Now onto a recap of our Tuesday! (Also, I have NO idea why this post is so wordy since it was a pretty basic day but apparently I’m feeling chatty this morning. You’ve been warned!)
Morning
Tuesday morning began with a garage workout. It is H-O-T in North Carolina these days so if I want a workout to happen in our garage, it must happen first thing in the morning otherwise I’ll basically melt into a pool of my own sweat. One bonus of early morning garage workouts: Ryan and I work out at the same time so it’s nice to have a little company even if our workouts are quite different. I’ve been keeping my workouts primarily strength based and under 35 minutes and yesterday’s workout focused on my shoulders.
(Hiii 33 week baby bump!)
I paired two YouTube shoulder workout videos together (this one + this one) and then headed inside to make myself a cup of decaf coffee with collagen and frothy coconut milk before sitting down at my computer to crank out a little work before the boys were up for the day. While I worked, I dug into the mason jar chia seed pudding I prepped on Monday which helped take the edge off my hunger and power me through until I was ready to make breakfast 2.0 after the boys were up.
I also said goodbye to Ryan who went into the office for half of the day for the first time in months (he’s still working from home for the foreseeable future) and greeted my father-in-law. Greg is staying with us right now while he gets his new apartment in the area set up. Yep, you read that right! About a month or so ago, Greg made the decision to move to North Carolina and we’re so happy we will have him close by! He’s lived in Florida since he was a kid so this is a big change for him and we’re hoping he loves it here as much as we do.
Chase and Ryder were up around 7:30 a.m. and we did our usual morning thing which, lately, looks like breakfast, books, free playtime and dinner prep!
(Breakfast 2.0 for me was an egg white oatmeal protein pancake. These days I’m on a lots of smaller/snacky meals vs. 3 big meals a day kick.)
Most mornings, once everyone is dressed and fed, I usually turn the boys loose and they play while I begin dinner prep since they generally entertain themselves well (aka peacefully without brother battles) first thing in the morning. More often than not, they’ll end up pushing their cooking stand up to the kitchen counter and ask to help me which was the case yesterday! (For those who may have little ones interested in getting involved in the kitchen, check out this throwback post with some of the go-to tasks I give the boys when they want to help: Ways To Involve Kids in Cooking)
Lately Chase and Ryder have been all about cutting softer fruits and veggies with their kid-friendly knives I ordered a while back on Amazon. Getting Ryder to keep his food on a cutting board is no small feat but I’m just glad both boys have a genuine interest in cooking and baking activities!
As we were prepping dinner, AAA showed up in our driveway to replace the battery in my car. When we arrived back from Florida last week, my car wouldn’t start and even after we tried jumping it ourselves, we didn’t have any luck. It needed a new battery and we figured the whole thing wouldn’t take too long but it ended up being a bit of an ordeal because they didn’t have the tools they needed or something like that so we spent all morning at home. Thankfully the boys were easily entertained when I filled their kiddie pool and brought out their nets to chase after bugs and butterflies in the yard.
Afternoon
Eventually lunchtime rolled around, so we had a picnic outside (pb & js with sliced cucumbers, apples and hard-boiled eggs for all of us) and then I got Ryder down for a nap on the early side of the afternoon. While Ryder napped, I worked on the computer while my father-in-law headed over to his apartment to unload some boxes and Chase played with Playdoh, listened to a podcast and hung out in my office next to me.
(Note to self: Typing and popsicle eating do not exactly go hand-in-hand.)
Eventually Ryder was up again and after a quick snack, we loaded into my car and headed off to a friend’s neighborhood pool. They currently have a signup system in place with a limited number of visitors and no shared pool chairs and we were really excited to have access to a pool for the first time all summer in Charlotte! (We got majorly spoiled by the pool at my parents’ place in Florida earlier this month.)
The boys were clearly in heaven and had fun doing cannonballs and splashing around. Chase is all about diving deep for rings and loved being reunited with his BFF Claire. As always, Ryder tried his best to pretend he was one of the big kids.
Evening
After a few hours of kid playtime and much-needed grown up catch up time for this mama, we headed home and were greeted by Ryan and Greg. We were all more than ready for dinner, so I quickly heated up the dinner the boys and I prepped earlier in the day and we went to town!
Dinner last night looked like Brittany’s Greek Chicken with Rice and while I admittedly changed a number of things about the recipe, I stayed close enough to the original to say I’d absolutely recommend it! We all went back for seconds, so I take that as a good sign.
After dinner, I finally showered (oh happy day!) and then we did the usual bed time routine with the boys before settling them in for the night and heading to bed ourselves.
As for our plans for the day, our Wednesday should be similar to most weekdays around here lately and I’m sure we’ll fill our days with outside time (we have plans with a friend to meet up for an outside picnic) and I’ll squeeze in some work where I can before the cycle repeats tomorrow. I hope you all have a wonderful day and, as always, thanks for making PBF a part of it!
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Hi! What type of kiddie pool do you have? How do you like it?
