Final Summer Bucket List update...

We got to last Wednesday and I asked Charley if there was anything he still really wanted to do this summer...given that we had a few things still on our summer bucket list.  He answered right away, "The Mall of America."  So we piled in the car and trekked there for a couple hours.  It was toddler Tuesday so that means you pay $12 for a ticket of 25 points...which was plenty for the boys.  So that was a good deal.  Henry rode some rides for the first time without me.  They had a nice time. 
Not my favorite kind of fun.  But gladly wanted to end the summer giving Charley the choice since he won't be as free to go here and there with school starting up. 

I have loved having the bucket list to conquer this summer.  It inspired me to do a few of the outings that I regret if I don't push myself to do them.  It gave me ideas on days when we weren't sure what to do.  I think we can say we did our list.  There were a few things that we missed and couldn't do.  But I feel like we replaced those things (camping, lightrail ride) with other really neat experiences (flying to grandmas, trip to Chicago, forts in the woods, etc.). 

So here is what I think will be our final bucket list update!

1. Go to the cottage
2. Go to Grandma Barb and Grandpa Bob's
3. Go to Grandma Charlie and Grandpa Ed's
4. Go to the beach
5. See fireworks

6. Go camping...we didn't do this yet.  Maybe this fall.  But we did take a family road trip to Chicago!

7. Go fishing
8. Zoo
9. Children's Museum
10. parade

11. sprinkler parks ( 1 2 )

12. Mall of America

13. Bonfire w/ s'mores
14. make rainbow pudding pops
15. go out for ice cream

16. Library adventures (visit 5 libraries 1 2 3 4 5 )

17. Pick strawberries...we missed this but we did hit the up north Children's museum this summer. 

18. Pick blueberries

19. Make pickles

20. Go to Lake Superior
21. picnic dinner
22. picnic lunch
23. feed the fish at pond

24. walk to the coffee shop...the coffee shop that we used to walk to closed before we could walk there this summer.  But I brought my latte maker to the cottage and sat in the quiet watching the lake and that was precious and yummy. 

25. water guns

26. Have lunch with daddy

27. Charley bakes on his own
28. Baseball on a field
29. Tennis on a court
30. Cent. Lakes

31. Lightrail to Min. falls for picnic - let's be honest, being a new mom of three...this wasn't going to happen.  But I did fly to my parent's with Sydney this month. And we took the metra in Chicago to see downtown.

32. Celebrate mom's birthday
33. Waterslide

34. Eat breakfast at picnic table

35. Have friends for waffles

36. Richard. Nature Center...this is typically a better fall activity.  We did however, go see the Visitor's center up at Grandma Charlie's 3 times and what an amazing place that is! 

37. Water balloons

38. See Cars Race...we didn't get there this year at the cottage...but we got to see the Packers play!

39. See Great Grandpa and Great Grandma
40. Ice Cream in Bayfield
41. Lunch at Skips
42. Ride on a boat
43. Sign up for Reading program at library
44. Hike at Cl. Lake...another fall activity.  We did make it to the beach here with a few friends though.  And while at Grandma Charlie's the boys spent plenty of time in the woods hiking around and building forts.
45. Community LT pool
46. Movie
47. Farmer's market
48. Candy shop

49. Send postcards (1 2 3 4 5)

50. Find a treasure at a garage sale

Lake Superior Moments

Love this...

Summer Bucket List....Life lists...Feel good moments. CHECK THIS OUT!

In Which I Promise to Not Call Myself Fat .......Emerging Mummy





Week 3 and 4 Summer Bucket list update...

1. Go to the cottage

2. Go to Grandma Barb and Grandpa Bob's

3. Go to Grandma Charlie and Grandpa Ed's

4. Go to the beach

5. See fireworks

6. Go camping

7. Go fishing

8. Zoo

9. Children's Museum

10. parade

11. sprinkler parks ( 1 2 )

