Cool morning weather & the sunlight pouring into our bedroom windows are two of my favorite things right now. Having the girls in school has forced us into a new morning routine & I am realizing how much we really needed this. The first week was tough for us all, but hooray! we finally have our shit together & we are loving it. Although it’s already Fall Break next week, which I’m so confused about because the kids have been in school for approximately five minutes so I’m not sure why we already need a week off, but then again, I’m new to this. Money says I take them Monday anyway and then realize nobody else is there.
So in order to effectively get out the door in the mornings (meaning fed, on time & everyone is wearing matching shoes) this is what our routine looks like. I usually get up around 6:30 when Brandon is taking off for work. I make some coffee and make my bed because, the state of your bed is the state of your head. I get out things for breakfast & start packing their lunches for school, by then Harper is usually skipping down the stairs.
Harper puts on some cartoons, I pack lunches & snacks, then quickly get myself ready. I usually shower during naptime or after the girls go to bed, so in the morning my routine is washing my face (I swear this is the key to actually feeling awake!), dry shampoo & mascara! 😉
Once Claire & Eloise are up, everyone is chugging milk & eating breakfast. During the week, we usually eat yogurt, fruit, scrambled eggs or toaster waffles. I try to keep it super quick and easy, and every single day I wish pop-tarts were an acceptable breakfast. We have been loving eating breakfast outside, a little fresh air first thing in the morning is an amazing way to start the day, plus less clean up! 😉 The girls love to play on the deck for a bit before we get ready, which I love because they are all so happy and sweet in the morning.
I set all of the girls outfits out the night before, this is an absolute MUST for us being on time in the morning. Everyone is already stalling bedtime by two hundred years so it’s easy to get them to cooperate on helping me pick their clothes. I get them all dressed, we search all over the house for everyone’s shoes & I tell everyone five times that they cannot wear tap shoes to school. We do hair, we pack back packs, scramble to find show & tell items, fill up water bottles & head out the door!
We usually wait in car line for quite a while, so we try to use this time for good! I love letting them pick songs to listen to to put them in happy moods, we chat about being good friends & how important it is to be nice to everyone and sometimes get to FaceTime with dad at work. Once I drop off the girls, Claire & I hit our errands!! I usually pick up a few forgotten things from the grocery store, go to the post office, we stop at the park or go for a walk, she sometimes takes a morning nap if we go home, while I clean or get a little bit of work done. If I’m feeling super productive I will prep dinner while making lunch for Claire, although one of these days I swear I am just going to come home and lay on the couch watching HGTV the entire time they’re in school.
The best part of the day is picking up the girls, I love to peek into their classrooms and see them with their little friends or sitting at their desks. And there is nothing better than them running across the room to the door when we get to come in! 🙂 I freaking love them so much it hurts.
Do you have a good morning routine with your kids?! Would love to know any tips or tricks to keeping things on track!!
Cheers to being halfway through the week, and FALL starts tomorrow!! XO
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Cheers to being halfway through the week, and FALL starts tomorrow!! XO
FYI-They do make organic pop tarts. For me that is an acceptable breakfast on a school day.
I'm curious what time you leave? I have three, but they are older at 10, 6 & 2. As long as everyone cooperates, our mornings are smoothe. I'm alone too, as my husband leaves for work early. Our is this every single day. I can get myself showered, dressed & hair dry. My oldest makes breakfast for himself & the little kids. Older 2 kids get dressed and brush their teeth, while I dress the baby and we are done in about an hour, maybe an hour and 15. My hair takes the longest!!
A few weeks ago I tried something new that really helped! I used to pick out the girls clothes every night and set them out for the next day but every evening I was feeling rushed to get dinner, baths, clothes, everything done. I started picking out the girls clothes for the entire week on Saturday or Sunday. I even pick the matching headbands/bows and socks! This has been a game changer for me.
I would love a blog post about how you use your blog and social media as a form of income! I have one son the same age as Claire, and I'm still struggling with working full time. I get so depressed when I miss certain milestones because Im always at work, and the thought of having to miss bringing my kid to and from school someday really upsets me. Unfortunately we need to full time incomes, so I will never have the option to stay at home, and I am constantly depressed being away for so many hours. I do have a blog but unfortunately dont have the time to really sit down and try to make something of it. I would love to get to the point where I can work solely from home, preferably from blogging. I would love love love a blog post on this subject! You do seem to have the perfect life!
