Spring-air, playground workouts and new life on the "farm"

There is nothing like good weather to brighten your spirits. As I mentioned before, I am starting my spring break and enjoying a week off with the kiddos. Today was a beautiful day. We spent some time at the beach (even though it was cold at the shore) because my husband was out for a run and needed us to drive him some water and food on his route. So the kids and I did some digging, seashell hunting and of course Liam HAS to jump off the sea wall 100 times.







Next stop was to pick up daddy and go visit my Mother-in law at the rehab center where she is working hard to get better from a bad surgery. The kids love Nana and we had a good visit.

Then we convinced daddy to head to the playground. It was about 15 degrees warmer inland, which was fabulous
















Liam wanted to go to the playground to show his daddy how he can go ALL the way across the monkey bars without help. I tell you my little guy is pretty darn strong for someone who just turned 4. He is going to be quite the athlete.

I love that we have so many playgrounds here. This playground is my favorite. The last few times I went I did some mini-workouts as the kids played. Today was no exception. We all got our fitness on as we played.

Pregnancy Playground Workout

Here are some examples of what I did:

As I pushed the kids on the swing I did very love squats as I pushed out. I bet I did around 60-80 total.

I did one leg step ups on various size steps..somewhere around 50 on each leg.

I did side scissor step ups on the piping around the border of the playground 3 sets of 12 on each leg.

I went to a steep hill and did lunges up and down that hill 5 times.

There was also a set of stairs that I climbed a few times, two steps at a time.

Then a did alternating sets of double knee lifts (great for working the birthing muscles)
and twist planks, modified from Maria's amazing post found here: http://alifetobraggabout.blogspot.com/2012/04/friday-5-five-exercises-you-dont.html

I enjoyed my mini-playground workout. This playground also has a small gravel track, so it is a great place to come with all the kiddos and set up a routine when the baby is here. I love working out with the family and it is amazing to see the kiddos get some great exercise as they watch their parents do the same. Being a role model for my kids to be active and healthy is my main drive for staying fit.

And just when I thought our day couldn't get any more exciting, I remembered it was time to pick up the baby chicks we ordered. We had chickens for the last two years, but sadly lost the last of our small flock to coyotes a few months ago. So we decided to expand our chicken operation here on our wanna-be farm and now have 30, week old chicks living in our garage. So this fall I will be posting some serious egg recipes, as they are likely to begin laying around the end of October.



















So we will have a lot of new life around these parts. I love the spring and the changes it brings. Our little family plans to take it all in stride and do a lot of planting, growing, working out and raising little things this spring and summer. There is nothing like fresh air and nice weather,,,it seems to revive the spirit.