The Fair

Posted on August 15, 2013 by Amy

I just love the Iowa State Fair.

We live in Wisconsin, but I’m not a big fan of our fair. It feels too urban, being located in Milwaukee. I only went once, when I was pregnant with Miss, and don’t care to go back. The Iowa State Fair, on the other hand, is just delightful.

When we go, we don’t do some of the typical fair things, like riding rides and playing games on the midway. My girls are a little too small for most of them, and I am a little iffy about fair rides. So we don’t even go down that way.

Mostly, we look at animals.

My girls are crazy about animals.

The girls listed their favorites from the day to include ostriches, elk, fish, cows, horses, swans, and wood ducks.

And the Big Yellow Slide, of course.

My favorite part of the day with them was our time in the DNR building. They were fascinated by the tanks full of fish and asked what types of fish were in each one.

Sis had fallen asleep in the stroller so we had lots of time to look at and talk about all the fish.

In the same building there was also an area with many animal pelts hanging together. We went through them all, and I asked the girls to name the animals. They were able to name every one except the woodchuck (which I couldn’t name either). They got obvious ones like the beaver, skunk, and raccoon. But also the bobcat, otter, badger (once I showed them the head), red and grey foxes, and opossum.

I don’t know why, but it tickled me immensely that they were able to name those animal hides.

And to top it off, we went outside to the DNR’s “pond” and had a blast watching the swans, geese, and ducks as they splashed and played in the water. This seemed like the biggest hit of the day in terms of the time the girls wanted to spend there.

Or maybe the biggest hit of the day was the food.

These girls have never had so much “junk food” in one day in their lives.

It was such a special day.

Still Dirty, Still Weird, Still Fun

Posted on August 9, 2013April 4, 2014 by Amy

Linking up with Conversion Diary again.

1. Went to the Dirty Weird Zoo yesterday. It just wouldn’t be summer without a visit to the DWZ.

When we visited last year my girls were timid about feeding the animals, and Lass just wouldn’t do it at all.

Not so this year.

We ran out of bread, but they were determined to feed grass to the cows.

Still dirty and weird. I just love that place.

2. What do you do if someone rings your doorbell at 9:30 at night, when your husband is working nights, and you know that the night before your garage door had accidentally been left open all night?

Do you assume a murderer has come for you (and politely rung your doorbell)? Turn off all the lights inside? Turn on all the lights outside? Turn on your alarm system?

Do you go to your garage door after realizing there’s no one at your front door (which you can see through) and yell, “Who is it??” “WHO IS IT?!”

Do you look around for a weapon and then grab your husband’s hunting knife and stalk around the house looking out all the windows?

No?

Yeah, me neither.

But if I did do all that stuff I would have felt kind of silly when I called my husband to double check that the garage doors were all closed when he left, and realized that my mysterious doorbell-ringer was probably one of the neighborhood kids messing around.

If I hadn’t been terrified to open my door I would have gone out there and rung those kids’ necks! I mean, if all that had actually happened, of course.

3. Okay. Obviously, #2 is an account of exactly what I did last night when my doorbell rang shortly after my husband had left for work. Since there was no one at my front door (little jerk ran away!) and I couldn’t see through the door into the garage (note to self to have peephole in new house), I was convinced that someone was lurking in my garage, waiting for me to open the door so he could murder me. I kept the hunting knife on the chair next to me for the rest of the night, even though after talking to my husband and then hearing kids getting up to some foolishness outside, I knew that our garage doors were securely closed and that said kids were responsible for my panic. Or at least for setting it in motion. I guess I can’t blame them for my craziness.

I don’t know why I automatically go into extreme-plan-to-confront-crazed-killer mode whenever there is the slightest indication of shady business going on.

Like the other day when a guy came to deliver something for my husband. I had forgotten he was coming, and he wasn’t wearing an obvious uniform. So in my mind all I saw was a strange man at my door with no business there. I quickly assessed the situation, considered how quickly I could press the panic button on my alarm panel, looked for an easily reachable weapon (a heavy vase was the closest thing I saw), thought of a few different ways I could inflict pain with my hands/knees/feet, and then cautiously opened the door a tiny crack with my foot wedged behind it to hopefully impede an attempt at forced entry. Yes. I do know this is crazy.

