Hospital House Reunion

Me, Brooke Kandel, Jennette Claassen, Carrie Fisher Stalter

My senior year in college was my best year - when I bonded most with whom I hope will be my life long friends.  We lived off campus in a house called Hospital House, since it was right next to the hospital.  The house was since moved to a new location, and has actually become an official on-campus house owned by the college, but the memories of our year together live on.  In the past, we've joked about our vision of the future...sitting in our rocking chairs together, on some big front porch, when we're old and tired, and sipping our iced tea and eating pumpkin bread.

What a contrasting image, however, to our reunions these days!  So far, between all of us, we have 6 kids, (7 counting one of us who lives in Budapest who unfortunately, for obvious reasons, is only able to join us in spirit...or these days, Skype.)  And, more kids are definitely expected in the future and I'm afraid we might soon be out numbered.

The kids range in age from 1 to 5.  As you can imagine, one of them is always either hungry, napping, hurt, or arguing.  So, we tend to hang out in one location and not venture out too much.

Oliver Claassen (1), TJ (5), Xavier Cisco (5, barely), Samuel Claassen (3 1/2), Luka (3 1/2), Anika Cisco (2)

This year, we had the privilege of crashing Brooke and Kumar's new pad in Indy, and crash we did.  (I think we ran the dishwasher at least 2x per day.)  Jennette and Kevin Claassen, Samuel and Oliver came in from California.  Carrie and Travis Stalter came in from Illinois, and the Gunden Schmuckers, of course, were already here.  Almost 3 full days of getting reacquainted!

We spent a ton of time in the backyard - chasing the kids, playing baseball with the kids, watching the kids ride their scooters and bikes, and laughing at ourselves and how we must sound trying to discipline them when we're too lazy to get up and actually take care of the situation.  (Now that, I wish, we had on video.)

One afternoon, we convinced Kevin and Travis to take the four older kids to see the movie Toy Story 3.  As the story goes, each kid got their own pop, candy, and popcorn.  Wish we would have had a picture of that...with them all lined up in a row in the theater.  The moms did get some great (almost) interrupted girl time, except for the occasional typical Oliver 1-yr old crisies.

We also celebrated Xavier's 5th birthday, with a pinata and cupcakes, which the kids loved, of course.  Xavier and TJ originally had due dates that would have put them two weeks apart.  They got spread out a bit more, of course, when TJ arrived early, so gestationally, they are almost exactly the same age. 

Notice the dirty fingernails.  The kids were up until midnight almost every night.  Who wants to take (or give) a bath at that hour?

A big salut to old-time friends!