It has been a long time since I have done a day in the life post and when I asked you ladies what you would like to see on the blog, this was a popular response!  My last one was in 2021, almost 1.5 years ago, and of course our schedule is always changing! 

Each day of the week is different for us of course, so I just chose a random day.  This day I chose was Wednesday, March 8th.  Here we go…

7am My alarm goes off and I start to get out of bed and so does Matt.  Brody sets his alarm for 6am, so he is already awake.  He likes to have plenty of time in the morning and likes to get a shower to wake him up and give himself a little time to watch a show and chill. It cracks me up sometimes, but I love his discipline.  Madelyn is usually up on her own a little before 7am and she gets herself dressed and Molly always needs to be woken up.  She is my late sleeper in mornings. 

730am Matt likes to scramble some eggs in the morning if we have time.  Both girls love eggs too, so he makes them all some scrambled eggs. Brody has usually already grabbed something for breakfast by now.  Cereal or some little mini muffins he loves from Publix. 

740am I am dressed in my tennis outfit for the day and am making all 3 kids lunches and getting their water bottles ready for school.  All 3 kids like something different for their lunch “sandwich” at the moment.  Brody still wants a grape jelly uncrushable, Madelyn likes turkey on a Hawaiian roll, and Molly likes a few Ritz crackers with a cut up mozzarella stick at the moment! 

8am It’s time to leave the house.  On a typical school morning when Matt is in town, he usually brings the two big kids to school and I will bring Molly.  But on this specific morning, we swap roles because I have to be up at the big kids school for a special project in Madelyn’s classroom. 

815am I drop the big kids off at school and park to go inside and help their class get ready for the big Wax Living Museum project they did.  This was the cutest project Madelyn’s class did this year.  Each kid was given someone famous to research in class and write their own speech, make their own costume and learn about.  Madelyn gets Tom Brady (she was given a large list and picked her top 3 that she would like to research) and this is the day that she gets to come “alive.”  I was there to watch the living museum as they had classes from different grades come through and press their buttons and they come alive and read their speech that they wrote.   

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I am taking it old school today and randomly shot photos for a “day in the life” post from last Thursday.  I haven’t done one of these in a long time and now since the kids are getting bigger, just started back school and we are getting into a bit of a routine; I thought it might be fun to share.  We have also started our Fall activities and this is the first season that I have let the big kids do more than one “extra-curricular” activity at a time (Brody is doing soccer and tennis and Madelyn is doing soccer and ballet), so life is getting busier.  Here is a simple look at our day.

7am  Alarm goes off and kids are slowly rolling out of bed. I throw on some workout clothes, head into the kitchen to start getting lunches ready and breakfast going for the kids. The big kids are both pretty awesome at coming downstairs dressed and ready for school.  Brody is great at it and Madelyn (almost 6) is getting so much better. It helps me out tremendously in the mornings.  Ideally, we have laid out their clothes the night before in their room so they know exactly what to put on in the morning.  For Molly, she likes to sleep in the latest; so I usually have to go wake her up myself upstairs and I grab her clothes for school then.

730am  I heat up waffles or pancakes for the kids and everyone is eating and grabbing socks and shoes to put on before its time to leave. 

8am We are heading out the door.  Matt drops the big kids off to school for me on his way to work and I take Molly. 

820am I am back home and it is such a gorgeous morning outside with a tiny bit cooler temps.  The cleaning ladies are here to clean the house this morning (they come once a week) and I go outside to the porch with my computer and coffee and do a little computer work from outside.

1015am I head to my weekly tennis lesson. I just started back playing tennis last Spring (and then took the summer off), but it has felt so good to hit again.  I am really only playing once a week right now for an hour and its just a fun lesson with friends, but I am loving it!

1145am I came home starving because I had no eaten yet.  I toasted some Daves Killer bread and reheated these Chicken Koftas I had made earlier in the week.  They were so good and easy. I added a little avocado, a fried egg on top and squirted with some sriracha. Recipe below was from Dining by Kelly.

