Hey friends. Last week I was on the solo parenting train. This is only the second time I had all 3 kids by myself with Brian out of town. Brian has a new job where he has had to go to California for training a 2x so far. There will be more in the future to different locations as well.
I was nervous the first time he left. The kids were still in school, Austin had a broken arm, crazy schedules, new schedules with Brian not being here to help, and just our dependency on Brian. This time he went I knew it was going to be a crazy week, but I had my village at my finger tips if I needed help. I know I do a lot already on my own and I don't need Brian but it is nice to have the extra hands and my kids like their dad. Saying that I give credit to parents who solo parent, an/or are single parents doing it all on their own. It is hard especially with more than one kid and crazy schedules.
Sunday June 23
Saturday night we were at a friends house for the kids to play and the parents to hang out. I was drinking a gin drink that I liked, previously I don't like the taste of gin it reminds me of a Christmas tree. They were smooth and went down to easy and it caught up with me quick. Making for Sunday morning very rough. I learned the hard way. We didn't go to church but had made plans to take the kids to Cedar Point for the first time this year. Thankfully we didn't plan on going until after 1pm so I just rested all morning and finally got out of bed. I still wasn't feeling the greatest while we were there but I pushed through. First ride tradition is the merry go round. Brian took Anna and Austin on it. I opted out of all rides until the very end.
We meet our neighbors up there for our kids to all ride together. Some rides all 4 of them rode together, other the girls rode together and the boys rode together.
This will probably be the last year Austin will be able to hang out in the kids areas of the park.
The kids got along so well all day. I had the stroller for Anna, and they had a wagon for their kids, which everyone took turns riding in. Even though Anna doesn't technically need a stroller, we like to have it to put our drinks, snack bag, etc so I am not stuck wearing a bookbag in the heat and carrying everything around.
Our friends left while Austin and Brian got in line for a roller coaster. While we were waiting there was a stage show that Anna wanted to watched.
Ella and her friend were bored with the stage show. They explored and rode a bunch of roller coasters on their own. They had to check in with me every so often, came to us when they needed food, and I could track Ella on her phone the whole time.
The first ride of the day and the last.
We had a fun day at Cedar Point. We have season passes so there will be a lot more trips this summer.
Brian bought these pictures because how couldn't you. Look at her face.
Austin was also having so much fun. Monday June 24
The day was supposed to be crazy busy. I was suppose to have court/trial for my girlfriends divorce. My parents were suppose to come to the house to watch 5 kids (my 3 and my girlfriends 2). We got the notice Friday afternoon that court has been postponed again (for the 3rd time I have been involved with). I no longer needed my parents and the day was a lot more relaxed.
Austin had summer reading camp in the morning.
Then the littles hung out in the pool most of the afternoon.
Brian had already scheduled for our neighbor to take him to the airport. He left around 130.
Swimming and the heat wears a princess out.
For dinner I made cheesecake tortellini Austin and Ella loved it, Austin had 3 bowls. Anna was a brat and had a cheese quesadilla, which is her go to when she doesn't like what we are having.
Tuesday June 25
Austin had speech at 830 before summer reading camp. Anna woke up 5 minutes before I had to leave so I left her home with Ella. I did a quick trip to Aldi. I recorded a solo parenting Aldi grocery haul. I picked Austin up from camp, we came home and had lunch, then the kids played nicely on Roblox and building a fort in Anna's room.
After dinner Anna requested a movie night with Ella. The had warm cocoa, which turned out to be warm strawberry milk and popcorn. Austin didn't want to watch the movie so he played Lego's in his room.
Wednesday June 26
Austin had summer reading camp. While he was at camp I packed lunches to eat in the car after we picked him up.
Ella had a dentist appointment to get a filling done. My mom meet us in the parking lot. She lives 10 minutes away from the dentist, I didn't have time to drop the younger two off then get back to her appointment. Instead my mom sat in the car with them and they watched a movie while I was in the dentist with Ella.After the dentist we got gas and did a little shopping at Sam's Club. We got home and Ella's dad picked her up for the evening. Anna, Austin and I had a low key night with some cleaning and playing Paw Patrol matching game a few times.