12. Mall of America

13. Bonfire w/ s'mores

14. make rainbow pudding pops

15. go out for ice cream

16. Library adventures (visit 5 libraries 1 2 3 4 5 )

17. Pick strawberries

18. Pick blueberries

19. Make pickles

20. Go to Lake Superior

21. picnic dinner

22. picnic lunch

23. feed the fish at pond

24. walk to the coffee shop

25. water guns

26. Have lunch with daddy

27. Charley bakes on his own

28. Baseball on a field

29. Tennis on a court

30. Cent. Lakes

31. Lightrail to Min. falls for picnic

32. Celebrate mom's birthday

33. Waterslide

34. Eat breakfast at picnic table

35. Have friends for waffles

36. Richard. Nature Center

37. Water balloons

38. See Cars Race

39. See Great Grandpa and Great Grandma

40. Ice Cream in Bayfield

41. Lunch at Skips

42. Ride on a boat

43. Sign up for Reading program at library

44. Hike at Cl. Lake

45. Community LT pool

46. Movie

47. Farmer's market

48. Candy shop

49. Send postcards (1 2 3 4 5)

50. Find a treasure at a garage sale

Bucket list...week 2 update

This week we conquered a few more items on our Summer Bucket List

We hiked at a park that was on our list.  It is a favorite of ours and it was daddy's request on Father's Day.

We also signed up for the Library Summer Reading program and jumped into the Monday storytime.

We also had friends over for waffles.  Yummy!

And on Friday we found a great treasure at a garage sale..it was a HUGE bin of Zhu Zhu pet stuff.  The boys each had one zhu zhu pet - goofy toys, in my opinion.  But all the accessories seemed extravagant.  But at the sale they had a bin of all these accessories plus some babies and big zhu zhus...we bargained for them and got this whole lot for 25 bucks!  What a deal!  The boys played ALL AFTERNOON on Friday with them. 

1. Go to the cottage

2. Go to Grandma Barb and Grandpa Bob's

 3. Go to Grandma Charlie and Grandpa Ed's

4. Go to the beach

5. See fireworks

6. Go camping

7. Go fishing

8. Zoo

9. Children's Museum

10. parade

 Henry new little buddy lives on a parade route for our local community festival.

They invited us over to sit in the shade and enjoy the parade.

Loved this afternoon!

11. sprinkler parks ( 1 2 )

12. Mall of America

13. Bonfire w/ s'mores

14. make rainbow pudding pops

15. go out for ice cream

16. Library adventures (visit 5 libraries 1 2 3 4 5 )

We have been to our library twice and my parents library!  

17. Pick strawberries

18. Pick blueberries

19. Make pickles

20. Go to Lake Superior

21. picnic dinner

22. picnic lunch

23. feed the fish at pond

24. walk to the coffee shop

25. water guns

26. Have lunch with daddy

27. Charley bakes on his own

28. Baseball on a field

29. Tennis on a court

30. Cent. Lakes

31. Lightrail to Min. falls for picnic

32. Celebrate mom's birthday

33. Waterslide

34. Eat breakfast at picnic table

35. Have friends for waffles

Thanks Tommy and Kim for being early morning playmates!

36. Richard. Nature Center

37. Water balloons

38. See Cars Race

39. See Great Grandpa and Great Grandma

40. Ice Cream in Bayfield

41. Lunch at Skips

42. Ride on a boat

43. Sign up for Reading program at library

44. Hike at Cl. Lake

45. Community LT pool

46. Movie

47. Farmer's market

48. Candy shop

49. Send postcards (1 2 3 4 5)

50. Find a treasure at a garage sale

What's my summer game plan!?!

This summer I have put a lot of thought into how I was going to approach our days. I wanted some routine. I wanted some different things to happen on days when we were at home. I wanted balance. I wanted to be deliberate in the choices I made with my kids. I spent a lot of time going back and forth with my friend Sarah. I spent a whole day chit chatting about life with her - but we always came back to "So how are you going to set up your days?"

I want to give my tribe my attention and have fun. I also want to keep up the house, stay on top of the laundry, and give myself time to blog, read, cook, etc. Balance.

So a few things about how I have started our summer...which was basically this week because we were out of town last week at my mom and dads.

1. I made a trip to our local craft store and dollar store and stocked up a small bin with goodies to pull out when there is a moment where a little something new would help get us through. Things like...coloring/activity books, water guns, airplanes, sponges, and other crappy stuff that will ultimately drive me crazy...but will be fun for an hour or two some summer moment.

2. I have reminded myself that outings are fun as long as they are balanced with at home time. Play dates are fun as long as they are balanced with quiet family days. Messy crafts, water fun, baking, etc. can be balanced with a tiny bit of screen time.

