Matthias starts Kindergarten!

Today was the 1st day of Kindergarten for Matthias. What a day it was! The night before, we picked out his clothes. He chose a new Mario Kart T-shirt I got him and some comfy grey shorts. Good choice I thought! Kaylee and I had to go and wake him (and Daddy) up at 8:15. Erv slept on the bottom bunk in Matthias' room just to give him reassurance because Matthias was nervous about going to school. He was all smiles though the second he woke up! He was super pumped to put on the clothes he picked out. Hesitant about the new shoes, we decided we would just put them on later. He came down and chose Cookie Crisp cereal....I am just thankful any time I can get him to eat breakfast when he first wakes up!! Then he had a little cartoon time to chill and hang out with Kaylee while I packed his lunch. During this time it started raining pretty good so our plan to walk to school was changed to driving. Matthias put his lunch in his back pack and after some arguing, put on his new "school" shoes. He put oh his back pack and I just couldn't get over how grown up he looked. He was so cute with his Mario Kart back pack and Spiderman lunch bag!! Could this be the baby that I feel like I had just brought home from the hospital standing in front of me as a little boy ready for a new adventure at school?? Well we all loaded up in the van and Erv went in late so he could be a part of the ceremonial 1st day drop off for school. As soon as we got in the car Matthias practically begged and pleaded for us to take him home and not to make him go to school. He said his "tummy very hurts" and he needed to go home. We told him it was just jitters and he would be fine. We got to the school (just 3 blocks away) and took him in to find where all his classmates were meeting before going down to their class. He was crying and very upset about the whole thing and clung to me like glue. Then the time came for good byes and he was not ready for it. So I squatted down and gave him a big and kiss and told him in his ear that I loved him and he was going to have a super fun day at school and I wanted to hear all about it when it was over. I promised him that I would be there as soon as school was over. I then handed him over to Erv and Kaylee and I walked out the door. I figured he would put up much less of a fight/show for Erv. As Kaylee and I were waiting out side the door I could still hear him crying. An aide came over and helped Erv get Matthias headed down the hall in the right direction and then Erv came and joined Kaylee and I outside. We headed to the car and I fought back a couple tears but it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. You see....Matthias does this same song and dance every weekend at Sunday school at church, but has a blast and his happy he stayed every time. The teachers always tell me he stops crying as soon as I am out the door. So I was very prepared with what today would bring. I think Kaylee would have gladly went in his shoes today because she seemed a little jilted that she didn't get to go to school. She starts pre-school in a couple weeks and she can't wait!

So we went home and Erv left for work. I had invited some other kindergarten moms so we could all support each other. Surprising there were minimal if any tears and tons of laughter and friendships blooming. We had a great time while all our younger kids played together. When time came for pick-up some of us walked together to the school since the rain had quit.

I think the moment from today that will stay with me forever was when I saw Matthias come around the corner with his class in a line to come find their parents and he saw me there waiting for him like I had promised. Such a huge smile came across his face and I just had this overwhelming feeling of being so proud of him. Here he was, walking down the hall of his new school looking so big and little all at the same time. This was the moment that tears quickly rushed to my eyes. They were tears of joy over how proud I was and how happy I was to see how much he lit up when he saw me. I did not have my camera to capture that moment on film but it is forever burned in my heart. It will be the image that I will associate with this day for years to come.

He was so excited to tell me all about the happenings of the day and I just relished in every word he told me. Kaylee was very eager to hear all about it as well. I took the kids for ice cream and Kaylee and I listened as he told us about playing with marbles and tubes at one of the "centers" in his class, playing with balls and his friend Ryan at recess, getting to pick his own spot to sit at for circle time, and he was very proud to show me a picture he drew of himself and a butterfly. Oh, my sweet sweet boy.

Colorado fun!!!

Well, we have been in Colorado for 6 days now and we are having a blast!! Here is what we have done so far....on Saturday July 4th the small town near Erv and Marie's house called Allenspark has a 4th of July parade. Pretty much anyone that wants to be a part of the parade can be. Ahh, the joys of small towns!! So, we had a family effort to decorate the John Deere Gator as an entry in the parade. Uncle Tim made signs for that said "Nana and Papa's Lil Firecrakers" and Marie, Jaimie, and I decorated the gator with balloons and streamers that Tim and Kathleen picked up in town. Then Brune, Kaden, Matthias, and Kaylee all rode in the back of the Gator and threw out candy. They looked so darn cute and had a blast!!! Then that night we took the kids down to Estes Park to watch the fire works. We found a good spot to watch them from last year and we went to that same spot this year too. Rodney and Jaimie joined us for the show. It was late for the kids and after about 3 fireworks they asked when it would be over. The show was great and needless to say both kids fell asleep on the drive back.

