Summer, So Far

Life is exhausting with three kids at home. I know that people have four, eight, twelve kids, but I am still finding life with three home full time to be a lot of work. Every night I write out tomorrow's schedule on a whiteboard. It usually looks something like this:

7        Breakfast, get dressed, tidy LR/DR, brush teeth
9        Morning Nap for Noah
10      Morning walk/bike/roller blade
10:30 Morning Snack
11      Summer School
12      Lunch
12:30 Afternoon Nap/Quiet Time
2ish   Afternoon Fun Activity
3:30  Afternoon Snack
5       Dinner Prep, feed Noah, bathe Noah
6       Dinner
6:30  Noah to bed, playtime with Daddy, brush teeth, tidy LR/DR/BR
7:30  Stories, bedtime

Since Noah wakes up around 5:30 every morning (UGH), he's on a bit of a different schedule than the rest of us. He is ready for bed by 6PM, so I try to feed him some dinner a little earlier, then he sort of has a second dinner with us at 6 while I scarf down my food, trying to finish before he cranks completely. It's not ideal, but no matter what I do or when I put him to bed, I cannot seem to get him to sleep past 5/5:30. Anyways, our afternoon fun activity comes from our Summer Bucket List. It has over 100 items on it that involve games, activities, outings, projects, etc. We've had a wonderful time so far with each activity we've done. The kids love waking up in the morning and checking the whiteboard to find out what the surprise activity will be. I love the structure that this schedule gives our days. In two weeks the kids will start swimming lessons every morning so I'll have to adjust a few things. I like that their days are pretty structured, but they have a good amount of free time for play, as well. Summer school is pretty laid back. Nate had some math skills that he needed to work on over the summer and Abbie really wanted to do summer school, too, so I put together binders for each of them. Nate is working on his multiplication math facts, so he starts with flash cards every day. Then their binders have worksheets in sheet protectors (so that they can do them multiple times) of which they do 1-2/day. After the worksheets, Abbie completes a writing assignment. Right now she's working on capital letters. Nate continues with his math worksheets or does another fun number activity I've created for him. They both really seem to enjoy it and I like that they are keeping their skills up over the summer.

Our days are unbelievably busy, especially because somewhere in there meals have to be prepared, laundry done and the house cleaned. Not to mention groceries bought and other random errands run. Oh yes, and then there's Noah. I'm trying to find a balance between fun-busy and ready-to-jump-off-a-cliff busy for me. The kids have a blast every day; I'm the one who might not survive the summer! Looking at the schedule, it seems like there should be time for a shower or a phone call to a friend or even a hobby (gasp!), but in the day to day of it all, I can't seem to find it. I do look forward to a time when I might actually set foot in my craft room again or read one of the books I check out from the library before I return it. Maybe in September?

I wonder if this violates child labor laws?

One of our summer activities was making Tin Can Phones

Sumo Wrestling (in Daddy's shirts and pillows) was another one of our summer fun activities

Summer School

Just a quick shot showing how well Noah stands on his own now

Sprinkler time has definitely made hot afternoons go better