We started the summer out with simming lessons for Jesstine. We started out with YMCA swimming lessons (see pictures). But after three summers in the same level and getting no where, I found a private instructor! I don't think I will go back to the Y for swimming lessons!!!
(Jesstine is in the pink swimming suit, closest to us. She had been in the far group, but was too scared of the deep water, so she was moved to the next group lower.)
They were FINALLY able to get her to be more comfortable on her back in the water though!
Insert cute picture of Emmitt in church:
I have been babysitting once to twice a week for quite a while now. It has been about once a week this summer. We have done a lot of things from playing in the sandbox to playing with sidewalk chalk.
Of course there have been some cooler days this summer:
(My van temp. is usually a few degrees high and if I recall this was not early in the morning either.)
Which made for some pleasant trips to the zoo with friends:
Jesstine was invited with some other little girls from church to attend a tea party put on by the sister-in-law of a member of the church we attend.
Complete with fancy dresses, fancy sandwiches, cookies and cupcakes and of course, fancy hats!
They even made "God's Girl" necklaces.
The next day after the tea party, we headed out for our summer vacation to the Great Wolf Lodge. We stopped at the Deanna Rose Farmstead in Overland Park on the way. While at the Great Wolf Lodge, we took a couple of trips to the Legends Mall. Jesstine's best friend and her family came at the same time we did. We did some things together, most not.
Milking a "cow."
And of course, we were right near Sporting KC park, home of Sporting KC, formerly the Kansas City Wizards.
Emmitt was a little overwhelmed with the big bucket that dumped water and the overall noise level of the water park. So, we spent a lot of time around the hotel and the mall a short distance away.
His favorite place to visit was the arcade. Even without tokens he loved "driving" the batmbile and the motorcycles! Daddy's boy!
We had a great view of the Kansas Speedway from our balcony.
Jesstine, doing a little planking before heading down to the park after a nap.
Mommy and Son selfie.
Jesstine and her buddy, Violet. They each got to pick one toy to take home with them.
Emmitt chose a dinosaur from the T-Rex Cafe. His name is spike!
The kids got wolf ears this year for staying at the Great Wolf Lodge. They went to storytime with Kylie and Carter. Emmitt got a little restless, so Daddy took him back to the room and I stayed with Jesstine so she could get her picture with Wylie.
Last time we went to GWL in KC, Jesstine was TERRIFIED to go in this store/resturaunt. She only did it at the time because she was desperate for a dino of her own! This time, she didn't care for it, but she managed to go around the store less anxious (by far) than last time!
The last time we were here, Jesstine needed some shoes. At the Legends Mall, there are a couple of shoe outlet stores. We had good luck at the Nike store. We got her a pair of shoes about $20 cheaper than we could have just in another shoe store. Once again on this trip, she needed a new pair of shoes and Emmitt would need one very soon. While we did find a great deal on a pair for Emmitt, we almost struck out with Jesstine who needed a size 13.5.....which NO ONE HAS! I don't know if it is a popular size or if it is on the bubble of toddler/youth shoe sizes. Regardless, we were able to find her a pair that fit and she will probably wear for the upcoming school year....in a size 1!!!! She LOVES them though! They are leopard AND zebra print in pink and blue (her favorite colors).
On the last day, always in the past we have simply just taken in some of the sites/shopping places around the KC or Dallas area (depending upon which GWL location we were at) rather than swim any. This time we wanted to get as much waterpark time in as possible. So, I took Emmitt with me to meet my uncle and walk around Legends some more (looking for a Sporting KC shirt for Emmitt) and Jesstine went with Daddy back to the waterpark. We loaded the car up and checked out of our room before hand so we were ready to eat some lunch and hit the road. We had to be back for Music Theater later that evening. Here is a picture of Stephen getting one last go of the bucket that dumped a ton of water every 2-3 minutes.
And here is Jesstine bleary eyed and ready for the trip home.
We knew things were going to be rushed when we returned, so before we went on our trip, we celebrated Babe B. and her birthday! Yearly we go out to the cemetery and release balloons for her. It was a bit add hawk this year (which I don't feel the greatest about), so we ended up with just 7 latex balloons. We sang happy birthday to her and released them.
I hit the garage sales this summer pretty hard. I sold some things too. I was able to score some great things for the kiddos. Mostly Cars stuff for Emmitt, but Jesstine got a few cool things as well! Here are some of our finds:
Would you believe all of this cost just $10?! It was at the home of a friend of mine. She had to go back in and beg Lightning McQueen off of her children who had found this set in the garage sale and decided that Mom could sell all but Lightning McQueen. This is actually a geotrax set (three different sets to be exact) and three different Cars Megablock (kind of like leggos) sets.