We do a lot of these same things, especially prepping as much as possible the night before with outfits & packing lunches/backpack. My daughter is NOT a morning person so my husband has started "morning stretches" which she thinks are fun and help wake her up. They stretch their hands up to the ceiling, stretch down to touch their toes, and then "shake it out" which she thinks is hysterical. It puts her in a better mood immediately every morning!
Everything is YES! Routine is the only way to survive. We had to start it when our guy started Daycare at 3 months (now hes 18 months) and it just makes our week go so much smoother. Especially at breakfast – I made protein pancakes on the weekend to last all week – meal prepping and getting clothes out the night before are the saving grace. 🙂
http://www.livinglarochelife.com
That routine sounds amazing! I wish we could eat breakfast outside but when the bus comes to get Liam it's barely light out. I can't believe how big your girls are getting, I have been following along since the beginning!
My youngest is in 3-yo preschool this year too and it has been such a struggle for us to figure out a morning routine! I love the idea of breakfast outside, makes mornings feel a little less rushed!
They are too cute!! For our routine, I pack the lunches the night before when they are in bed just so it is one last thing to get done in the morning to try to make it that much less hectic. I might try picking outfits out the night before as that usually is a time suck in the AM when they have a hard time deciding what they want to wear.
My morning routine consists of me shouting a lot! I only have one child and I know for a fact if we had more, I would never leave the house dressed!! I normally get up at 630/645 and jump straight in the shower whilst my daughter watches her tablet. Then at 7, she goes downstairs and eats her breakfast whilst watching cartoons (no judgement, it works for us!)whilst I stay upstairs and get dressed and put on make up. At about 730 she comes back upstairs and we get her dressed and ready for the day. 745 (ish) back downstairs for my breakfast and then out the door at 8 when I drop her at her childminder and I go to work. I lay out both our outfits the night before and make sure our bags are packed at the same time. I also make my lunch at the same time and sometimes if I am feeling particularly organised I will make breakfast for me as well. My daughter has cereal and milk in the morning but I sometimes like some veg fritattas. I also wish Pop Tarts were an acceptable breakfast 🙂 This all sounds very organised but most of the time in the morning, I am telling (shouting) my daughter to find her shoes (which are in the same place every day) put her jacket on, eat your breakfast, put those toys away etc etc. I love coming to work for the break. You sound like you have a good routine going on and well done on getting yourself and your 3 kids out on time. I should point out that for 3 weeks at a time my husband works away but then he comes home for 3 weeks and he deals with getting our daughter out the door which makes life amazing. xx
What is carline? Lol I'm from Australia and I've never heard of that before 🙂
I have never heard the saying before, the state of your bed is the state of your head, but I love it!
Way to go! I wake up at 4am and can barely get everyone out for 9am school. They are horrible eaters and meals take a solid hour minimum
I have a 2.5yr old and a 4 month old and I work full time so the key for us is doing as much the night before as possible! Washing bottles, pouring milk, freezing milk, washing and packing pump parts, lunches, setting out clothes, etc. even though each thing maybe takes 5 minutes…all together it feels like it takes forever if I save it all for in the morning. Which dry shampoo do you love? I've tried a few and would love to use it more often to save time in the morning, but haven't found one I really love yet.
I try to make them choose their clothes for the week– i have little hanger labels– that will work when they get older
Wait, pop-tarts are NOT acceptable for breakfast?!
I found a "Are you Ready for School?" check list on Pinterest made some edits to it for our families specific needs and then laminated it at Kinkos so we could use a dry erase pen the night before to get all items completed before bed. My 3yo loves the checklist and enjoys being in charge of it. This could be done in the morning too. We have shoes, coat book bag all sitting together for the morning. Lunches are packed the night before too. In the morning all we are doing is getting dressed, eating breakfast, hair, brush teeth and then grabbing the stuff which is already right next to the door.
Love reading your blog! Where did you get your chairs for your outdoor table?!
How cute are they in that last picture! I love that your girls are so happy in the morning. I could learn a thing or two from them
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"The state of your bed is the state of your head"…I have never heard this, but it is sooooo true. I spent 20 minutes looking for my keys this morning, and my little guy just wandered around the house hollering for them like they were going to come running to him. So, clearly routine is something we are still working on.