Hi! We have this mini frame pool and love it!! –> https://bit.ly/32K3dM7 We got it last year and it’s held up well. I like that it can be boxed up at the end of the summer and doesn’t get gross and can easily be wiped down. The size is great for both of our boys, too!!
It looks & sounds like such a fun day full of lovely meals! Thanks for taking the time to share this. Have a fun Wednesday!
How nice to have Ryan’s dad close by! As for your car dilemma, I’m not a Mom but did get a new car recently. It’s such a process! All of my mom friends were pretty split between either the Odyssey or Sienna or Highlander/ Yukon/Tahoe/Suburban. Cars are necessary & you have to find the one that talks to you & works for your family. Good luck! I’m a small SUV girl & am loving my Acura RDX.
It really is so overwhelming!! I’m not a car person at all and so the whole experience of looking for a new vehicle isn’t one I’m super into but I know it’s necessary and just want to find one that we’ll love and use for years!
I’ll email you my 2 cents
Hi Julie,
Late to your car post… For us, we just can’t do a minivan. I was driven to school in an old school minivan and I think it was made me hate minivans for life LOL We have friends with three kids who drive regular SUVs or SUVs with a third row. We’re a Mazda family so the Mazda CX-9 has that extra row. We’ve seen friends fit 3 carseats in a row too. Our Clek carseat is slim and can fit three across.
But if you’re leaning towards a minivan, the Odyssey or Sienna is most used with moms I know who went the minivan way.
Good luck!
Team Buick Enclave here. It’s so nice, drives great, and isn’t too big to park easily.
My fav kind of post!
Do your kids ever get TV/tablets/screentime? You just didn’t mention it in your day in the life so I am curious.
I have a 2 yo and a 5 yo so our days are very similar but they get a morning show and usually one to break up the afternoon too.
We actually don’t do screentime other than an occasional weekend movie night. I don’t really bring much attention to it only because I never want anyone to feel like they should/shouldn’t approach screentime the way we do. 🙂 For our boys, it just seems to make them fussier/more whiny/less likely to entertain themselves so we just eliminated it for the most part and feel like it makes them a million times more pleasant. Oh but when one of them is sick, screens come out for sure!
One Suggestion about whichever you choose – van or SUV. I’d ask to take each for the day, run errands with the kids and do things you would normally do. That way you can really get a feel for the vehicle and ease of loading the boys in and out. We never did that and then the last 2 cars we did. One I loved, 1 I hated and am so glad I did the day of driving to find that out. Any dealer will do that when you are seriously looking to buy.
So excited for you and Ryan and the boys that your father in law will now be living in the area. It’s so nice to have family close by.
I love that idea! I have a friend who bought a Suburban last year and had it for an entire weekend — she just wanted to make sure she could manage parking, etc. since they were getting the extra long one.
Love these posts!
Do you have any posts up about what your garage gym set up looks like? We’re getting started on setting ours up now and I’d love to see what you and Ryan use!
Thanks Julie!
Hi! It’s changed a little bit (we no longer have a treadmill and now have a rowing machine instead and there’s more kid stuff all around our gym equipment) but here’s an image of the setup!! –> https://www.pbfingers.com/fridge-cleaning-weeding-and-other-super-cool-weekend-fun/
Hi! Does Sadie ever jump in the kids’ pool? We desperately need a kiddie pool for our two but I can’t do an inflatable one because my two labs will jump in and tear it. Curious how this type of pool would hold up to their claws. Thanks in advance. 🙂
She has and it’s been totally fine! I’ve actually very randomly seen reviews on other websites of the pool that use it exclusively for dogs when they give birth to puppies.
Thanks for the feedback! I did see that in the Target reviews too. So cute. I think we’ll give it a try. 🙂
I’m team SVU all the way. I love my Toyota 4runner with the 3rd row. Depending on the car seats you can fit 3 seats in the middle row and the 3 row folds flat if you don’t need it. I can fit my single Bob in it with one of the 3row seats up, the seats a separate so you can use either one or both or neither. I’m a huge Toyota fan (we only have 3 :-)). Good luck shopping around and definitely test drive, even with covid. It’s a huge decision. The boys are soo cute, I enjoy your blog!
I love that oatmeal protein pancake recipe. I use whole eggs in it instead of egg whites and it’s so good! My 4-year-old loves it too (esp with maple syrup). Chase sounds so comfortable with water now!
Hey Julie! I’m a FTM due right after you in September and we just made our first family car purchase and went with a Chevy Traverse. We have the third row of seats and each row controls their own A/C, which is what I was really looking forward to. I’m not sure what kind of car seat Chase is in these days, but it might be a tighter fit getting him in the third row if he’s not yet in just a booster. We’ve only tried with our infant seat in one of the captains’ chairs in the second row. The Traverse also comes with the option of not having captains chairs but having a row of seats in the second row if you prefer that option. We’ve had ours about three months and we’re totally in love!
Thanks for posting what you did for your workout videos – I did the first one and loved it! Although I couldn’t do the heavy weights she did. I’ve been searching for a muffin recipe for my toddler (made chocolate ones last week that were a disaster), so excited to try what you posted with regular sugar.