First Day of School 2009

The post you have all been waiting for - first day of school.

It has been a crazy month of August while I have been frantically getting my room ready at the new(ish) middle school. We have taken over the old high school. I like my room even though it is considerably smaller.

It is hard for me to enjoy getting my kids ready on the first day as I am in a rush to be ready for my own students to arrive. This year Jason did the duties and took them all to school and to Ms. Molly's.

By the end of the day, Jason had finally sent me an email telling me about the morning. I was hysterically laughing and my advisory kids just looked at me like I had lost my mind - not anything new to them though.

Jason wrote:
While Ally and Drew were eating, I picked up Tana to start her bottle….ended up with an handful of s__t. She has a new outfit on…mine luckily survived.

Drew entertained us with his repertoire of standards jokes, but also added in an impression of a fish doing sign language. (by the way, did you know that one of our fish is currently named 'for free')

Parked at the back of a FULL parking lot and fought the crowd of parents escorting their kids to class and taking pictures at the door, the locker, their desk. Thought to myself that all these other parents were insane…….as I took out the camera and took pictures by the front of the building, at the lockers….

Ally basically couldn't get rid of me fast enough once we put her backpack in her locker. She kept trying to leg-hug me and run off to her room. I finally got a good hug at the entrance to her 'learning center' and sent her in.

Pictures from the day...
Our 1st grader! She is in Mrs. Matuska's class. She gets to see her kindergarten teacher as she also moved to North Bend Elem!

She has her own locker - just her size!

When did he get so big? Only 4 but this year might as well be his kindergarten year! He eats lunch with the big kids, he goes to music and before and after school with the older kids. Wow guess I won't have to cry next year.

He also has his own locker!

With the middle school move this year, we had to part ways. It is sad but they have their own place. I couldn't keep watch over them forever (even though sometimes I would like to!) They are open enrolled at North Bend Elementary - still in the Clear Creek Amana School District. It is on our way to work and only a few minutes from our house - so far after 4 days we love it!

It's Starting

Watch out world - it won't be long until this girl is moving fast. She has to be so that she can get away from the big kids.

She is rolling proficiently. We aren't sure if she will crawl or flop like a seal.

Loungin' by the Pool

This pool hasn't been used as much as we do on a typical summer, but this summer has been far from normal. But really what is normal - floods, hot weather, rainy? Tana doesn't usually get in since she is napping when the big kids play. She doesn't mind the water when we go to the pool, but doesn't seem to love it either.

Tonight we got out her floaty. She was chillin'. She loved it. Her little feet were kicking a mile a minute but still she was going nowhere. Next year will be interesting.

Iowa State Fair 2009

After a morning meeting at school, Jason came home early so that we could enjoy our last day before school starts as a family - at the FAIR! Now I know that I didn't start going to the fair until Jason and I met, but I thought I was the only one that hadn't been to the fair. We almost didn't go, but thanks to Uncle Chad who asked the kids when they were going - We didn't hear the end of that until we were in the van on our way to Des Moines.

This year we went through our typical route backwards since the first thing they wanted to do was the Little Hands Farm. We didn't get to play on the tractors or stay in the Varied Industry building as long as we would have liked, but we had fun.

The outside pictures are from this year. The inside picture is from 2006 - our first year back in Iowa. Wow have they grown! (click to make it bigger)

This year we let the kids play in the sprinklers since it was so darn hot! If it would have been okay for adults, I would have been in there too. I smelled rotten by the end of the day. Glad we took extra t-shirts to wear home!

We enjoyed some good fair food. We got a funnel cake that was gone in less than 30 seconds. Next year I am getting it when the kids go on the big slide so that I get more than 2 bites. Who ever the genious was that introduced them to funnel cakes is in trouble. I never get any of it! Our only regret is not finding the chocolate covered bacon on a stick - the trip would have then been complete.

Not a Hammie Down

Tana is the proud FIRST owner of her new high chair which I got on Ebay for half price of what it was in the stores! BRAND NEW! This is her first non-hammie down baby thing. It is cute and will fold-up and might last until we have some grandkids.

Love this quirky smile that says - I am kind of cool enough for you to snap this picture.