This is from another garage sale. It was a box labeled "Lightning McQueen and Thomas Lego Set, $15." I tried to talk the lady down to $10 because I didn't have any manuals to put the legos together. She wouldn't budge insisting there was at least an entire Mack truck set in there. Um, no...there wasn't. The one in the picture is the one I had from the set in the previous picture. So, I decided to wing it! This was what I came up with! We now have two Maters and two McQueens. It looks pretty cool!
I had one of these in Jesstine's room. I had purchased it at a garage sale for about $15!! I was so pleased with it! It was quite functional! So, I have spent the last year looking for one for Emmitt. I didn't want to pay $99 for a brand new one, but it had about come to that. Until...my friends on facebook came to the rescue and invited me into a bunch of garage sale sites. They had posted that I was looking for one and people contacted me. I ended up buying this one (had to clean it up, but that is the joy of a plastic toybox; easy to clean) and it was not too far away from my house! The toybox didn't come with the Cars bin. That came with another shelving unit from a different garage sale. I didn't have the space for it, so I used the bins from it to organize this! :-)
This was at a garage sale where the guy had multiples of BRAND new name brand toys and building sets! I spent a lot of money there! The best buy was this bike! It was $25 new in box (unassembled)! Online it is a $50 bike! :-) As you can see, Emmitt LOVES it! He is still slightly small for it, but he will grow into it.
Emmitt also made some big changes this summer. He is fully potty trained which caused some problems because he was also still in a crib. There was an incident where he couldn't get out of his bed to go to the bathroom so he went in his bed...and made a HUGE mess of it! So, after throwing away a crib sheet and washing blankets and such, I decided it was time to let him sleep in a toddler bed. Just like with potty training, I was afraid that he would be difficult...and he pleasantly surprised me! All it took were some Cars sheets (store bought AND provided by Aunt Ola) and a car every morning he stayed in his bed! It just had to be a red car or a Cars car.
The cars pillow at the top is also a garage sale find (don't worry we cleaned it!).
I held a thirty-one party this summer and scored some really cool discounted items. My friend Kelly (Kylie and Carter's mommy) co-hosted it at my house and ended up with over $900 in sales! We were able to each get a hostess exclusive (I got Emmitt a backpack), I got two halfprice items and $25 to spend. She got $125 to spend!!! So all told we shared two exclusive items, $150 and two half price items!!! Here is a little peek of what I got:
Emmitt's backpack. I plan to get a lunchbox to match! Jesstine has a pink dot backpack just like this.
The two blue/aqua bags and the navy striped bag in the top were all from my party. I purchased the large navy striped bag a few weeks before because it was on special in June! This is my new shopping system each week! :-)
Perhaps my favorite thing was this purse! Now I just need a wallet to match! :-)
I also hosted my niece for about a week while her mom and siblings were at camp and her dad was working. We had a lot of fun, but she ended up joining her mom at camp a little before I had intended. She got a little freaked out when our friend Kristina came over. Kristina recently had surgery. She has a genetic condition that caused her skull to not grow when her brain and other parts of her body do. She also was born without fingers or toes. She had surgery to basically move her whole face forward to where it would be when she becomes an adult. Part of this procedure involved breaking her jaw. She had to wear a halo that had a piece that attached to her mouth as well. So, my niece was too scared to join us that day. We took her out to camp to be with her mom.We had a lot of fun before that though!
Dress up.
Her daddy is a Green Bay fan. She picked this blanket out at bedtime one night! :-)
A trip to Chickfila play place!
And of course a trip to the splash pad!
We took her to City Bites to give her a little taste of home! Actually, it was close by to where we were registering Jesstine for school. Afterward we took Jesstine to the Dentist.
Charis LOVED Jesstine and Emmitt's dentist office!
So why were we at the dentist you might ask?!
She had a tooth that had been loose for a couple of months. She was too chicken to just pull it. It started to cause a gum infection because she had the new tooth already coming in behind. So the dentist pulled it!
Her first look inside her mouth.
She even got a little cute box for the tooth!
She left a note with the tooth for the tooth fairy. It was a great idea (so she thought) to have the tooth fairy bring her a power ranger or two instead of money.
The tooth fairy, named Petal Yewglitter to be exact, left a note in return explaining how hard it is for her to bring toys. :-)
I think that about sums it up. We will be getting back into the swing of things here this week. We took the paci away today. One more step to Emmitt being a big boy. I go back to work this week and Jesstine starts school on August 15! We also have some birthdays coming up!!! Until next time!
In Him,
The Hutchins Family
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