3. My summer bucket list. So far I am loving this. I am taking great pride in watching as things get crossed off. I have a mix of things I KNOW we will do but want us to anticipate and I have things that I want to challenge us to do. I also have things the boys came up with. So far things have naturally happened. LOVE that.

4. I got myself a notebook and each morning I take a few minutes to write out a flexible schedule for our day. Charley LOVES this. He knows I am all about changing it if we need to. If we get into something and decided to skip something else that's okay. It is expected to be different everyday. But there are things like Quiet time, structured play, school time, jobs, reading, and free play that will find themselves on the schedule most days.

5. I am prepared to think outside of the box. At my mom and dads I grabbed their "school homework books"...that's what Henry calls them and a box of crayons and brought them to a park. Last summer we sat out on blankets in our backyard and wrote about the nature around us. Packing the boys a lunch and letting them pick a place in the house or yard to eat. Taking a toy that is normally stationed in one room of your house and putting it somewhere else..changes the perspective....it is all about changing up the location and keeping things flexible, simple, and fun.

These are just a few of the thoughts I have had as I prepared to tackle "Summer." I want to enjoy it. I want it to be easy. I want to have balance. I want to be happy. We'll see how it goes.

Up above I added a link that connects you to old posts giving some of the kid activities I have posted since starting this blog. As our summer goes by I will add more things that we are doing. Many of them are just silly things...but when I read blogs and someone mentions something they did...well it often times reminds me to do it. So enjoy. If it isn't linked...that just means it doesn't have a post.

Summer "bucket" list....

There has been a frenzy of mommy bloggers sharing their summer bucket lists. I remember seeing them last summer and wishing I had been organized to do a bucket list before summer began. Guess what! This disorganized mama managed to get the boys to sit down and create our bucket list before Charley was out of school...and man was it hard to not start crossing things off.

I want to clarify that our list does not involve a bucket. I am not the kind of mom who can throw all the ideas in a bucket and let my child draw one out in the morning. I am not able to just go with that kind of chaos. I am in awe of any mom who is. WOW! To have your child pull tye-dye shirts and then to just whip out that activity...or to have your child pull out some grand outing and just hop in the good old minivan and go...yeah, that is not me. I like to have some control over the BIG fun that we have...when we will do it, when my mood fits, when we can have fun friends join us...I like to know the night before what the next day will look like...somewhat.

I would like to have a jar filled with some of the toys, games, activities that my boys could manage to do independently when they are lacking inspiration. So we'll see.  I do have the goal to put a link up top with some of our at home fun that we enjoy this summer. 

Here are the items on our bucket list.  It hangs on a door in our house...it stretches from the top to the bottom.  Again, this is a bigger ticket items.  Some of them will be challenges and many will be accomplished when we are on our summer road trips. 

1. Go to the cottage
2. Go to Grandma Barb and Grandpa Bob's
3. Go to Grandma Charlie and Grandpa Ed's
4. Go to the beach
5. See fireworks
6. Go camping
7. Go fishing
8. Zoo
9. Children's Museum
10. parade
11. sprinkler parks ( 1 2 )
12. Mall of America
13. Bonfire w/ s'mores
14. make rainbow pudding pops
15. go out for ice cream
16. Library adventures (visit 5 libraries 1 2 3 4 5 )
17. Pick strawberries
18. Pick blueberries
19. Make pickles
20. Go to Lake Superior
21. picnic dinner
22. picnic lunch
23. feed the fish at pond
24. walk to the coffee shop
25. water guns
26. Have lunch with daddy
27. Charley bakes on his own
28. Baseball on a field
29. Tennis on a court
30. Cent. Lakes
31. Lightrail to Min. falls for picnic
32. Celebrate mom's birthday
33. Waterslide
34. Eat breakfast at picnic table
35. Have friends for waffles
36. Richard. Nature Center
37. Water balloons
38. See Cars Race
39. See Great Grandpa and Great Grandma
40. Ice Cream in Bayfield
41. Lunch at Skips
42. Ride on a boat
43. Sign up for Reading program at library
44. Hike at Cl. Lake
45. Community LT pool
46. Movie
47. Farmer's market
48. Candy shop
49. Send postcards (1 2 3 4 5)
50. Find a treasure at a garage sale