Or the time my husband and I were in the drive through of Starbucks after church and a girl, who was probably around 20-ish and all of maybe 110 lbs, started walking along the side of our car. She was a little close for (my) comfort so I automatically scanned to be sure the car doors were locked, looked for the best way for my husband to drive the car out of the danger lane, and thought about how I would punch her in the nose and the put my knee into her face if she tried to carjack us.

I don’t mean to come up with this stuff. I’m not at all a violent person. It just happens automatically. I don’t know if it’s because I grew up just outside Detroit in the days when carjacking became a thing. Or because I read a few too many true-crime novels in my early 20s. Or because I worked in prisons for several years. Probably it’s all those things combined, plus a hyper-protective don’t-you-even-think-you’re-going-to-mess-with-my-kids Mama-Bear instinct. Plus a little bit of insanity for good measure.

It’s what I do.

4. We got the first draft of the plans for our new house yesterday. We have a few changes to make, but I’m very happy with the initial drawings.

5. I have some serious stroller envy.

Super Friend has all the good stuff. She brought this double jogger today for both of our stroller-size littles to ride in:

I’ve never had a jogging stroller, because I have had a total of zero interest in jogging since running my last marathon in 2008. But I want it.

Super Friend is also loaning us her Super Stroller again. We used it for our trip to Disney World, and though I carried sis the whole time it is capable of carrying all three girls.

She’s letting us take it on our trip to the Iowa State Fair next week. I need to get one of these:

6. I don’t think there’s any worse feeling in the world than needing to take your child to the emergency room to assess a potentially serious health threat.

I got KFC for dinner last night, because we had to eat quickly between a doctor’s appointment and our Baptism class. As dinner was just getting started I noticed that Lass had bitten off the end of her chicken drumstick and swallowed it. The remaining end was pretty jagged looking so hubby called the ER and they told us to bring her in for X-rays. If they saw the chunk of or shards of bone in her stomach they would have to do a procedure to try to get it out.

Well, I was freaking out the whole way to the hospital, knowing they were going to see this thing in her stomach, because I knew she had swallowed it and praying that it had not yet moved into her duodenum or beyond.

We got to the hospital, got the X-rays, and found…

Nothing.

(She got that ostrich toy after her X-ray.)

Nothing was visible in her stomach or further along her digestive tract. I texted my babysitter and had her look around for the piece of bone, thinking that maybe she had just spit it out.

Nothing.

The mystery was solved when we got home. Hubby picked up another piece of chicken and chomped the end off. He proceeded to chew it right up like nothing. It was super soft and broke right up in his mouth. He had me try it with yet another drumstick. Yeah, I bit right through that bone. And then proceeded to gag and spit it right out. It was disgusting, and I have a thing about textures.

Apparently my middle child doesn’t. I’m so relieved she’s okay.

7. Today Super Friend and I are driving an hour to attend a Scholastic Warehouse Sale. With only one child (her littlest). Do I need to tell you that I’m way more excited about uninterrupted Mommy Friend time than about the book sale? No. I don’t. But the book sale should be good too.

Hoping you have a great Friday and a wonderful weekend. We’re heading to the Farm today after my Mommy date.

Summer Fun List Update

Posted on July 27, 2013July 26, 2013 by Amy

First of all, sorry about yesterday. Laundry and weeds and appliances? Yeah. Sorry.

I’ll do better today.

Some people have been asking me about our progress on our Summer Fun List.

Out of 51 things (the original list had 50, but I added “Iowa State Fair” to it when some travel plans changed), we have completed 28.

I just counted them up tonight and am a little surprised we haven’t done more.

But we’ve been having a heck of a great time.

Last night we went to the local old-fashioned drive-in restaurant for our family date night. We were going to have a picnic in the back of my truck, but there was a lot of loud and smelly construction going on right next to the restaurant. Hubby and I both thought that we could have handled the noise, but the diesel fumes were too much. So we went to a different place, with the plan to go back for our picnic either after the construction is finished or on a Saturday when the workers aren’t there.

Tonight our friends are coming over for a cookout and movie night. We’re having s’mores, and we’ll try to catch fireflies (second attempt). That’s three more things to check off in a few hours.

