Currently Reading Great Expectations (Penguin Classics) By Charles Dickens see related

catching up...looking back...

so, i've got tons of new family photos up on facebook if you're interested in checking 'em out.  i will post a few hilights here.

the next big thing after ezra's birthday was our family vacation to destin, florida!  lots of fun!  always WAY too short.  a week is just not enough!

we dedicated ezra at our church the second weekend in september.  some folks from our small group as well as some close friends were there to witness.  it was great!

the last weekend in september, the hutchins family gathered in wauseon, oh to send off the youngest hutchins--christopher.  he joined the navy and we sent him off in classic hutchins fashion including t-shirts and lots of family photos.  it was a blast, but we will miss him terribly.

last weekend, ezra and i had a fun fall weekend in michigan with my parents, sister and her fiance, michael.

yesterday, we had a family outing to sunrock farm in wilder, ky where we took a hay ride, milked a goat, and pet a goat, some chicks, and a bunny.  lots of fun.

as i said, there are LOTS more photos on facebook, if you're curious to see more.

in ezra news, he is quite the walky talky.  he is now 15 months and he knows most of the sounds for most of the letters of the alphabet, he knows LOTS of animal sounds (including what an owl says, which is perfect since that is his costume for halloween...pics to come.) he told me he loved me for the first time the other day.  he knows how to respond appropriately when i tell him a joke (me: why did the chicken cross the road? ezra: why? (which sounds more like "ai?") me: to get to the other side!  both:  mwahahahahaha (boisterous fake laughter!); he climbed onto the coffee table today for the first time (INSANE!) and the biggest news of all!  he has been doing both basic functions on his potty seat!  he hasn't been telling me he needs to, but i just set him on it and he does it.  not ALL the time but enough to where i only had to put a new diaper on him 2 times today! 

WHAT THE CRAP??  INSANE!!!

things are still pretty much same ol' same ol' for michael and i.  we both still use our potty seats, but we do NOT climb on top of the coffee table anymore.  bad idea.  we recently finished watching all the seasons of the show "upstairs downstairs".  we had a lot of fun with that.  michael is still "dissertating".  he recently applied for a fulbright scholarship which will hopefully fund a major chunk of our expediton to marbach, germany a year from now.  he also teaches 2 classes at school and leads a small discussion group at our church on science and scripture.  i am still loving being a mom and teaching at gymboree and kickboxing and pilate-cizing.  in my spare time (what's that?) i'm reading in hopes of adapting something into a play.  we'll see...

new videos

i have new videos of ezra on the youtube channel:

http://www.youtube.com/profile_videos?user=mandihutchins&p=r

An Overdue Birthday Blog

So, my little boy is one now.  This joyous event took place on Wednesday, July 2nd.  We had a very memorable birthday party in the back yard.  We decided to set up Ezra's kiddy pool, his tunnel, and i borrowed a parachute from my work to play with and open presents on.  We had pizza, ice cream, and I made his first birthday cake.  Unfortunately, everyone was eaten alive by chiggers!  LOL!  None of us realized it until about Thursday or Friday night.  Fortunately, Ezra seems to be the only one who did not get chigger bites...thank God!  I thought i had the plague, though, until we figured it out!  So, when I say it was memorable, I was thinking about the chiggers mostly--kind of hard to forget something that leaves you with little red welts all over your body!  Here are some pics from birthday party #1:

inredulous that he has to share his pool with another person besides mommy

the birthday cake (i'm just a touch proud...)

the family shot

the first taste

figuring out the most effective cake-devouring method

oh, the ecstasy of it all!  (i LOVE this photo!)

happy, messy birthday boy

opening presents

against all odds, mommy laid the center of the parachute directly on top of an ant hill!

our friend, cole, crocheted this hat for ezra; i think he looks like a little garden gnome

birthday bubbles

shaking the parachute

We did have birthday party #2 at my parents' home in Three Rivers, MI.  That way we could celebrate with more family members too.  This was the extremely exciting Pirate Party where everyone was encouraged to dress up like a pirate.  It only seems my family was interested in playing dress-up.  It very much made me wish we all lived closer together because I know I could count on all of you to dress up not just to play along but because you, yourselves, would think it is a fun thing to do.  Michael and I had a blast!  We decorated my parents' deck like a pirate ship, complete with cannons and a pirate flag (that hangs in Ezra's room now).  We had pirate-themed food:  Salty Dogs (Hot Dogs); Barnacle Bounty (oyster crackers, goldfish, and pretzels mixed); Sally's Seashore Seashell Salad (Macaroni Salad); and a Pirate Cake.  And, of course, we had pirate music playing all the while in the background!  It was AWESOME!  The following photos are evidence of that statement:

three pirate wenches (my mom, sister, and myself)

the pirate king (please note the moustache he grew especially for the party and the chest hair)

the pirate king with his DRams and Big Popi

the Pirate King with his mommy and daddy

the Pirate King gives a meaningful look to mommy...

Currently Listening It Don't Mean a Thing If It Ain't Got That Swing By John Williams & the Boston Pops, Nancy Wilson see related

...an almost perfect evening...

the singing went well despite my frogginess.  you can see it here:  http://youtube.com/watch?v=ByHRWzFdYiM

this was ezra's first major league baseball game and he got to go to it not only with me and michael and jermey and haley killian and cole lyon, but with DRams and big popi (my parents) and big popi is a huge baseball fan so it meant a lot to him too.  they gave awards to ken griffey jr. and johnny bench (both of which were standing right behind us while we were singing the national anthem).  there was a fireworks display (another first for ezra) after the game (which the reds won!  yay!) that was just spectacular and on top of it all, ezra was just such a good boy (as usual).  of course, he didn't get to bed until 11pm, but it was well worth it.

the only imperfections of the evening:  my lingering cold and the extreme heat that gave all of us very sweaty butts.

the following are some photo hilights of our evening:

getting set up to sing

singing the anthem

the jumbo-tron shot

ezra with big popi

ezra with DRams

the game in progress at great american ballpark

ezra and mommy at the beginning of the game and at the end of the game

ezra watching his first fireworks display

leaving the stadium

heading home!

this just in...