little Emalyn's look every time I see this picture! LOL! Try getting three kids to look at the camera at once! Especially my kids who are like their Great Granddad, Emmitt!!!

We heard about Jesstine's school closing shortly after turning in boxtops and soup labels for money for our school. So, the PTF decided to use the money they raised with those and other fundraisers to throw a HUGE party for the kids. Not one party, but TWO huge parties! The first was a pizza and bowling party. The second was an afternoon of inflatables and lots of junk food! It made for some sweet moments and fun photos. It was the last Friday before school let out...forever.

I can't tell you how much I am going to miss each of these kids! They each made me smile! They each shared many special moments with me and I was just Jesstine's mom. The good news is that as of now, 3 of the girls will be joining Jesstine in her new school and they get to keep their awesome teacher for first grade!

Mmm! Junk food!

One thing I will really miss about these kids is that they all got a long so well! They were a close knit group.

The week of the inflatable party was also teacher appreciation week. Jesstine's teacher quickly became more than just her teacher to me. She became a friend! We prayed for each other and cried on each other's shoulders. I wasn't alone! The room mom (and now also a friend of mine) Lisa felt the same way! So we worked hard to give her something that she would remember for years to come. A piece of our kids that were her last kindergarten students and last class at Bethel Life School where she spent 17 years teaching!

The tree contained the hand of each member of the class. I also slipped a tracing of Emmitt's hand as he became the honorary member of the class. She later asked that Lisa and I as well one of the girls' grandmothers to trace our hand as well. At the bottom, we incorporated a Bible verse. "You will go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and hills will burst forth in song before you and all the trees of the field will clap their hands." --Isaiah 55:12

And then of course the following week was Kindergarten Graduation! Stephen was unfortunately out of town, but we each got a copy of the graduation including a video that Lisa's husband had made for Mrs. Coleman of pictures set to music. Such a treasure! Here is my girl graduating!

On the last day of school, I had an appointment for a haircut, so I got one for the kids too! Jesstine had a request for something different this time.

My sister and her kids were up this weekend. Emmitt enjoys his cousin Conrad SO much and the girls were busy the entire time they were here!

We were walking into dinner and Emmitt insisted on holding Conrad's hand!

Lexi lost two teeth while she was here. She lost the front tooth on the right and then shortly after lost the tooth next to the space where the front left tooth had been!

There was lots of dress up!

Cuteness!

And of course silliness!

And here are some various pictures explained by the caption under each one.

Self explanatory!

We have been going to Freddy's Frozen Custard and Steakburgers since the first one opened over a decade ago. We go almost weekly. I have two shirts that I purchased there (not including the two for the kids). We are treated like family because we are there so often. In March, I asked if they had any of these shirts for sale. The GM told me that they only had those for employees and Freddy's family members and there were none left. Fast forward a couple of months and the same GM came up to me and surprised me with this great shirt...FREE!!! He thanked us for being loyal customers!

A friend moment on the way to class!

John Deere boy like his Paw Paw!

Silliness (check out those big feet!).

I got the H picture from my sister for Christmas. I decided to make it a wall of Hutchins. I am working on getting a vinyl decal verse put around the pictures. We will see when that happens.

Sprinkler fun!!!