A July Tuesday + Chase’s 4th Birthday

Hey friends! This weeks is slowly beginning to feel a little more normal and I’m slooowly beginning to feel like I’m catching my breath. Last week’s NYC travels, followed by our Jellystone Golden Valley trip and then Chase’s birthday and my father-in-law’s arrival yesterday left me feeling like I was in a bit of a whirlwind. It was a lot of good stuff but the back-to-back nature of everything (and some rough night’s sleep) made me feel like I was going from one thing to the next and neglecting a lot of stuff along the way. But now I’m back and ready to chat!

To kick things off today, I wanted to quickly share a glimpse into Chase’s fourth birthday with you guys!

We filled his special day with a handful of his favorite things but the highlight, according to Chase, was our trip to the aquarium!

I took the boys to SEA Life Aquarium in Concord and it was great. There weren’t many people there on a random Monday around noon and we ended up doing two laps around the aquarium before heading home. The aquarium is quite small but perfect for little kids since so many of the tanks reach all the way to the floor. Ryder was absolutely captivated and I think we may have another marine-lovin’ boy on our hands!

Chase was very into the sharks as usual and loved looking for Neptune, the aquarium’s rescued green sea turtle.

Ryan got out of work early on Chase’s birthday with the plan to meet us at My Gym for the late afternoon open play. Chase absolutely lit up when Dad surprised him as he was playing in the ball pit!

We headed home after My Gym and spent the rest of Chase’s fourth birthday eating cake and playing with the adjustable height basketball hoop birthday present Mae and Pop sent his way!

It was a slam dunk! (And you know that pun was intended.)

Tuesday

Tuesday began with coffee made with frothy whole milk and collagen and my morning devotional before I took some time to tackle my neglected email inbox.

Ryder was awake first in the morning and so the two of us ate some of the pancakes from my freezer stash before Chase was up and requested a story. We read some books in Chase’s room, got dressed and headed downstairs for Chase’s breakfast followed by lots of early morning basketball!

As the boys played, I threw in a load of laundry and cleaned up around the kitchen before it was time for boot camp! The workout of the day was a back and biceps partner workout that looked like this:

It felt good to get in some heavy lifting after a few days away from the gym and Chase and Ryder seemed to have fun in childcare as usual. After boot camp, Chase had some special plans on his agenda! I met up with my friend Carrie at Birkdale Village and dropped Chase off to catch a $1 summer movie at the local theater with Carrie and her two kids.

Carrie was so sweet to offer to take Chase with her crew (Chase LOVES her kids) so I could head home and get some work done while Ryder napped. The two hours of uninterrupted work time I had on Tuesday were wonderful and helped me feel less frazzled throughout the rest of the day. Plus, Chase seemed to have a ball at the movies!

While Ryder napped, I worked on the computer and dug into breakfast 2.0 which looked like my three minute egg white oatmeal with a spoonful of cocoa powder and some cacao nibs stirred in to give it a little chocolate flavor.

Once Ryder was up, I fed him an early lunch and then Carrie brought Chase home and came inside with her kids for some play time after their movie date. The kids did their crazy kid thang while Carrie and I did our best to have some kind of a continuous adult conversation which was borderline comical. They hung out for a while until her youngest needed a nap and they headed home.

I then assembled lunch for Chase and read the boys a few books before attempting an afternoon nap for both of them. Chase’s nap looked more like quiet time for an hour (he’ll usually fall asleep 3-ish time a week but if we’re home I’ll still have him go down for some “quiet time” in is room because he definitely needs it) and I used this time to work and made myself a quick lunch which looked like a Daily Harvest Chai + Coconut smoothie with added vanilla protein powder, fresh spinach and cashew butter.

About 30 minutes later, my father-in-law arrived in town so we snacked on some of the amazingly sweet Florida fruit he brought with him as we chatted and unloaded his car. He’ll be staying with us through Sunday and Chase was pretty darn psyched when I told him Granddad was downstairs after his quiet time!

We spent the rest of the afternoon at home with Granddad and in between playtime, Chase helped me prep dinner while Ryder snacked on some mango.

Once Ryan arrived home from work, we all dug into Lexi’s Clean Kitchen Paleo chicken and broccoli that I served with jasmine rice.

That recipe is always a winner in our house!

The rest of our evening looked like a lot of the usual shenanigans — bath time, books and playtime around the house — before we all turned in on the early side of the night. I was really looking forward to reading Girls Like Us and ended up staying up a little too late because I couldn’t stop reading. I highly recommend it, especially if you also read and enjoyed The Banker’s Wife by the same author.

And now I’m off to get this day rollin’! Our plans include more quality time with Granddad, swim lessons for Chase and maybe a trip to the park if it’s not too hot outside. Hope you all have a great Wednesday!