Recipe for Chicken Kofta
1 lb ground chicken
1/2 yellow onion, diced
3 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 cup fresh parsley, chopped
1/2 tsp ground coriander
1/ tsp red pepper flakes
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp kosher salt
1 lemon, zested

Directions:
Over medium heat, saute onions and garlic in a little oil for a few minutes. Combine everything together.  Form small handfuls of the mixture into about 4 in cylinders.  Heat a pan to medium high heat with some oil and sear on all sides about 1-2 minutes per side. Put into the oven at 400F for 10 minutes.

1230pm I sat down at my desk to make some lists, knock out a little more work and write a thank you card. (list note pads and stationary are from Joy Creative Shop.)

I also opened some packages from the house and got the cutest package for the kids from Little English. I cant wait to share this one with you guys for some cute Fall attire.

230pm All the sudden, 230pm rolls around quickly and its time to start picking up kids from school and gear up for an afternoon of sports! I have been soo lucky so far this year because our nanny from the summer time has been able to come help us in the afternoons after the kids get out of school.  So she makes all the running around so much easier   So I grab Molly from school and she picks up the big kids for me. 

3pm We meet back at home and its time for a quick snack and then Brody gets ready for tennis while she hangs with the girls. 

330pm I take Brody to tennis and watch for a bit and run to the post office real quick before its time to pick him back up.

440pm Brody and I get back home and its time to pick Madelyn up for soccer practice and I drop Brody off back at the house with Molly and the sitter.  I take Madelyn to soccer practice for 5pm and watch her practice. 

545pm  Lucy our sitter drops Molly and Brody back to the soccer field to me on her way home.  We finish up Madelyns soccer practice and Matt shows up from work to catch the very end.  We finish up and all walk over to Brodys soccer practice. 

6pm Brodys soccer practice starts and we can tell it is about to start raining. So Matt and Madelyn stay with Brody at practice and I head home with Molly to try to get dinner going before they get home.

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It has been ages since I have done a ‘Day in the Life’ post!  I thought it would be fun to pick a day and share it on here.  These pictures were from this past Tuesday, May 4th.  For the last 2.5 months or so, I have had Molly (the baby) home with me on Tuesdays and Thursdays.  So we have slowly gotten ourselves into a pretty good routine each week.  On MWF’s she goes to our little preschool from 9-1pm.

7:15am The whole family is waking up.  We are not very organized.  It is generally a mad dash to get everyone fed breakfast, dressed and lunches made before we walk out of the door.

8:10 am On this particular morning Matt was able to take Brody and Madelyn to school for me which is always a huge help.  This varies day to day with his work schedule.  Sometimes he can just get out the door with Brody for me because he has to be at school at 8:20 and the big girls don’t have to be there until 9.

8:30am Since Molly was home with me today (and she was still sleeping), I didn’t have to drive anywhere; so I went upstairs and started my workout! I usually try to workout in the workout room anywhere from 40min to 60min changing between the tread+, bike and a little floor work.

*I am working on a whole post for you guys about fitness, peloton equipment review, and diet here soon.  In short, I have really spent the last 4 months focusing on my fitness and routine and it has felt SO good! It has been so helpful having one of my best friends as my workout buddy and makes working out more fun and helps hold us accountable! I highly recommend

10am After we workout, we love to try and go do a 3 mile walk while the weather has been so beautiful.  So we put Molly in the stroller and went for our walk. This is her when we found a turtle on the sidewalk.  Also notice that she rolled out of bed, watched a little bit of a show while we were working out and is in her pajamas still for our walk.

11:15am I was starving when we got home from our walk and made us some scrambled eggs. Matt and I had grilled steaks the night before and had leftovers, so I cut some up to put in my eggs.  And then put a scoop full of cottage cheese for added protein.  I honestly hate cottage cheese but love it in my eggs. Don’t knock it til you try it.

Molly LOVES avocado, so she had that with her eggs and then I had a little with mine plus some EBB seasoning on top!

115 pm I take Molly with me to go run some errands.  I needed to run to Pizzaz (our local gift shop) to grab a few gifts for Mother’s Day and some teacher gifts.  She was my little sidekick and had so much fun shopping around the store.

230pm Time to pick up the big kids from school. They have been loving going to the park between school and our house lately, so we see some friends at pick up and ask if they want to meet us at the park for a little bit.  So they play here for an hour or so while I visit with their Mom’s for a bit.