Then Sunday we all went down to Aunt Kathleen's church where she is the pastor. After church we all went out for lunch at Perkins. We had quite an experience at Perkins! Some of Erv and Marie's friends joined us for lunch there, so we were a party of 16 in total. There were 2 other large parties there at the same time and the service took FOREVER and a lot of the orders were wrong when we finally got our food. Marie and I went up and talked to the manager and got our bill discounted. I did most of the talking and Marie said that I was a lot nicer then what she would have been! :-) I thought that was funny! Then we headed back to the house and lounged around for the rest of the day. We have had a lot of fun playing the game Ticket to Ride with Rodney and Jaimie and Jaimie and I have played lots of games of Scrabble. We have all played many many games of Uno with the kids too. Jaimie probably holds the record for the most games of Uno and she has a great story of one time she got up to go to the bathroom and came back to find that suddenly Matthias' hand was full of skips, draw 2 cards, reverses, and wilds.....little stinker!! He thought he had pulled a fast one!

On Tuesday Erv took the kids in the morning to ride horses at a near by stable. They are old enough now that he can take them on pasture rides so they both got a turn to do that. They had a blast! I had to stay home because I am VERY allergic to horses. I found out just how allergic last time we took the kids to that stable.....it was not good for me. So I opted out this time. Nana went along and took pictures for me. That same day in the afternoon we took the kids to a place in Estes Park called Trout Haven. They have a fishing pond and supply you with all you need to fish. Matthias has been asking for a long time to go fishing so we thought this would be a perfect opportunity to make that happen for him. The kids both got catch a fish and between them they caught 30 inches of fish!! It was a really fun time for all of us!! After we brought the kids home Erv and I freshened up and went with Rodney and Jaimie into Longmont and had dinner and went to movies. The girls went to see The Hangover and the guys went to see Transformers. Jaimie and I laughed soooo hard at The Hangover!! Our movie was over first so we went to Applebees for reverse happy hour and had a drink and laughed about some of the moments of the movie. It was a really fun night!

So, this brings us to today. The guys haven been cutting wood up. I took the kids on a walk, but about 5 min into it, Matthias said "I am exhausted" so it didn't last long. I just finished making enchiladas for dinner for everyone. Erv and I won't be here for dinner b/c we are going to his friend Matt's house near Denver for dinner. Matt is a college friend of Erv's and we always have a great time when we get to visit with him and his wife.

We made it to Colorado!!!

The Hesterberg family arrived in Colorado on Thursday afternoon. We left our house Wed evening and spent the night in Kearny NE. We stayed at a hotel that was beautiful in the lobby and dining area but the room we stayed in looked like the decor had not been changed (or cleaned very often) since 1978. However it was apparent that the beds were updated and looked very clean so we decided just to stay since it was already getting late and we had stopped at 2 other hotels to find no availability. It served the purpose! The kids did great in the hotel and loved every minute of it! We finished the drive on Thursday morning and arrived at Nana and Papa's house with out any issues. Once we got here Erv put his work clothes on right away and went out and surveyed what needed to be done. The big excitement is that we are going to be a part of the Allenspark 4th of July parade tomorrow morning. We will drive Papa's John Deere Gator and the grandkids (4 in all) will be in the back throwing candy. They could not be more excited!! I'm sure there will be pictures of this posted on Facebook when we get back home.

