A day in the life

I have been meaning to type this out for awhile, but have never gotten around to it.  I wanted to document a "day in the life" at our house.  When they are older, I think I will like to remember how we spent the majority of our time.  This "schedule" is obviously fluid and subject to change, but I also truly believe that children need schedules in their lives to provide stability and predictability.  They thrive on that need to know "what happens next." Even Dawson at only 17 months knows he gets a cup of juice on the couch in the morning, and will run to put his shoes on after lunch or dinner to go outside.  

• 7 am:  Carter and Ava wake up, say good-bye to Mike and settle in on the couch with some juice.  Dawson has been waking up between 7:30 and 8:00.
• 8 am:  Breakfast!  Favorites right now include homemade bread with sunbutter, oatmeal flavored with a maple syrup and a little cocoa powder, ninja {mixed} berries and bananas.  We have also been graphing the weather this month using tally marks and using a ruler to measure the length of our caterpillars, they are about 3 cm now!
• 9 am: Clean up kitchen while kids play, then "morning chores."  We go upstairs and everyone gets dressed, brushes their teeth, cleans up their room and we look at our calendars.  
• 10 am:  Play time!  Our favorites lately have been: doctor, Candyland, dominoes, coloring and cutting, legos and going hunting.  I pretended to surgery on Ava the other day, and so everyone has been cut open lately to fix bones, hearts, you name it!  We regularly have to pack our backpacks and gear up to go black gopher hunting.
• 11 am:  Usually kids are getting hungry at this time so we make lunch.  Usually this consists of some combination of leftovers, sunbutter sandwiches, grilled cheese, carrots and apples.  We are really in a lunch rut.  Does anyone have any suggestions?
• 12 pm:  Outside to play for awhile if it is nice, or I try to do a dance party or something like that to burn a little energy.
• 1 pm:  Reading time.  We all go into Dawson's room and read books from his shelves.  This can last anywhere from half an hour to an hour, depending on Dawson!  
• 2pm:  Rest.  I'll admit it, I regularly lay down with both kids on our bed.  Ava usually falls asleep, but Carter does not.
• 2:30:  Carter and I sneak out of the bedroom while Ava continues to sleep.  Then the two of us read together for awhile.  We also started doing educational computer games.  He is starting to use the touch pad on the lap top really well!
• 4 pm:  Everyone is awake and we eat our snack.  Then more outside time or play time. 
• 5 pm:  Time to make dinner.  Dawson hangs on my leg until I feed him a second snack while we are making dinner and the big kids play.
• 5:45:  Dinner time and Daddy is home!  As soon as we eat, I clean up the kitchen while Mike plays with the kids.  This time of the year they are outside every night.
• 7 pm:  Clean up toy room, then bath, books and bed!
• 8 pm:  Lights out

So I apologize for the boring post.  This is our life, and I'm sure it will change in the fall with Carter in school again.  I've actually really been enjoying this time alone with my three little guys.  It's going to be the last time I won't have to worry about rushing out the door in the morning, getting someone to school.  But for now, this is our life with swimming classes, library excursions and some errand running thrown in.