Everyday in the Life of the Harts

Tuesday, August 16, 2011

School Year Begins - 2011

This is a monumental school year for the Hart family. 2011 is the first year that has all 4 kids in the same school - all day long! My babies are now in kindergarten! I started realizing how hard it was going to be about a month ago. Up until then I was only looking forward to the "no kid" days. There is something hard about seeing all of your little ones leave the house and knowing that you are no longer their major influence throughout the day. That's when we get on our knees and give them over to God and have faith that He will provide what is needed throughout the day.

We took the kids to school last night to unpack their backpacks and to meet their teachers. Here are Maddie & Will in their classroom.

Here's Alex...

And here's Katie (super excited to be on the main floor this year!)

Matt & I dreaded the first day of school, mainly for the fact that we'd have to get up early and get all 4 kids dressed, ready, fed and out the door by 7:30. Today we were blessed by cheerful kids (well, for the most part) and an abundance of time! It was rather nice - and we know that won't always be the case!

Here are their "first day of school" pics...

Katie - 4th Grade

Alex - 2nd Grade

Will - Kindergarten (nice smile, huh!)

Maddie - Kindergarten

All 4 kids - ready for the day!

Splashing in Lake Hart

Whenever we get a big rain storm or ice melt, we end up with a HUGE puddle of water at that end of our driveway. Katie has forever called this "Lake Hart". Last week, we had a huge rain/thunderstorm come through. When the bad stuff had passed, I could see the sun shining on the dark clouds to the east. I ran to the front of the house to see if we could spot a rainbow. I couldn't find a rainbow, but I did see that Lake Hart was back. I told the kids to get their flip-flops on and we all headed outside to play. The kids LOVED this time outside...

Trains, Trains, Trains!!

One of our neighboring cities, Rock Island, IL, hosted a train show a few weeks ago. Matt took Will one day to see the trains up close. We knew that Will would be in heaven...and he didn't prove us wrong!

Matt asked Grandad if he would be willing to go as well...as a favor to us. Matt was on call for work. There is always the possibility that he will get called and have to leave. He asked Grandad to come and be there for Will in case he had to leave. In the end, Matt didn't get any calls. Matt & Grandad both agreed that this was something special for Will and loved being a part of that for him.

Vacation Bible School - Family Fun Night

Heroes of the Faith was the theme for this year's vacation bible school at Harvest Bible Chapel. Once again, an awesome week was had...over 500 kids & volunteers in attendance!! Amazing!

As tradition holds, the last night of VBS is "Family Fun Night". We meet in the sanctuary to watch a video, sing the songs from the week and hear a short message from Pastor John. After this, we all head outside to play! This year, the church had organized to have many of our local heroes on site. The kids loved it (and I think it's safe to say that many of the adults enjoyed it too!).

Will spotted something! Not sure what could be better than climbing around an Army truck!! For him, he probably saw the fire engine!

Here are Katie & Alex...I love Alex's eyes! The gear was VERY heavy!

Maddie didn't want to do any of the "hero" stuff...but she enjoyed playing in the jump houses and running around with her balloon!

Watching a Movie Outdoors!!

Matt & I have always enjoyed going to a drive-in to watch a movie outdoors. We've often said that we need to take the kids to one - looked forward to the day when we could. However, the movies tend to run so late and our kids are usually early to bed. Not a good combination.

When I read that "Cars 2" was coming to one of our "local" (40 minutes away) theaters, I asked Matt what he thought about taking them to see it. We decided to give it a try. We knew that it would be a trial run and our night did indeed have some kinks to it...but we felt that it was a success over all. Next time we will know to take more snacks (or become friends with the neighbors who, literally, had 2 tables set up full of food!!), a bigger radio and jackets/blankets (who would've thought that we'd be cold after the sun went down...with 85 degrees during the day!). We look forward to going to more movies next summer.

Here are the kids riding on the free "train". Definitely a highlight for them.

Ready to watch the movie!!