^Dancing/chasing when we went to an outdoor concert.

I have a date with Super Friend to take the kids to the (regular) zoo this next week. I think we’ll head to the Dirty Weird Zoo in the next two weeks too, probably when Daddy starts working nights again (we’re starting Z is for Zoo in school).

^Showing off some of the treasures we received after completing our library’s Summer Reading Program.

We have made lemonade and ice cream and I have some nice ripe bananas ready to blend into a popsicle mixture.

There are a few things we /can’t/won’t do until we go to the Farm/Iowa in a few weeks. We’ll hit the Iowa State Fair then of course, and while we’re there hopefully go to a cool butterfly garden they have. We’ll (they’ll) probably also sleep in a tent (or try to) and make sandcastles at the Farm.

I think we’ll get everything done, except maybe getting ice cream from an ice cream truck. I haven’t seen an ice cream truck on our street yet this year.

The best thing is that Miss has asked me if we can have a Winter Fun List too. We decided to have a Fall/Winter list, which already includes: Have a snowball fight, Make a snowman, Go deer hunting, and lots of crafts, all at Miss’s request.

For fun reference, with about one month to go, we have completed:

Pick Strawberries

Summer Reading Program

Find Outdoor Treasures and Use them to Make Art Project

Plant a Garden

Make Old-Fashioned Lemonade

Go to an Outdoor Concert

Go to the Park

Watch Fireworks

Make Firework Art

Go For a Boat Ride

Make Ice Cream

Do an Outdoor Scavenger Hunt

Read Books Outside

Water Play

Run Through a Sprinkler

Put the Sprinkler Under the Trampoline (this was a favorite!)

Picnic Lunch in the Yard

Catch Tadpoles

Go Fishing

Play Hopscotch

Go to a Splash Pad

Swim in a Lake or Pond

Visit a Horse Farm and Ride a Horse (these ended up being two separate outings)

Go On a Treasure Hunt Outside

Grow Caterpillars into Butterflies

Pick Wildflowers

Go to the Beach

Hunt for Bugs

23 to go!

The Rest of the Week

Posted on July 5, 2013August 2, 2013 by Amy

I’m linking up with Conversion Diary again today.

My seven quick takes are pretty much all about what we’ve been doing this week with Grandma and Grandpa, in addition to the horseback riding and scavenger hunt that I’ve already posted about this week. That’s because I’m in the middle of nowhere and I have nothing else to talk about. But I do have a fabulous recipe for you that I’ve been meaning to share. So I’ll start with that.

1. Cauliflower crust pizza. Dee. Lish. Us. It is a great way to eat pizza if you don’t eat gluten or grains. You start by making cauli-rice (which itself is a good substitute for rice):

Then add a few ingredients to make it into a crust (recipe here).

Before baking the crust:

After:

It’s surprisingly easy, and my kids LOVE it. Get the recipe here. It really is good. You can even pick up a slice and eat it like regular pizza.

One tip – Don’t skimp on the step that stresses that you must get as much water out of the cauli-rice as possible before mixing in the other ingredients. I wrap it in a towel and squeeze the heck out of that stuff and still end up pressing a paper towel on it after shaping it into a crust (but before baking) to get out as much moisture as possible.

Try it. You’ll like it.

2. Okay, here’s where I’ll get into telling you all about what else we’ve been doing with G&G.

Swimming:

This pool sits on a hill in my parents’ yard. One corner of it has no water. The opposite one, the “deep end,” has only about 8 inches. Still, you’d think it was the best thing ever.

3. Another visit to the local nature center. This time we got to see all the animals.

The snakes were still the favorite though.

My big girls both chose $2 rubber snakes as their souvenirs. They have been sleeping with them. Are my kids the only ones who like to sleep with fake rubbery snake toys?

Lass has even named a new snake species for hers – “Jumping, Flying, Camouflage Snake.”

4. The beach:

Chasing butterflies:

The beach was awesome until a work crew of half a dozen adolescent boys showed up on their lunch break and decided to go for a swim. In their underwear.

We got out of the water at that point, but we had already had a great morning.