330pm Some of our friends from the park come over afterwards for a little bit so they can jump in the pool for an hour or so before dinnertime! So we sit outside and visit while the kids swim.

530pm I tell the kids to shower up, get in pajamas and play while I start dinner.  I have just recently started back try Hello Fresh for 2 meals a week.  I was just tired of meal planning and thought this could be a nice change up.  So I made these Philly Beef melts and they were actually pretty taste and husband approved.  He had his on the hoagie roll that was sent and then I made mine into a bowl over cauliflower rice! I actually loved it.

I keep it simple with cauli rice and just use these microwavable bags!

Beef, peppers, onions and pepper jack cheese with a mustardy sauce.

Mine over cauli rice

645pm I was feeling pretty pooped, so I laid on the couch for a minute and in no time, this one was right on top of me!

8pm We brought all the kids up to bed at around 8 and read our books and did our prayers and said goodnight!!!  This always feels like an hour long process! So whatever time we finished all that, I was ready for bed myself!! Matt and I crawled into bed and turned on Ted Lasso on Apple TV.  We just started it this week and are liking it okay.  I haven’t found anything I like lately the way I loved Yellowstone

Pretty boring day, but a pretty standard one!!  You can find all of our Day in the life posts here which are fun to look back on.  It has been 3 years since I have written my last one. That is sooo sad! But also go back in look at the one I did where I filmed a whole day on video! haha. Day in the Life VLOG

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It is that time of year again and the kids are heading back to school.  I find that by mid-August a lot of kids are ready to get back to school and I know most of us parents are too!!!

I use the back-to-school time as a time to reset, refresh or start a clean slate.  I love to organize, shop, and get our life back on a schedule and a good routine.  I have been an organizing machine since Brody started Kindergarten because I wanted to make sure we had all of our systems in place to ensure a smooth transition.

Today I wanted to share some amazing finds from Walmart’s Back to School line this year and then walk your through our new morning routine to try and stay on track.

When it comes to my kids clothes, I like things simple (aka no graphic or character t-shirts) and preppy.  I was so excited when I was exploring Walmart’s Back to School that I found that they have an entire “uniform shop.”  My kids do not wear a uniform to school, but the whole section is full of great dresses, skirts and tops for the girls as well as shorts and collared shirts for the boys.  The prices are AMAZING.  I also love that so many products offer a 2-day shipping option.

Madelyn’s Outfit
Dress | Shoes | Red Bow | Socks | Lunchbox

They have so many cute options for both boys and girls.  We found that the girls dresses and collared shirts both ran small, so be sure to size up on those.  Madelyn is in the XS (4-5) and she really should have gotten the 6.  I can’t speak highly enough about these grosgrain hair bows either.  We are always needing hair bows around our house.  This is a 40 pack for less than $12.

Navy Polo | Khaki Shorts | Navy Dress | Red Bow | Red Shoes | White Shoes | Black Tennis Shoes | Brown Boat Shoes

Our mornings start a little earlier this year now that Brody is in Kindergarten.  He is late by 8:20am which means we try to be out the door a few minutes before 8 am.

I found that giving him some structure in the morning really helped to keep things running smoothly. We use this morning checklist below every morning.  He now knows that as soon as he wakes up, he needs to potty, brush his teeth and get his clothes on for the day before he comes downstairs to the kitchen.

(free printable via)

We started picking out outfits for the entire week on Sunday evenings. We use these weekday hanging tags  (click link for free printable) and had them laminated.  We hang the tag on his outfit for each day.  Our closet space is a bit tight, so we use a garment rack to hang the clothes for the week.  So the kids grab their outfits for the day, get dress and then they can come down for breakfast.

It helps so much to have the kids completely dressed and teeth brushed before they make it down stairs for breakfast.  I am usually already downstairs and getting started on their lunches.  Before the school year started, I stocked up on some of our school favorites.  The kids love the variety of a Bento Box and I try to make it fun for them.  I bought these silicone cupcake holders this year to use in their boxes.  They are perfect for sauces, special treats or an extra little space you may need.

