Athleisure, At your Leisure

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Athleisure is all the rage right now. Anytime I hear someone mention athleisure, I think of that line at the end of Pride & Prejudice. Mr. Bennett gets good news and urges his wife, “For heaven's sake, send them in! I'm quite at my leisure.” It's one of those scenes I could watch (or read) ten thousand times because it makes me smile without fail. The twinkle in his eye, that feeling of belonging and peace. That's what leisure really is, isn't it?

Athleisure wear for familiesIt makes sense that we'd want to apply that concept to our athletic wear and take it a step further by wearing hip, stylish athletic stuff all the dang time! We should be moving around as much as possible throughout the day. And when we're moving around, we should be comfortable. I've never understood the tendency towards constricting spandex, and I'm quite happy to see things swinging the other direction…placing renewed focus on putting oneself at ease.

Athleisure wear for familiesThere's actually a boy in my oldest son's class who has some sensory issues and he won't wear anything at all except the smooth Under Armour shirts and shorts. You know the ones. They feel kind of cool against your skin. MAN, I love those things. Anyway, Some Boy and this kid have become friends. And since his friend wears this self-designated uniform, now Some Boy wants to wear athletic clothes all the time as well. Frankly, I can totally get on board with that idea! Anything that makes it easier to get dressed in the morning is a “win” in my book.

Athleisure wear for familiesI've had a few blog readers ask how I manage to have my boys matching pretty much all the time. It's a valid question since most people do tend to have a huge variance of clothing in their wardrobe (not all one brand like our Under Armour enthusiast friend!). The answer is two-fold. First, I tend to stick to one color scheme. I have a lot of friends with little girls and ALL of their stuff is pink. Pink, pink and more pink. Or purple, purple and more purple. With boys, I've found that there are a ton of clothes made for them in primary colors. That makes life easy, so I tend to just roll with that: red, green, blue and black. I don't get too crazy with big color variations, and their whole closet tends to wind up matching nicely.

Athleisure wear for familiesSecond, I buy their clothes in sets from our sponsor Kohl's. I've mentioned before that they're our go-to destination for stylish and durable playwear, and that's especially true for brand name active wear that gets put to the four-boy-family test in our household! When I buy an outfit for Some Boy, I buy corresponding ones for Sidekick and Minion and Bam. So if one wants to put on their “athleisure outfit” (or their preppy look, surfer dude clothes, whatever), I know that there's a look somewhere in the drawer for the other kids. No fighting. No more, “I want to wear what HE'S wearing!” Just photo-ready, happy kids. Obviously, I keep extra shirts and stuff around since we live on a farm and it's inevitable that someone takes a romp in the mud. However, we do at least start out each day with our own “mini uniforms” depending on what's in store for us, and it works out well.

Athleisure wear for familiesNaturally, I can't help but pick up some athleisure for myself, while I'm at it! The boys are all about that wicking Under Armour wear, but I tend to be more of a cotton blend gal. I love a pair of cozy joggers and a lightweight, breathable tank over a super-comfortable sports bra. Throw a bomber jacket over the whole thing with some snazzy shades, and we are good to go! I got this outfit AND all of the boys' gear for this shoot at Kohl's – one stop and we're on our way to comfy activity in style.

Athleisure wear for familiesAnother way I keep things cohesive is with the shoes. If I find one good pair of shoes, I go right on ahead and buy it in multiple sizes for the kiddos because it is SO dang hard to find pairs they'll wear reliably. We're all about Adidas for our athleisure footwear, and I love that I can find a huge selection to fit our whole family at Kohl's. I'm old-school with my classic-look Adidas NEO Cloudfoam Advantage Stripe shoes, while the little boys kick the style up a notch with the Samba Millennium version and the big kid goes full-blown athletic with NEO Cloudfoam Race shoes. He always tells me we need to get the “fastest shoes” so he can be the quickest one on the playground.

I'm not quite sure how to explain to him that it's not really dependent on the sneakers.

Athleisure wear for familiesThe boys are shown in all these pics wearing Under Armour from Kohl's, of course! Some Boy's in the red Logo Graphic Tee with a pair of Triple Double Athletic Shorts, Sidekick's in the blue Boxed Logo Tee with Interval Athletic Shorts topped with a Jumping Beans Sweater Fleece Zip Jacket, and Minion matched a fuel green Linear Logo Graphic Tee with a pair of Logo Zinger Shorts in Carbon Heather.

Do you dress your kids in matching stuff?

This post is sponsored by Kohl’s and POPSUGAR. We are genuinely obsessed with both of them.

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