Thursday June 27
I got in the habit of waking up before anyone else again. I took the time to get some things done around the house, and a little me time. While sitting on the couch journaling I look up and see mama deer and her twins right outside the back door next to the patio. I made the mistake of throwing lettuce right out the door because it was raining and I didn't want to go back to the feeder. I was thinking another animal would have gotten it overnight, not the deer first thing in the morning. (thankfully they didn't eat any of my flowers, which is why we try to keep them away from the house)
Austin had summer reading camp. We picked him up, grabbed some McDonalds for lunch and headed to my parents house.
My parents invited us to go to the Deer Park with them. Since there was 7 of us, we could all fit in my van. It was about a 45 minute drive from their house near Sandusky.
It is a big fenced in area that has deer, goats, birds, and peacocks running around. The deer and goats will come up to you to get fed. We bought bags of feed, which was peanuts and corn to be able to feed them. My parents had been there before so we prepared and brought our own cups otherwise the deer will rip the paper bag out of your hand and eat it.
At first Anna was scared but she warmed up to them pretty quickly. The only thing she didn't like was when the deer were demanding and wanted feed now. Some would push another deer out of the way to steal the food. They would also nibble on your shirt to get your attention, but didn't leave holes.
Around the perimeter of the property was smaller fenced in areas with a bull, donkeys, emu's, Llamas, and different types of deer. You couldn't go in those areas but you could feed most of the animals through the fence. In the one fenced in area there were at least 10 baby deer, but they didn't come up to you.
Some of them were so tame that you could just pet them. Anna wanted to take this deer home.
Outside the petting zoo is two big stocked ponds that you can pay to fish in, but you have to bring your own supplies. They also had some koy fish to feed that the kids enjoyed.
This peacock was inside the deer area. He keep fluttering his feathers and showing off how beautiful he was. I also have videos of him twirling.
On our way home I surprised the kids and stopped at the beach. We live a mile from Lake Erie but never go to the beach because of rip tides and harmful water chemicals that doesn't make it ideal for swimming most of the time. It was only in the 70s outside and sunny, and the beach wasn't very crowded so I said we could go see and touch the water, but not get soaked as they didn't have extra clothes.
As you can see that didn't work. Anna ended up getting wet because she wanted to be go in deeper like the girls. I did have a change of clothes for Anna in the car. Ella and Claudia ended up soaked and sitting in the lake before we left. Thankfully I had a beach towel in the van for the girls to dry off some and sit on.
We went back to my parents where Ella changed to Claudia's clothes, we had pizza for dinner, then celebrated my sister and my birthday. My sisters was this day and mine was two days later.
Friday June 28
Austin had his last day of summer reading camp.
We spend the rest of the day cleaning, straightening up, and resting.
Ella went to her dads. Anna requested a movie night. We made popcorn, hot chocolate, and watch Inside Out.
Saturday June 29
Happy Birthday to me. Before picking up Ella I grabbed a trenta chocolate cold brew for my free birthday drink. After getting Ella we swung by Panera and grabbed a $1 bagel that was also part of their birthday promotion. I took the kids into TJ Maxx as we were out of Mocha syrup at home and also grabbed this kids fun marshmallows.
Our neighbor picked up Brian from the airport. He also took him to the grocery store on the way home to grab steaks for dinner. Baseball was cancelled because of storms so Brian laid down for 2 hours. He had taken the redeye from Sacramento to Atlanta. He barely slept on the plane because the heaters weren't working properly, he said it was the coldest flight he had ever been on.
After Brian woke up from his nap we headed to his brothers house for his nieces birthday party. We didn't stay to long because we had other plans also.
The kids did get to play pin the tail on the mermaid and a pinata.
We went home and our neighbors came home to celebrate my birthday. They had originally planned to have us over for my birthday knowing that Brian had been away all week, but Brian insisted on having it at our house.
It was a nice evening with great company, kids getting along and playing, delicious food, a few bottles of wine, and lots of laughs. Thank you for stopping by!!!!! If you are new here,
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XOXO
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