The Harward Family

Remember when I used to blog regularly? And post cute pictures of my tiny kids? And record the funny things they used to say? You don't? Well, I don't blame you. It's almost been 3 years 4 years since I've written on this thing! That's embarrassing...and pathetic...

I've been thinking about this little blog of mine, and how it was so therapeutic to write it while all my little kids were at home. And now, all my kiddos are in school. It's both awesome and hard. It's a hard transition. I thought it would be so heavenly and wonderful (and in a lot of ways it is! Like, I can clean my kitchen when the kids leave for school, and it stays clean until 4:00! Say what?!?! It's pretty awesome!) but it's also difficult because I kind of don't know what to do in this phase. I feel like I'm still busy. And I feel like I'm finally able to have a good handle on life (knock on wood), but I also feel like most of the world thinks the next step for me is to get a job outside of the home. And, I'll be honest, I don't see that happening. I'm not naive enough to think that 100% of my time over the last 14 years has been only taking care of kids. Someone has to do the grocery shopping, cleaning, appointment running, cooking, sick-kid caring, laundry, and everything else required to keep a household running. Adding a full time job to that does not sound good to me! When I was talking to Steven about this, he said something to the effect that this is the payoff for all the long hard years of having all the kids home all day. And I like that way of thinking!!

Ok, so I kind of feel like I should do a catch up for posterity's sake. Since, at this point, they will likely be the only ones reading this blog post. Do other people read blogs anymore? Doubtful! I'll try to write a couple new posts over the next couple weeks catching up all that has happened over the last 3 1/2 years! Until then, fingers crossed that I'll actually get back to this!

Amanda and Casey had a great idea to pack everyone up, meet in the middle, and camp together. We were happy to oblige. And are so glad we did. We had the best time, besides that it wasn't near long enough!

The Men-Folk setting up the camper

Steven was inside setting everything up and Ella was talking to him through this vent.

I love how comfortable and relaxing it is to just be in nature. We were the first ones to arrive at the campground, but the kids had a great time running around exploring while we waited for the Elmers and Nana and Grampy (and Brad and Jessica, who made it up a bit later).
Once the rest of the extended family got there, the party really started! These cousins have the best time together and get along fabulously! And during this trip I realized how much easier life has gotten since just a couple years ago. Almost all of the kids are old enough to entertain themselves, play great together, and explore with their 'buddies'.

And let's just take a minute to enjoy that picture above. Mainly, these two close-up's (below).

Nothing brings out the crazy like some awesome cousin time!!
The camp fire was a hit, no surprise there. The boys even roasted some apples.
Here's the Harward Herd to document our trip.
The entire trip was so relaxing and enjoyable. We were all in charge of one meal each, and everything flowed smoothly. The kids had such a great time, and got positively filthy! And the adults were able to talk, laugh, play games, hike with the kids and just BE. With no other responsibilities other than being there. It was totally awesome!

I wanted to take pictures of the cousin 'groups'. These two were the hardest to get a good picture of, even though they're some of the oldest and should be the easiest. But they're such characters, that this is the best I could get!
 The second group, with Claire included, was a bit easier, but not the best. These kids have such fun together!
And these two were by far the easiest. They don't care what you ask them to do. If they can do it together, they're happy about it. They gladly posed in this perfect pose for me, and were so cooperative!
And the last of the littles were so adorable! These two are just such a cute pair.

Addie loved being with Claire as much as possible. She is such a good little babysitter.
 See what I mean. Those two little cousins below are just too cute for words!
And Nana and Grampy were there. They're always the group favorite!
The kids spent most of the afternoon running through these woods playing all sorts of made up games.

It was such a great time and we're already talking about when we can go again!

I have resigned myself to the fact that if I wait to catch up on the summer things we did before I write about school, then I'll never get around to any of it. So, I'll just try to do little bits at a time, and they might not be in order, and, well...frankly my dear, I don't give a _ _ _ _ (can you tell that I've been reading Gone with the Wind?).

Meet the Teacher night, the night before school started.

So, the summer FLEW by. Way to fast. And before we knew it it was time to start school. Addie and Grant were super excited. Landon was pretty excited, but not really ready to give up the freedom of summer (and who can blame him?).

