‘I was shocked’

Lori Armstrong has been known to tell the kids in her Greenfield daycare that you “get what you get and you don’t throw a fit.” So, when she received a surprise party in her honor congratulating her on over 40 years of service as a daycare provider, Armstrong didn’t throw a fit.

Keri Meisenheimer grew up going to Lori’s Daycare in Greenfield. She has since worked as Armstrong’s assistant intermittently since high school. So, there was probably nobody better to plan a celebration to appreciate Armstrong’s devotion to the community than her.

Meisenheimer pulled off a surprise party for Armstrong last Saturday at Sixteen Oaks. Armstrong, 64, isn’t retiring yet.

The party was advertised in the Adair County Free Press and in a secret event on Facebook and both slipped past her gaze.

“It was a very nice surprise. I was just shocked,” Armstrong said.

While her precise start date isn’t known, Armstrong and her husband Scott began the daycare in their home with three children, in addition to their own three children. Several years later, a small house around the corner from theirs went up for sale and they purchased it so they could have a daycare house.

Past daycare children and their families all gathered at Sixteen Oaks in Fontanelle, where the party was held.

“I can’t tell you how many kids have come through [my daycare]. We have a running list started of all the kids I can remember that I watched,” Armstrong said. “I had some of the older daycare kids double check it with me to see if they could think of anybody else, but we have a running list started.”

Many kids on that list are now adults. Some of their children now attend Lori’s Daycare. A good segment of individuals on the list came through the line Saturday.

“I started with Lori when I was 6 weeks old, so I knew what an undertaking making that list would be. I started making a list of kids I remembered who attended with me, all the way up to working for her presently. I spoke to a few others who gave their input of who they remembered as well. This then brought up the idea to have a daycare reunion,” Meisenheimer said. “Although Lori isn’t retiring yet, I wanted it to be an early retirement party as she is starting to slow down purposely. She is always graciously providing for the children in her home, and even her employees, so I wanted it to be her turn.”

Armstrong got her start as a daycare provider because she wanted to be able to stay home with her own children. When she began, she purposed that she was going to do things with her daycare children that she enjoyed doing with her own kids.

“I didn’t want them in a center where everything was so controlled,” Armstrong said. “We go to the park, we go to the pool or we do field trips. I’ve taken them to the fair the last several years and we have a picnic at the lake. This year, my husband Scott took the day off and took them down a couple at a time and fished with them.”

For many of the years she has been in operation, Armstrong has been a certified provider with the State of Iowa. That means she has certain requirements to follow and continuing education certificates to maintain. With this, there are areas where the state guides and supports her as she serves her families.

“I didn’t register for awhile,” Armstrong said. “There are a lot of hurdles to being registered but there are some benefits to it.”

Armstrong will readily say “it’s not just her” who keeps the daycare going. It takes a family to do it.

“Scott has helped me set up many, many activities and games that I do with the kids. He’s helped me get it all set up and ready to go for the next day. When my kids were little, not only did they have to share their mom, they had to share all their toys,” Armstrong said. “It takes a family to do a daycare. I was just lucky all my kids liked kids. It helped a lot when we moved to the other house because then I could come home at night.”