1st Day of School

Today is the 1st day of school for the Ankeny School District. My, this summer has flown by quickly. All three of my children are now in school with my youngest starting kindergarten. It's hard to believe....they grow up so quickly.

Benjamin was super excited for school to start this morning. Dropping him off went well. He did everything that he needed to do, but looked somewhat nervous when I left his classroom. For David, this was like any other school day. Isabel, however, was very nervous when I dropped her off. She started middle school today and will be switching classroom and teachers. I gave her a pep talk before dropping her off reminding her that she is not the only one feeling that way and that she would have a great day. I don't know if it helped her not....we shall see.

Non Stop Fun

Non Stop Fun. That is the theme for this years Iowa State Fair. Isabel and I attended the Iowa State Fair on Thursday afternoon. Despite the heat and very high humidity (which made it feel like 107-110 outside) we had lots of fun. The first thing we did at the fair was to go into the agriculture building and see the butter cow along with a butter sculpture of Dr. Suess' Green Eggs and Ham.


We followed this up by going to the midway so that Isabel could ride some rides. The midway had some very nice rides this year, much nicer than the last time we went to the fair several years ago. The only down side to the nicer rides is that it cost more to ride on them. Isabel was able to ride on the giant wheel (a big Ferris Wheel), the water bumper cars, and walk through a fun house.
Next, we walked through the animal barns to see the cows, horses, pigs, lambs, etc. We were able to see an extremely large boar.



After walking through the animal barns we returned to the midway so that Isabel could play one of the games. After walking around the midway looking at the different games, Isabel decided on the one where you throw darts at balloons and try to pop them. She was very smart in her choice of games because this particular game allowed children to play until they won. Isabel ended up winning a medium sized stuffed animal of her choosing. She choose and blue and white dog.

We then made our way to the Anderson Erickson Dairy Stage to wait for KCCI to start their 5 o'clock news broadcast live from the fair. While waiting, we were entertained by some acts from the Bill Riley Talent Show. After the 5 o'clock news was over, Isabel and I headed home.

It was very nice to be able to go with just Isabel. Hopefully, this is something that we will be able to do again in the future.

Road Construction

Sections of the road on which we live on has been under construction since the beginning of June. Yesterday, the road construction crew started working on the road right in front of our house. We no longer have access to our driveway and now have to park in the street a couple of blocks away.

Yesterday, the crew tore up half of the road, along with the end of our driveway.


Today, the crew is working on the other half of the street. The information given to us states that all of this should be done by the middle of September. However, knowing that first part of this project isn't even completed yet (due to all of the rain that we have had this summer), I'll be surprised if everything is finished by the beginning of October.

It's Been a while

It's been a while since I have last blogged. I have gotten out of the habit and life has also gotten busier for me. With Benjamin turning 5 this past spring, he has started to participate in various activities. With all 3 kids now participating in various sports and other school events life has gotten fairly hectic.

I am hoping to get back into the habit of blogging again. Hopefully at least once a week. Only time will tell if this will be the case or not.

Snow Days

Living in Iowa, it is expected to have snow days during the winter season. Typically, the Des Moines School district will have 1 to 2 snow days during any given school year. Some years have less and some years have more, just depending on the severity of the winter.

This winter the Des Moines area has been hard hit with winter weather which has caused the Des Moines School district to cancel school 2 days in December and a whopping 4 days so far in January for a total of 6 snow days so far this school year. In the 15 years that I have worked for the school district, we have never had this many snow days. We will now to go school until June 16th (baring any more snow days).

However, given the extended forecast, nature is not working in our favor. We are aimed to be hit by another storm this weekend and then again possibly in the middle of next week.