1st Grade, Preschool, and Daycare... Oh my!

Things are hectic around our house these days. Here's our typical schedule on preschool days:

6:30 Boys come in our room to wake us up
6:30-6:45 Boys watch Sports Center while Brian and I brush teeth and get dressed
6:45 Cartoons go on, Brian and I check our work email and get started with our work day
7:15 Cartoon is over, breakfast time. I play short order cook for awhile
7:30 Everyone gets dressed, plays (if we're lucky) until 8:30 -although this usually involves at least one fit from someone and at least a few sibling arguments to referee
8:30 Bundle everyone up, put little kids in wagon, walk Jake to school (he rides his skateboard)
9:00 Drop Tanner at preschool (next door to our house) and drive Faith to daycare
9:30 Back to work for a few hours
11:30 Pick up Tanner from preschool, drive him to Miss Wendy's
12:00 Back to work again
3:00 Walk to school, pick Jake up
3:45 Homework time! We work and prep dinner while helping Jake with his homework.
4:30 Pick up Tanner and Faith from daycare
5.00 Dinner, baths, playtime, clean up, etc...
7:00 Bedtime
7:30 Brian and I plop down in front of the TV, exhausted, and still having work to catch up on for the next day so we can do it all over again!

It sounds like I am complaining, but these days are actually a lot of fun. The challenge comes when one of us has to be out of the house early for a training or something and all the chaos falls to the other one. (Lately it has been me that has to be gone early. My work is crazy busy right now.)

I was reminded this evening, as I drove in the driveway with the little ones at 4:45 and Brian was out front for the third day in a row tossing the football to Jake,- just waiting to greet us at the car- that we are so lucky to be doing this together-I mean the "everyday" stuff of being a family. I forget that not all dads are lfortunate enough to have a job that allows them to be on the front lawn at 4:45 to play catch. And not all kids are lucky enough to have dads that are around for that on a daily basis. It may not be glamorous, but for a dual income family especially, it's a pretty good life.

Fall has arrived in full force here. The trees are turning red, the extra comforters are on the bed, and mornings require a hat of some sort and a coat. The hot tub is turned back up to 103 and is getting used more frequently, the shorts and tanks are put away, and my shelves are once again filled with sweaters and jeans. I love seasons!

The kids are all doing great.

Jake- Loves first grade, is good about doing his homework on his own, is excited to start YBasketball again this month, loves to skateboard, is more independent and able to go to the library and Merc on his own, and is GOING TO BED WITHOUT THE DRAMA.

Tanner- Loves preschool (and we love watching him out our window as he plays!), is pretending to read, wants to learn to downhill ski this winter, is excited for his 4th birthday (his first real party!), has a mean spiral, and is just as loving and affectionate as always.

Faith- Still plays with her horsies- making them eat grass, putting them to bed, and waking them up each morning so she can carry them around in an old purse, likes to color and use stickers, sings songs that she makes up herself, is fiercely independent, and looking more and more like the little girl she is and less and less like her nickname "Baby Girl".

Now, it's time to turn into a couch potato. "Fast Forward" starts in 15 minutes....