We love using cookie cutters for the kids sandwiches.  They are perfect for getting the crust off of sandwiches and they make it fun! This little gadget is perfect for cutting cherry tomatoes or grapes and these new silicone holders are great for freezing yogurt for their lunch boxes!

Once those lunches are packed, and the kids are completely dressed; they eat a quick bite of breakfast and off we go.  We have tried to keep things easy for breakfast.  It is usually just a frozen waffle, yogurt, muffins or some cereal.  None of my kids seem to eat a ton at breakfast time, but I just like them to have something before they head to school.

I hope this helps! I asked you guys on instagram what your best tricks were for the morning.  All of these were pretty much ideas that you guys gave to me.  Another big one that you said was to not allow any TV in the mornings when you are trying to get out the door early.  I think that definitely helps from any added fights when it is time to turn it off!

Thank you Walmart and Reward Style for sponsoring this post. 

:: SHOP THE POST ::

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I can’t believe its been a year since I have done one of these posts.  I know they are always a popular read and I always love reading other peoples.  They are really fun to look back on too!  I loved looking back and reading this one as we adjusted to life with two kids and my most popular video on my YouTube channel is that time I attempted to make a Day in the Life VLOG!  It’s really terrible quality and one day I’m going to do another one because I think my skills have improved!  Anyway, here is a quick look at our day as we approach the end of school.

Here is a look at our Wednesday  (May 16th) during the 2nd to last week of school:

6:30am Madelyn walks into our room with her blankie and comes and snuggles right up to her Mama.  We lay in bed and sleep for another hour.

7:15am Brody wakes up and comes into our room.  Matt is just getting out of the shower and Brody wants one too.  He puts Brody in shower while he gets ready and then he gets Brody out of shower to get him dressed.

7:40am Matt kisses us goodbye and I turn on Mickey Mouse in my room for the kids to watch while I take a quick shower and get dressed.

8am Me and the kids head downstairs for breakfast and get ready for school.  I make some oatmeal and the kids each have a waffle.  I also pack their lunches for school.

8:40am We load up the car and bring our dog, Bella, with us because we have to drop her off at the groomer before we head to school.

9am Drop the kids off at school and I head to my appointment to have my fake eyelashes filled.

915am Eyelash appointment.  I turn on my audiobook “Into the Water” by Paula Hawkins while she works her magic.

11:30am I head to lunch to meet with a new nanny/babysitter that is going to help out our family when baby #3 arrives.  My Mom also calls and says she is going to be close to the kids school around pick up time and she will grab them for me and bring them to the house!

1pm I head home to meet my Mom and the kiddos.

1:15pm The kids arrive home and are on a popsicle kick, so they have one before its time for naps.  They play for a few minutes and then I bring Madelyn up for a nap and Brody has some quiet playtime in the playroom.

2pm I start this blog post and get a few things done around the house.  Then I sort through the box of Madelyns baby clothes that are 0 to 6 months and do a little organizing.

4pm I play with Brody for a little bit and then Madelyn wakes up.

5pm Matt walks through the door which is really early for him (he is usually not home until 6 or 630).  I had to ask him to come home early tonight because I had to walk to see my hairdresser for a quick appointment.  This has never happened before, but when she did my hair on Monday, a couple of strands turned out bluish/gray and she had to re-tone it.  So I basically got a free blowout!

6pm I head back home and we decide to walk somewhere with the kids for dinner because its a nice evening.

7:30pm We make it back home and go straight up for bath time.  The kids take a quick back and get in their jammies.

8pm We tag team the kids to bed — I take Brody and Matt gets Madelyn and then we crawl in bed too!

9pm We watch the Fate and the Furious as I finish this blog post because its on TV and then call it a night.

Cozy Morning Snuggles watching Mickey Mouse 

Lunch – Uncrustable, goldfish, fruit and fruit snacks

My fake eyelashes 

Madelyn playing after she gets home from school.  She’s always a total mess when she gets home. 

Me sorting through baby clothes…

Kids in the stroller as we head to dinner

Bath time with these cute little booties…

The kids finish up school next week and then its summer!  Madelyn starts swim lessons the first week they are out of school and then both of the kids have a few different camps that they are doing over the next couple of months!

You can read all of our Day in the Life posts here.

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