The Hutchinson Family: 4th of July

What a weekend! Totally exhausting and totally F-U-N! We kicked off the weekend with a parade at Open Arms. Ryan was the leader of the pack for his class and went by me with no problem, but when he saw Riley run over to me, he melted and needed me too…so I joined in the parade and walked with their class. They were so cute in their 4th of July gear!

When we got home we grabbed Daddy and headed to the pool for a night of swimming and pizza by the pool. They are doing so great with their swimming and can now go several feet under water without us touching them. The love jumping in and swimming to us. We are so thankful for how far they have come.

Saturday morning started out with swim lessons and then straight to the movie theater to see Toy Story 3! They were so excited because Lori, Katharyn and Paul went with us – so that made it even better. They made it through the whole movie and the only part that wasn’t perfect was that we made 3 trips so the bathroom – but not a bad outing for us! I was so proud of them watching their 2nd movie in a theater.

We went to the pool on Saturday after naps. The kiddos got in the pool with Kevin and Ryan was on the stairs. When I walked over to the pool, I saw Ryan just standing in the shallow end with the water totally over his head. I panicked and yelled for Kevin since I was frozen. He kindly yelled for me to jump in (as our neighbor also did) and I grabbed him out of the water. He was totally fine – just scared. He never even coughed one time, so I know he was holding his breath when he went under. Again – thank goodness for the swim lessons where they have learned how to hold their breath! To add insult to injury, I slipped with Ryan in my arms as I was getting out of the pool. Since I had him in my arms, I didn’t even put my arms down to break the fall. Ryan was totally sheltered, but I jolted my whole body and ended up with several bad bruises up and down my left side. Not a fun way to start off our pool visit. But the good news is that Ryan immediately asked to get back in the water – so we did – and there was never a hesitation in this sweet little boy! Yay!

Sunday, the Fourth, started out early as we went to Peachtree Road to watch Daddy in the race! My office had a water table, so we all helped pass out water. It was really a lot of fun and they were so excited to see Daddy. He stopped and gave all of us a sweaty hug and a kiss! We are all very proud of him – he finished the 10k in 53 minutes – his best time. He looked it up and he finished in 5905 place!

After the race, it was back to Dupont Commons to join the annual parade. I think the numbers double every year and this year was no different. There had to be at least 100 people there. Everyone looked so great in their red white and blue!

After the parade, the neighborhood had a huge pool party with a live DJ and games and food. There were tons of people and we had a great time with everyone! Riley even got out of the pool and danced – it was so cute! After this it was time for naps – all 4 of us slept hard for several hours and then it was back up and time to party a little more. We had friends over for dinner and it was a great night – complete with watermelon star popsicles that I made and they turned out so cute if I might say so myself! We made it up to the cemetery behind our neighborhood to watch the fireworks. We were able to see 5 different fireworks displays and the kids loved it! They even held sparklers for the first time!

We have been in recovery mode today from all the festivities and were very thankful we were all off today! We went out for a family breakfast and then we all napped at different times. We ended the day with a visit from Gran-daddy and a good dinner of leftovers from the cookout. Looking forward to a great short week and then off to the beach on Saturday for a week! So ready for a vacation and are just keeping our fingers crossed that the oil situation in the Gulf won’t be too bad. Happy 4th…