Tub Time

This picture captures it all! She loves to play in the tub. She can be screaming and screaming but put her in the water and all her cares go away for the moments that she gets to splash. We give her tubbies every night for this very reason! (It also makes her smell really good!)

Hats Hats Hats

One night while I was out, the kids were having some fun with hats. Ally was taking pictures of Tana with her camera with all the play hats on. Jason got out our camera to capture the kids all playing together. I guess he also captured our temporary kid Jonna also.

She is such a trooper for letting her brother and sister torture her!

The Last Time...

We ate in the living room with a good meal - not pizza - was BEFORE kids! Since the kids were gone, we enjoyed a baseball game while eating Sunday lunch. So much fun. It is the little things that we enjoy.

Isn't Tana cute in her cute ducky sun dress!

Jason Michael Hockenberry

Ah these are really late, but was a BIG event in our lives in August. One of our good friends had their first baby. Baby Jason (not named after my Jason, but after his daddy) was the newest baby I have every held except my own. Isn't Tana huge according to this 8lb 3.5 oz little guy! She is twice his size!

Drew wouldn't hold Tana when she was born, but BEGGED to hold Jason. When I asked if I could take him back - he told me no! I guess having a little sister around the house softened his little heart!

Baby Jason's first visitors. Our extra child (which I maybe willing to keep) is Hannah. She was babysitting for the day and wanted to head to the hospital to see the baby before we took her home. Mari was Hannah's 7th grade math teacher.

The Hockenberry Family - Mari Jason and Jason.

Eating Cereal

We decided to start Tana on some cereal. She isn't a big fan of plain cereal, but really likes it if we mix in some fruit. While the kids were gone, I made a TON of babyfood just sitting in the freezer waiting to be eaten up. So far she has enjoyed lots of veges and fruit. She makes some great faces and has gotten the hang of it.

Now for all of our family friends - does your mouth open just the way you want your baby's to open?

Watching Daddy Work

Jason has been busy all summer on our projects. One cool day, Tana decided to watch while I worked in the house. She enjoyed playing in her walker. She watched her Daddy dig and put rock around the house. Ally and Drew also entertained her as usual. Never a dull moment around here!

Tana thinks Drew is funny - you can imagine why. Ally is our little mother hen. Tana gets mad at her often since she is always so close.

Vacation 2009 - The Dells

Once again we headed to the Dells for vacation. Last year we went with Chris and Amy. This year we drug everyone else with us. We had our own room, but the rest of them stayed together - complete family vacation with Amy's shower getting interrupted in by my Dad. We let Amy pick the hotel again this year and she did a good job. This is an inside family joke - but really don't stay at the Country Squire something. It is not as nice as the internet makes it appear and that is why it is cheap. I would recommend the Atlantis which gave us free tickets to Mt. Olympus everyday.

Jason carrying Lauryn in the carrier - this was hers but is graciously letting us use it since our carseat was expired in January.

Mt. Olympus is an indoor/outdoor water and indoor/outdoor amusement park. Due to the strange and cold summer we were having it was nice to have all four options. This year we went in July to not get a cold week like last year, but we ended up with an even COLDER week. They set a record low high one of the days we were there. We braved the outdoor water park every day though - one day the high was 64. It isn't too bad after you lose feeling in your extremities.

Kaylee is in the first pink slide and Ally is in the yellow - click it to make it bigger.

This year Ally and Drew were tall enough for most of the roller coasters and could ride with us on all the slides. It took a little coaxing to get Drew on his first roller coaster, but he would drag us to them after that. After one Chad and I were a little sore and Ally's head hurt, but Drew was ready to head back up the stairs.

You could always tell that Ally was coming down the slide since she screamed her head off the WHOLE way down (with a smile on her face though). She loved the racer slides again and even got Kaylee to race with her. We never did get Drew up this one and Amy was also chicken.

We spent our evenings golfing and eating ice cream.

Family vacations are stressful, but fun - hopefully next year everyone will get to head to Arizona and California - maybe the whole Klaassen clan can join us - Hint hint. Forget the consession stand Chuck!

Being at a waterpark - the camera is not often out so enjoy the few pictures that we did have.