Adventureland and more

Well, since I have last blogged here is what has been going on. I had my first week of watching Graham again. For those that don't know Graham is an 8 month old little boy that I watch during the day. His mom got laid off and so I didn't watch him for a few weeks but she quickly found a new job and so I am back to watching him. Matthias and Kaylee were sooooo happy to have him back. They just love that little guy so much. We had a fun week of playing with a new slip and slide in the back yard and having Graham play in the baby pool. One night after Graham went home and Erv got home from work we took the kids to Adventureland. This is a local amusement park we purchased season tickets for. We had a lot of first this time when we went. First of all Matthias had been begging me to go on the ferris wheel with him and Daddy and Kaylee. I opted out the first time Erv took them on it (not to fond of heights!!). So when they wanted to go on again I told Matthias I would just wait for them and he said "Just try it one time mom and see if you like it." Little stinker used my own words against me that he often hears at dinner time!!! Any rate I still tried to stay behind but once he saw I was not following to get in line he yelled for me to come and get in line. So, I did. With my heart racing and terrified. Well, I survived and luckily I had dark sunglasses on so I closed my eyes a few times and they didn't know the difference.

Then on to a water ride because it was super hot. Matthias really wanted to go on the log ride and Kaylee went on once last year and was terrified and wouldn't go on again. However, she was jazzed to go on it this year and all four of us got on with Matthias and I in the front and Kaylee and Erv in the back. Matthias took the brunt of the splashes and was soaked. Then we rode the raging river for the first time ever and again Matthias (and me!) got the worst of it. Matthias didn't care one bit! He was loving it!!!

As for this weekend, we have been pretty low key and getting errands done to go out of town Wed night. We'll be headed for Colorado once Erv gets home from work on Wed to spend some time with his parents that are retired out there in the mountains. The kids could not be more excited to go. They love being out there and would certainly live there if I let them!

Matthias and Kaylee's sleep over at Uncle Rodney and Aunt Jaimie's

A big thank you to Rodney and Jaimie for watching the kiddies so Erv and I could attend his 25 year high school reunion in West Branch Iowa. The kids were soooo excited to go to their house. We had them pumped up about it so they were really looking forward to it. We thought Matthias was going to loose his second tooth while he was there but it came out just hours before we dropped them off. So the tooth fairy will be making a visit here tonight.

Erv and I had a great time at his reunion and I enjoyed having him show me around where he grew up. We went into the church that his dad was a pastor at and we looked around and took pictures. I also got to see (just from the outisde) the house they used to live in. We then walked around main street and looked at the antique shops. Then off to some shopping in the near by outlet malls. We got home just after dinner time and picked the kids up and they were wiped out from a fun filled day at Rodney and Jaimie's house. They were sacked out by 7:15. So tomorrow will bring a day of laundry and unpacking. We hope to find time for some fun family time for Father's Day.

Helloooo out there!

Okay here is my first crack at "blogging"! It seems like it is the thing to do and I can certainly type a lot faster than I can write. I have always wanted to journal but just don't find the time. So I figured I would try this out and see how it goes. I will start with the events of today...

Matthias had his second day of Safety City put on by the Waukee Police Dept. He was pumped because he got to ride a school bus and take a tour of the poice dept and fire house. He told me he got to use the fire hose and knocked over two chairs and sprayed a tree and the fire truck....he was ELATED to say the least! While he was at Safety City Kaylee and I hung out and I helped her string a necklace of beads. I asked her what she wanted to do with mommy time and that was her choice. Then we went for a walk (well I walked and she rode her big wheel). As soon as we stepped off the drive way it started to sprinkle and I thought it would quite so we kept going but it didn't. Oh well....no big deal. We still had fun on our walk. Although Kaylee insisted on bringing a little baggie of 4 pieces of candy and had to stop (in the rain mind you) to eat one periodically. :-)

I took both the kids to the zoo this afternoon despite the still dreary and drizzly appearace outside. We took umbrellas and we are glad we did....it rained on us but the kids were excited about using the umbrellas. We didn't stay long (we have a season pass so we can do that!) and we were pretty soggy once we got to the car but we had fun!!

Erv took the kids to Pizza Ranch for dinner and I went and had a hair cut. The kids LOVE Pizza Ranch and asked to go there and since it was kids night there we figured it would be a good night to go. I chowed on a bowl of my Kashi cereral which is OK with me b/c I love it!!!

On to our biggest news of the day..... drum roll..........Matthias lost his first tooth today!!!! It has been loose for sometime and he still has 4 more loose in his mouth. He is very excited to see what the tooth fairy leaves for him tonight. He is hoping for a whistle. If the tooth fairy has even a little respect or love for ME there will be no whistle!!! I am hoping for a dollar and then maybe a trip to the dollar store. Let's hope we don't see a whistle at the dollar store!!

Well...there it is! My first blog attempt ever!!