Three kids in school this year. Only Ella home with me. It's kind of crazy. In fact, it's really crazy! I feel like I've entered a new phase of life without agreeing to it. But it's been so nice. Ella is delightful (when she's the only one demanding my attention).
He loved the first day. On the second day of school he had a run-in with a kid who was feeling like being aggressive and Grant was pushed and hit quite a few times at recess, which made him very unsure about school for about a week (and that day he came home in tears saying that he had been 'bullied'). He got over it, and now enjoys schools, although he says he thought school would be more fun, and he still says he misses me SO much during the day (even last night, when I was tucking him in he begged me to come in and have lunch with him today because "sometimes other mom's come in and it reminds me of how much I love and miss you") we've had lunch with him quite a few times. He's learning so much and I'm so impressed with how far his reading has come. And he's learning that sometimes he gets in trouble for being the 'class clown'.
Addie is in the 3rd Grade and her teacher is Mrs. Luebcke. Her classroom is a Fire Station theme. It's pretty awesome (and I bet the boys in the class LOVE it!). Addie was happy to have some of her same friends from last year in her class this year. She's rarely in trouble and LOVES everything about school. Even the homework. She was bummed when Landon started coming home with homework after the 2nd day and she had to wait until after the 1st week. She rarely complains about doing school work, and I'm always impressed with her endurance with school work. Her love of school reminds me so much of me when I was her age. She's very social, and loves the organization and structure of school.

Landon is now in the 4th Grade (how in the WORLD did this happen?!?!). His teacher is Mrs. Deckard and he has transitioned nicely into her classroom. Her classroom is a Theater theme, which is adorable. Landon was a bit worried about missing Mrs. Pinto (the awesome teacher he had for 2nd and 3rd grade) but he still sees her in the halls and Mrs. Deckard is very loving and he really likes her. We're adjusting to the intensity of 4th Grade. A lot more is expected and he has already had to do a big project. He had to pick a country of his choice (he picked Scotland) and he had to write a paper on it (which had to included quite a bit) and give an oral report of his country, and make a brochure about his country. He loves doing that sort of thing, so even though it was kind of hard to get him to willingly devote time to working on it, when he was working on it, he enjoyed it and was very pleasant to work with. He asked Steven to go in and play the bagpipes for his class, which was, of course, a HUGE hit.

The next three pictures are funny to me because they show so clearly the stages my kids are in.
Addie cares very much about what she wears. And always has an opinion about how to fix her hair and what to wear. I'm learning to let her have her way more and more often (although, I'm opinionated about what she wears and how to fix her hair as well, and we don't always see eye to eye.)
Grant has a definite sense of style. And he has good style as well. He has only worn shorts one day this year, because he LOVES jeans, and really loves to layer things.
And Landon is too cool to put much thought into anything other than comfort. As much as I pleaded, I couldn't convince him to fix his hair and wear the adorable plaid shorts and cute shirt I had laid out for him for the first day. And, because I'm slowly learning how to do this mothering gig, I didn't push too hard, and let him wear whatever he wanted (which sadly, was hard for me to do! So, kudos to me).

Grant was so excited to ride the bus. And still loves riding the bus, although he gets a bit nervous that he might get on the wrong bus after school, but so far, we haven't had any problems.
And luckily, he has some awesome siblings who make sure he gets to his class every single day, and make sure he gets on the bus after school.

So far, this school year has been great. And it's flying by!

One day I will find the time and energy to update this blog properly. After all, we have had birthdays, school starting, soccer, and tons of other things that we need to document. And one of these days, I'll do it. {i hope}

 Addie adored every second she spent with Ms. Doan. Ms. Doan said that when trying to decide what award to give Addie, the word that kept coming into her mind was 'beautiful'. She said that not only is Addie a pretty girl, but she makes everything in life beautiful. She has a great outlook on life and is so loving and shares so much love with everyone she interacts with. I think Ms. Doan summed it up perfectly. Addie is a beautiful person!
Oh how I wish that Ms. Doan could just move up to 3rd grade with Addie!
 Landon had a very successful 3rd grade year. He had some awesome friends and a stellar teacher. He was blessed to have Mrs. Pinto for the past two years and has grown so incredibly much in those two years. We wish she would teach the high ability 4/5 class as well so we could have her for 2 more years!! (I was also lucky enough to be in a book group with Mrs. Pinto and loved being able to know her better and become friends with her).
 We had a great school year, but boy-oh-boy were we happy to welcome summer in!!

We celebrated by getting an ice cream on our way home from school and sleeping in the next day!