5. I was just informing my husband that we are going out to dinner tonight with my parents and the girls. The conversation went like this:

Me: “We’re going out to dinner again tonight”

Him: “Okay.”

Me: “We’re going to try to get there at about 5, because it’s a sit down place where they bring food.”

Him: “You mean a restaurant?”

Ah motherhood, where every conversation is affected by thoughts of your kids and you feel the need to clarify that the eating establishment you will be attending has wait staff who will bring the food to you instead of a buffet or order-at-the-counter arrangement.

6. Because you know you were dying to see pics of our parade yesterday:

7. And the grand finale:

My parents have some friends who were kind enough to invite us to watch the fireworks at their great lakefront house, which just happens to be right across the bay from the spot where they launch the show.

No battling traffic. No porta potties. No crowds. Nice.

They even had some pre-show home fireworks in the yard.

We tried to catch some fireflies, but it was too windy. We could only see them in the woods, and it was too freaking dark for me to go very far into the woods, even for fireflies for my kids. Plus Lass heard a boom from some fireworks and she turned around and took off running willy nilly into the dark and toward the water, so we had to abandon Operation Firefly promptly.

But the girls forgot all about the fireflies when the big fireworks started.

Have a great holiday weekend.

4th of July Fun

Posted on July 4, 2013 by Amy

We’re having lots of 4th of July fun here. I love the 4th of July. It’s not my favorite holiday, but it’s up there. I like the patriotic songs and parades and the flag waving. I love the middle-of-summer-holiday barbecues or picnics, beach trips or family parties by the pool. And my favorite, of course is the fireworks. We are planning to take the big girls out to watch those tonight and hopefully catch some fireflies and make s’mores too.

They are already getting into the patriotic spirit.

I made these shirts with the girls yesterday:

I got the idea here. I think we’ll do them every year.

I didn’t think of it until after I totally failed in getting Sis’s handprint, but I should have used her footprint instead I think…

The girls were excited to wear the shirts that they made themselves.

And we’ve read several patriotic and 4th of July themed books today, like:

Hooray for the 4th of July! by Rick Brown

America the Beautiful (Love this one) by Katharine Lee Bates and Chris Gall

America the Beautiful: Together We Stand by Katharine Lee Bates, Brian Collier (et al.)

Happy 4th of July Jenny Sweeney! by Leslie Kimmelman

Red, White, and BOOM! by Lee Wardlaw and

Apple Pie 4th of July by Janet S. Wong

Last night I put together a red, white, and blue-themed scavenger hunt for them to do this morning.

I had several packs of small American flags from the Target dollar section, cut some craft foam into different shapes, and grabbed a few extra things from the dollar store this week (red, white, and blue batons, leis, and artificial flowers).

I was hoping that the girls would enjoy this activity, and they really did. Even more than I expected, I think.

Miss liked crossing off her items as we went.

Everyone got into finding cool stuff.

When we came in we got all decked out in our red,white, and blue stuff (picture leis, flowers in the hair, and lots of flags waving) and marched in a parade around the house, complete with Grandma singing “Yankee Doodle” at full volume.

Fireworks tonight. Hope you’re having a wonderful 4th too.

Check It Off

Posted on June 30, 2013June 30, 2013 by Amy

When I wrote about our Summer List a few weeks ago, I mentioned that one of our to-do items was to visit a horse farm and ride horses. We were able to do part of that when we went to a horse farm with my Mother-in-law.

The girls had a great time seeing these beautiful horses.

But, Percherons are so huge, they aren’t really for riding.

The closest we could come to riding these big guys was to get a wagon ride.

The girls really enjoyed that trip.

But I still really wanted them to have a chance to ride horses.

Today we went on an outing with that goal in mind.

Near my my parents’ house is a wrangler camp where there is a riding stable. They have “pony rides” for little ones, and when my mom called this morning she was told that they were doing rides “all day every day.”

So we hurried and got ready. Which of course didn’t occur very quickly when getting three kids and myself dressed and sun screened, but we managed to hit the road a little after 11am. We arrived to the stable at about 11:45, only to see a sign on the door saying “Sorry, we’re out. Back at 1pm.”

