Summer Days with Three

You may have noticed I have been quite the quiet momma lately. We have about a month left of summer break and have been filling our days with swim lessons, library trips, and park adventures. Ollie, now 5 months old is still waking up at night and nursing around the clock so I am lucky to keep my brain in place most days. Today I thought it would be fun to share a little glimpse into what we've been doing this summer. Let's see how much I can type out to share while the baby naps. :)

While I've been busy momming, I have noticed more traffic here at themeckhouse.com as well as a few new subscribers. I want to say thank you for that. I hope those of you reading & choosing to come back can get a little bit of inspiration from my posts as well as an online mom-friend. Feel free to reach out if you want to chat!

Road Trip

A week into summer break we took a little family vacation to the Omaha Zoo. About a three hour drive for us and the boys sleept the whole way. I am still wanting to write a travel post on this trip later, but spoiler alert- it was a fantastic trip! We stayed for three days and our kids now want to move there. We visited the zoo two of the days, and did the children's museum the last day. We also tried a couple family friendly restaurants and got some sweat treats at a super cool candy store. If you are in the midwest I definitely recommend adding Omaha to your family trip list.

A summertime project

So I had an idea for a tree house and before I had the chance to change my mind Carl bought all the lumber and gathered the neighborhood dads to start building it. When I say this thing is massive, I am not overselling it. I believe it's 12x12 foot. When measuring it seemed so small due to the size of our tree. But once they started building I went into full on panic, wondering if it would be way too big.

The truth? It is way too big. However the kids absolutely love it and that's what matters, right? We have a little sitting area, a spy glass/stearing wheel area, and a tree swing, all with plenty of room to roam around. It is more of a fort style with a rock wall and slide being the way in and out. I plan to share more about it after we landscape the backyard a bit. Unfortunately that project is on hold for now. We are already residing and getting a new roof this summer so that job has been pushed way down on the ever growing home renovation list.

Summer days with three kids

I wish I could say things have been simple and relaxing, but that would be a lie. It hasn't been hard, just super busy. The first few weeks were filled with Tball/softball and the last few have been all about swim lessons, family pool days, and library trips. That of course on top of keeping the house clean and the kids fed.

Let's just say I have very little time for me right now. If it wasn't for Carl taking the kids off my hands so I can shop alone or have an extra long bath, I think I would be completely overwhelmed.

With that said, I wouldn't trade any of this for the world. I recently turned 30, which left me wondering what I would do with the rest of my life. I could go back to teaching, continue to follow my more creative passions, or totally switch gears to something new. I still don't know the answer to that yet, so you better believe I'm going to soak up every minute of staying home with the kids while I can.

So what does a day in the life of a mom of three look like right now?

Chaos. Ha. Kidding, mostly. Since it is summer, it really just depends on the day. Also the baby dictates most mornings. Typically he is up around 6 or 7. Some days I get up with him, while others Carl does so I can get some extra sleep. Our older two, ages 6 & 4, like to sleep in. Sofia has slept til 10 multiple days, while Bubba gets up around 8.

I spend my mornings getting as much cleaning as I can done. I make the bed, clean the litter boxes (did I tell you we got two new kittens?), do the dishes, sweep the floor, and start a load of laundry all before 9am. I have found this allows me to go to with the flow the rest of the day. Ollie usually takes a short morning nap, around 40 minutes, which gives me time to get a lot done. Today I am choosing to write this over normal chores though, so I'm sure I will be panic cleaning later today, lol.

After Ollie wakes up from his morning nap we are usually off to swim lessons or a walk to the park before it gets too hot. Then we head home for lunch. Again depending on the day, we either hang out at home (the older kids will play with neighbors or watch a movie) or we go do something else. Wednesdays are our library day. Our library hosts a different guest each week as part of their summer program. This week was an insect zoo. The kids loved getting to hold and learn about all the different bugs!

Ollie usually takes another, longer nap in the afternoons. I use this time to get different projects done around the house. This week I've been working on redoing Bubba's bedroom to make it "the boys" room. We are hoping to have the boys sharing a room by the end of the month. So far I have painted the room and assembled a new dresser. Still on my to-do list is adding space decals to the walls, getting a crib and a loft bed set up and final decorative touches. Here is sneak peak! I hope to do a post on the room once it is finally done.

The rest of our day is always a blur. We play, play, and play some more. Ollie takes a third nap in the early evening. It's shorter like the morning nap so most of the time I just cuddle him while he sleeps. Once Carl gets home we either go to the pool or he cooks dinner and we will have a hang out at home night. We started playing this game "Blockus" with the kids. We found ours at a local thrift store for a couple bucks. And the best part? They love it! I'm not anti-screen time or anything like that but it is nice to do something that doesn't involve them once in awhile. We've also had some really nice evenings here where we take the kids on a bike ride/walk. One evening last month we took the kids to an Iowa Cubs game in Des Moines. Below is a picture of me and the kiddos hanging out while Carl was grabbing the kids some hotdogs. We had a super fun night that ended in fireworks at the ballpark!

I have to say I am not at all looking forward to the back to school season. We have 4 more weeks until Sofia starts 1st grade and Bubba starts his last year of preschool. Right now the plan is to continue soaking up the sunshine and we have one more family vacation planned!

Questions for you

How is your summer going?

Anything special planned for the final days of summer?

Let me know in the comments below :)

💕 Sending love & momma to momma support,

Kaylin