Thought of you this morning. Was so proud of myself being early to school. Walked up somewhat smug with my 4 year old in her uniform realizing we beat everyone there. Then a woman opens the door and says "you know there's no school today right?" I wanted to say "…does this look like the face of a person In The Know"?". So, dont be me on Monday.
Oh this sounds great. Ours is similar except we pack all snacks, lunches and water bottles the night before. I wake up at 5AM prepare myself, load the car, then get the baby ready. I get the girls up dressed and in the car. School serves them breakfast lunch and snack. I drop them off at 6:45 to myself across the street and to work by 7am. Phew. Being ready and ahead of the game makes for better days. SOmetimes I do try and stick something in the crockpot the night before and set it before we run out the door in the morning. School mornings = no tv, can play or read a book if you are dressed and ready before the clock clicks to 6:15 and milk sippies for morning are prepped and the girls grab them themselves out of the fridge on their way to the car. (If only I ALWAYS remembered to grab them on the way back IN the house, my car wouldn't smell so badly)
Such a sweet post! I always load and turn on the dishwasher before bed so I wake up to clean dishes put them away during breakfast. This way it never gets full until the end of the day when im ready to turn it on again.
I prep dinner during baby's lunch time too! I hate it while I'm doing it, but so thankful come dinnertime!
"car line" equals the line of cars waiting to drop their kids off in front of the school.
I've been following your blog for a few years now! Love hearing about all the fun things you do with your kids! I can't wait to have kids of my own and hopefully do similar fun things! 🙂 Just curious about your outdoor table–is there a previous blog post where you link where you got it? Thanks! 🙂
I just read this nice article about the topic: http://www.mothermag.com/morning-routine-with-kids/
It's just great to get tips from different moms with different routines!
You NEED a YouTube channel! I would LOVE to see you do a 'day in the life' video!
We buy Nature's Path Organic Toaster Pastries. Because the word "organic" is in the title, I feel zero guilt for making those a totally acceptable breakfast option! If it's organic, it's healthy (ice cream, cheese, chips, etc.- this rationale works for everything that tastes delicious).
Our morning sounds really similar. One little trick I have is to leave the backpack in the car during the week. Since we're just going to preschool, all that's in it is clean clothes and undies! 🙂 One less thing to find in the scramble. Other than that, waking up on time and picking out clothes the night before are the most helpful. It still feels like a mess most days!
I can't even imagine my son being in school. I want to cry just thinking about it, though I'm not sure if they're tears of sadness or joy 😉
Thanks for sharing, love to hear about morning routines – yours sounds amazing and effortless but i'm sure its more chaotic in person !
I recently left my full time job to be a sahm because the cost of preschool/aftercare for my one and only 3 yr old was just sucking up my income. My new routine is similar to that of when she was an infant and I was a sahm: Wake up around 6:30ish to a cuddle session with my daughter! Wash up by 7:30ish with toddler, set her up with breakfast and Beat Bugs on Netflix while I make breakfast and pack lunch for my husband. After he leaves, I get dressed and then I get my daughter dressed and ready for school. I could totally be more productive by going for a run before she is up but that would be too much ��! I can't imagine doing this with 3 kids and getting out on time. She stalls a lot even when her clothes are already picked out!
I do everything possible the night before! I make my sons lunch and husbands lunch while I make dinner at night (kitchens already a mess!), fill water bottles and keep them cold overnight in the fridge, and pick outfits out, all before bed. We wake up, watch a show, eat breakfast (have you had natures path pumpkin spice waffles?! Mmmm!), Skype daily with my dad who lives out of state while we eat, and then get ready quickly, and run out the door! All while me panicking the last 10 mins "we are going to be late!!!!!!" Which we always are 😉
Naturemade (or something like that) makes organic pop tarts. Publix carries them. My girls take turns on liking them and hating them. I think they're delicious.
Sounds like a great routine! Lovely post <3
Blessings,
Edye | http://gracefulcoffee.wordpress.com
Regarding your Bodum ice coffee maker – if you don't finish the coffee you make, do you store in the fridge for the next day? Does it still taste alright? I ask because I'm the only one that drinks coffee in my house (blasphemy, I know). Thanks for sharing!