A new routine!

For quite some time we have had the children in a routine of going to bed at 6:30pm. It is lovely to know that we have the evening to ourselves. However, Nathan has been getting up around 5:30am and that's a wee bit early for me! It's also a bit of a rush to get the children their tea, have them bathed and ready for bed by 6:30pm. Lewis and I talked about it yesterday and decided that we need to make a change to our routine. We are hoping to get the childrentheir tea between and 4pm and 5pm and then let them play until 6pm. At 6pm we will start bathing them and then they can have a snack and drink and bed at 7pm. It's not much of a change but I've done it tonight and it has been really relaxed. The children have had time to play on their bikes outside and then do some colouring, before being bathed. We have had Family Home Evening and stories, snack and they have gone up to bed nicely. It is only day one, and Lewis isn't here (he is always a bit of a distraction!) so we will see how we go.
I do like the children to be in a routine, but having said that I'm not one of those whose children will start going mental if they aren't in the bath at exactly the same time each night. Life throws curve balls especially when you have children, and sometimes you just need to go with the flow or you will drive yourself mad!!