A Day in the Life - Preschool Edition

Out of all the topics I've written about over the years, our "Day in the Life" posts are my very favorite to look back on. They seem so normal and trivial when penning them - but years later, it's those tiny little details that you forget. There's a quote: How we spend our days is how we spend our lives, and having documentation of this is just priceless (if you don't have a blog, I totally recommend just documenting a random day for yourself or your kids).

Having said all this, I haven't done one since, ah-hem, 2015. I had so many good intentions of doing one over the past few years, but lots of times I couldn't decide on a day. If I had Bunco, or a Junior League meeting, or if Max had a work dinner, or if someone was sick, I'd skip the day, thinking that it wasn't an ordinary day... but I've realized, these are all the crazy things making up our life. So, I randomly chose last Wednesday to document. Max was away on business, and we had all just come back from a week in California, but I knew it was one of my last chances to write about a typical pre-school day...

7:30AM We are still on California time, so I sleep in, then get dressed in workout clothes for barre class. I get a load of laundry going (while unearthing at least a cup of sand from the dryer, because #boymom), unload the dishwasher, then hear this little guy calling for me from the top of the stairs.

8:00AM He was definitely on California time, too, sleeping in until almost eight! I'm greeted by "The Wicked Witch of the West" - Parker is even wielding a wand. This age is tons of fun; there's always some new character Parker is pretending to be (he's been on a Wizard of Oz kick since we read the book and then saw his soon-to-be school perform the play). Parker gets dressed all on his own and I help him make his bed - I count it a win in the morning if we leave the house with both beds made and an empty dishwasher. 

8:15AM We hit the road (dry cereal and milk on-the-go for Sweet P) and we're at Parker's school by 8:35 (arrival is 8:30-8:45). Since his school is outdoor based and on lots of acres, it's on the far end of town (next year our commute will be a mere seven minutes, wahoo!). It's Teacher Appreciation Week so I bring in the chocolate chip cookies I made the night before to add to that day's dessert bar. 

Parker attends school all five days a week this year, but he's half day so he's only there three hours each day. It's during these three hours that I do a barre or Pilates class, run errands, go to appointments, blog, tidy the house, or meet friends for walks or coffee. 

8:39AM Today I have barre class at 9:30AM, which leaves enough time for a couple errands beforehand. I start my non-Parker friendly podcast and set off for my first stop...

8:52AM Caffeine! Iced Flat Whites are my current obsession. I then run into Walmart to pick up snacks for that day's tee ball game (having been out of town the week prior just puts me a step behind on everything).

9:30AM Barre Class! I'm currently in the early 200's, but get another "celebration" at class 250!

11:00AM Showered, properly dressed, and ready to pick up little man from school.

11:30AM Preschool pick-up and lunchtime! I love that I get Parker as my lunch date every single day. This is the part of the day where we schedule play dates or run errands. 

Today, we head to Gibson's BBQ where we put in an order to be picked up the next day for the Teacher Appreciation Lunch. Since we're already there, we get take-out BBQ for lunch and bring it home. 

12:30PM It's a gorgeous day so we do a picnic in the backyard (trying to cram in all the outdoor everything before the humidity of summer sets in!).

Parker ordered a pulled pork sandwich while I did my usual chicken stuffed potato (OMG so good).

I read from my new book for a bit while P "warmed up" with his ball and bat, then joined him for some backyard baseball, his current fave.

2:00PM Parker goes down for a rest after some snuggles in bed and Richard Scarry's Cars and Trucks and Things That Go. Occasionally he naps hard, but most days he just needs a solid rest (and some days he instead makes an obstacle course out of all the pillows in his room, then attaches a hundred stickers to all the surfaces, but what can you do?). I always take this time to tidy up the kitchen, make phone calls, do laundry, blog, work on Junior League, or do mise en place for dinner. Today it's laundry + The Real Housewives, my favorite combo!

3:30PM Snack time for Parker (a cheese stick and grapes) while drawing mazes (another current obsession), then we gather up his piano books and head out to his Wednesday lesson. If it's a nice day, we love the 25 minute walk to the conservatory downtown, but since we have a tee-ball game tonight we make the 4 minute drive instead.

4:00PM Piano time! Parker's Spring Recital is in just one week, so he's polishing his piece, Two Little Marches.

4:40PM Back at home, Parker uses his "reward" from piano lessons to play 15 minutes of games on my phone (since piano is such hard work, he "earns" up to fifteen minutes of screen time for his thirty minute lesson - right now his favorite ways to use reward time are watching Llama Llama on Netflix and playing Angry Birds on the phone). I rarely do complicated meals when Max is away, so tonight it's an easy early dinner for Parker: chicken nuggets, mac and cheese, and carrot sticks.

5:30PM I pack up Pepper with Parker's tee ball bag (red, his favorite color), snacks and Capri Suns for the team's post-teeball snack, as well as the SLR because I agreed to take team photos before the game. 

5:45PM I take singles photos of all the boys along with a team photo. I'm slightly nervous as this is the first time I've "officially" photographed something, but all the pictures came out really well.

6:30PM Our game starts. Tee ball is the cutest - each inning they go through the entire lineup, though they do count outs (mostly when the other team can get the ball to first base before the runner arrives). Here's Parker making that exact play during the game!

7:30PM I place a mobile order to Farm Burger for a milkshake for Parker and a salad for myself. Parker insists on taking his first sips sitting down at the restaurant. 

 

8:00PM I wolf down my salad and Parker works on his milkshake as we FaceTime with Max, who's currently on a layover in Dallas and on his way home to us!

8:45PM After giving Parker a quick bath (where I also shamelessly polished off the rest of his chocolate shake), I read Parker's book selection (one from the Pete the Cat series) then put on his quiet music and leave the door open. Door closed at nap, open at night - such a little Type A we have on our hands! Then I head to bed with my laptop set to do some photo editing and blogging.

11:00PM Max arrives home from his business travel. Parker always requests a snuggle whenever Max is getting in late, even if he'll be asleep for it. The last time Max arrived home late like this he had to be out of the house super early the next morning, meaning Parker wouldn't see him - so he snapped a selfie with him, printed it, and left it on Parker's breakfast table. He did the same thing on this night 😊 Parker gets such a kick out of finding them in the morning!

And that's a wrap! I can't believe we only have two more weeks of this preschool schedule. I'm so going to miss my perpetual lunch date next year when he starts kindergarten, but luckily I have a whole summer to soak him all in before!

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