Life Without Herr

We are in week #2 of being Herr-less. He met up with us in Maine last weekend and we went our separate ways last Monday. While I am talking to him daily, I really miss him and can't wait until he comes home this weekend. I am a little jealous that this was my annual girlie weekend and couldn't go AND Herr visited one of our friends in Hoboken without me. For the most part, the girls have been fairly well-behaved. It helps that my mother-in-law took Peaches on Friday and then gave her back to me on Sunday and took Baby Girl. We will meet tomorrow afternoon, whereupon I will have both of them back together.

While Peaches was away, I took Baby Girl to a Fireman's Parade and Festival in Sharonville, OH. The website wasn't kidding when it said that the parade is the loudest in Southwest Ohio. Based on our ears splitting open and my daughter quivering in fear, I think it may be the loudest parade on earth. While I was able to comfort her during the noisy sirens of more than 50 emergency vehicles from around the tri-state area, she was on her own when the circus clowns and the Shriners came out. While I know that the Shriners can't really hurt me in their cars, I remember all too well a certain 4th of July parade when I was about 4 or 5 in which a Shriner put his sword to my neck as a joke. I promptly peed my pants. And clowns? Don't even get me started. As a result, I had my back turned during that portion of the parade. I am sure the friends I was with thought I was strange to have my back turned, but I was much too embarrassed to share my fears. After we saw the parade, we stayed at the festival for awhile and allowed our kids to ride old rickety rides. Baby Girl had a blast, as she does whenever we send her out in public to be with "her people."



On Saturday evening, I took Baby Girl to King's Island, specifically, the Nickelodeon Universe portion of the park. Despite a storm that blew through an hour before I got there, the place was PACKED. We spent 2 1/2 hours waiting in line to go on 5 rides. Waiting in line is worse than any punishment a 3 1/2 year old has to endure. If we ever get family passes to anywhere near our new home (like Hersey Park), I will wait until the girls are older. On the plus side, we ate Graeters. Ice cream makes everything better. Especially when there's jimmies on the ice cream.

After meeting up with my MIL to trade girls, Peaches decided to show me how much she had missed me by SCREAMING the entire way back to Cincinnati from Greensburg, Indiana. That's an hour, people. After that she was cool. Good thing I left the earplugs in the car from the ride back from New Jersey. We decided to check out Winton Woods today with my friend Leeann and her two girls. What a blast. Across the street from the main park is a petting zoo/play area called Parky's Farm. While Peaches was too young to actually touch the animals, she had fun growling at them. After that, we went to the water playground. Peaches and Abby had an insanely good time running around in the water, shrieking and laughing. It's good to be a kid, huh?!