Disclaimer: I have partnered with Schick® for this blog post, the makers of Intuition® razors. All pictures and content are my own. For more information on the razors please visit www.schick.ca. These shavers are available across Canada and USA at food, drug, and mass retail outlets nationwide.Now that summer is upon us I find I am no longer hibernating in the four walls of my house and instead getting outside and doing a lot more with the kids! Who doesn’t love that the long days of being outside with fresh air and doing fun activities leads to crashing babies who sleep soundly throughout the night? I know, I do!

Part of this new life of getting outdoors, meeting up with friends for playdates and hanging out in the kiddie pool means I need to take care of myself first! I have always been someone who does my hair and makeup almost everyday and I think keeping that consistent in my kid’s lives have and will make them more patient with mommy when she gets ready everyday. Getting myself ready always makes me feel more confident and like my “old self” and it’s important to me that I feel like my best self when I am out and about, kids or not. I always start with myself (as selfish as that may sound) because if I don’t, the kids become more impatient/fussy as time passes and I find I become distracted with other things. I always keep the same routine so it’s consistent and Ems knows what to expect.

We all wake up around 8:00 am and I start off with nursing baby brother before we all start to get ready for the day. With the warmer weather outside, I am picking out lots of dresses because I would literally live in dresses everyday if I could! I am also choosing shorts more than usual since I am still nursing our son and hiding in a car in a dress to nurse him discretely isn’t always the best option! Since I have a baby moving and army crawling about and a little toddler who loves to run around upstairs while I get ready, my routine has to be fast. With my newly exposed legs, I either hop into the shower or sit on the edge of the bath first to do a quick shave. I love the 2-in-1 technology of Schick Intuition since it lathers, shaves and moisturizes in one, while shaving. Removing the step of needing shaving gel makes it so much faster for me when time is limited! When my focus is split on both the kids and myself, it makes me more relaxed knowing that the Schick Intuition razor has a pivoting head that reduces irritation when shaving.

After I shave, I spend about ten minutes doing makeup and about another five minutes fixing the curls in my hair (you can always tell what side I slept on based on which side is flattened!). I get lots of questions about my curls which always surprises me since I don’t do a lot with my hair. I use a flat iron to curl my hair which makes the curls last for three days! I delay washing my hair at all costs because it takes so much longer to get ready in the morning with the kids. If I curl my hair it allows me to get the most amount of days out of it so that’s why I never wear it straight! I then get myself dressed, dress baby brother and finally dress the toddler, who runs away from me at all costs. After we are all ready for the day, I pack up my purse and we all head downstairs (we live in a two-storey house). I then feed everyone breakfast at the same time, including myself. This helps reduce the chaos and makes sure we all eat, even me! Sometimes if it’s a messy breakfast I will take my daughter’s clothes downstairs with me and I will dress her downstairs after she eats. One thing I have learned is to avoid going back upstairs at all costs. The concept of making your way to the door and not back tracking saves me a lot of time and avoids Miss Lace getting distracted along the way!

I always pack extra clothes (two for baby brother because he still spits up a lot) and an extra set of undies for Miss Lace, in the odd chance she has an accident. Since the days are more unpredictable in summer and I am happy to stay out as long as we can, we always carry a water bottle for Miss Lace and put lots of snacks in my diaper bag.

I always carry both my car seat attachment and my stroller seat for baby brother because if he falls asleep I can easily transfer him onto the stroller in his car seat without waking him up. We use a travel sound machine which I hang from his car seat. It muffles noise and allows him to sleep a bit longer when we are mobile! I carry both seats because if he’s awake, he prefers to sit in the stroller seat since he can see more of the world from it.

I always have sun tan lotion, mosquito spray, sunglasses and hats in our car because you never know when you’re going to be outside in the hot summer heat and need those items to protect the babes!

These are some of the small tips I use to keep me happy, the babes happy,  prolong our ability to be out and about in summer and help me stay organized. We are loving being outside and enjoying the warmer summer weather. The days are going by so fast and watching the little ones take in the world around them in the beauty of nature melts my heart!