Out Alone

I have been getting braver lately. On Thursday afternoon, after we had checked out from the hotel and dropped all of our gear off at home, I loaded Conner and Shannen back into the van and we headed to pick James up from school. Jimmy had scheduled cleaners to come to the house that afternoon so I needed to find something to do to occupy our time until they removed the first layer of grunge from the house. My friend Jenny invited us over her house but we weren't going there until around 2:15.

So, I stopped at a local park with all 3 kids by myself. It actually turned out a lot better than I expected. The kids had a great time playing. Shannen even sat on a blanket for part of the time watching her brothers run around like wild animals. It was manageable because we were the only ones there so I could easily listen and watch for my kids because they were the only ones making any noise. We loaded back into the car without an incident and headed over to Jenny's house to end our afternoon of play.

They had a fabulous time and Jenny was so nice to satisfy James' wish to play in the tents/tunnel system. I certainly liked the deal she made with him to pick up other toys first before she would set the tents/tunnels up. We returned back home around 5:30ish to a cleaner house. They cleaned the floors so well that they actually squeaked when we walked on them. In the 7+ years that we have know each other, I have never heard the floors in this place sound so clean.

Today, after being couped up in the house all day I decide to take the kids outside for a walk. Well, when we got outside Conner headed straight for the car and must have thought that I said we were going for a ride. An impromptu car ride ended up with a stop at Whole Foods in Naples and at Publix once we returned to Fort Myers. At Whole Foods, I had to negotiate one child in a stroller(Shannen), carry another child on my hip(Conner) and get a headstrong three year old to hold onto the stroller as we walked through the parking lot to the front of the store to get a shopping cart. You are probably wondering why I had Shannen in a stroller. Well, they don't have a cart that I can put 3 kids into and groceries as well. So, I pushed Shannen in the stroller and pulled Conner and James in the shopping cart. At Publix, it wasn't so hard getting around the store. They have carts that accommodate all 3 of our kids. I just had to get them inside the store first. I carried Shannen this time, held Conner's hand and had James hold onto my pocket.

We successfully survived our trip out to the grocery stores but I do have to say the logistics do take a bit of forethought!