I called the place again and got a message saying they are closed for lunch from 12 to 1. Apparently “all day every day” didn’t mean to them what it meant to us.

My girls could see horses out the car windows and were whining about getting out and riding them.

I pulled the car around to the back of the riding place so they could get out and at least look at the horses that were tied up along the fence.

As we were checking out these pretties, I was rapidly trying to figure out what we should do next.

Option 1: Go home and call it a day, get lunch and be down for naps at a reasonable time. Hope that seeing the horses would be enough to tide them over and then come back another day, earlier in the day, to ride.

Option 2: Find somewhere to have lunch (nothing was closer than at least a 20 minute drive) and come back to ride after 1.

Naturally, we chose Option 2.

We had a fun buffet lunch at the lakeside lodge and went back for rides.

I am so glad we did.

The girls had so much fun. They were excited that they got to ride big horses, instead of ponies. They smiled and chattered happily.

Miss told the handlers about our trip to see the Percherons.

When we asked Lass what her favorite kind of horse is she said, “This one I’m on!”

I loved watching them.

We didn’t get back until about 3. Naps were short. Girls were a bit crabby this evening. But it didn’t even matter.

This was well worth it.

Check it off.

Art from Nature. With Glitter.

Posted on June 24, 2013 by Amy

Something that I have really wanted to do with the girls this summer is to get them outside to do a treasure hunt in our yard for natural items that they could use to do an art project. A “nature collage,” is I guess what I was thinking, though I didn’t have anything terribly specific in mind.

So a couple of days ago I rounded up their Halloween buckets so they could collect some treasures and off they went.

They found some great stuff. Leaves, sticks, flowers, rocks, acorn tops, etc.

Today we got out the buckets and some big pieces of cardboard that I cut from a box and got to work.

I had this image in my mind of some really earthy, organic-looking artwork with all the natural materials they would be using.

But then I saw the glitter glue.

Seriously? Glitter and nature go perfectly together.

Sis found some more treasures while her sisters worked.

I love what the girls created.

Love, love, love.

Miss’s:

Lass’s:

This was such a fun project. Easy and cheap too!

Found objects + Cardboard + Glue (Glitter optional) + Creative Kids = Art!

I am totally hanging these on the wall. I hope the enormous rocks don’t fall off…

A Little Adventure

Posted on June 23, 2013June 23, 2013 by Amy

We had a little adventure today.

I wanted to plan a little outing. Something to get us out of the house so my husband could sleep.

Nothing huge, but something different, and thus an adventure.

So, after church, I smeared sunscreen on three girls, threw a picnic lunch together, and we drove to a local strawberry patch.

Lass was really into picking.

She worked hard and picked more than either Miss or me.

It was hot and muddy, but we had fun.

I have to admit though, after getting home from church, I was really tempted to skip the outing. I hadn’t mentioned it to the girls. It was getting close to lunch time and I knew we would end up having lunch late and then taking naps late. I kind of wanted to just do what was easy.

Stay home. Play in the yard. Read some books. Lunch at noon, naps at 1.

Easy.

I had a moment of thinking, “Eh, forget it.”

Then I thought about our Summer List and how excited the girls were to cross off the things we’ve done so far. Okay, I also thought about how much I like to cross things off lists.

I thought about how this might be the only good chance we have to pick strawberries since Miss has camp this week and we are going to Kentucky the following week (where strawberry picking is already done) and I didn’t know if we’d still be able to pick after that…

I thought about how much fun they would have if we had a little adventure.

I though about how sometimes it’s better to not just do the easier thing.

So, I took away my option of saying, “Eh, forget it” by telling the girls exactly what I had planned for us to do. I just blurted it out so I couldn’t take it back and I would have to follow through.

The looks on their faces and the thrill in their voices when I said we were going to pick strawberries and then go to a park for a picnic lunch… Well, I no longer wanted to wuss out, but I wouldn’t have anyway at that point.

And I’m glad I didn’t.

I’m happy I decided to smear that sunscreen and pack that lunch and take the 30 minute drive that should have been 20 minutes but we got a little lost because my GPS didn’t recognize the address of the place.

We would have had a lovely day if we had stayed home and played in the yard and colored and read books.

But instead we had a little adventure.

It was a memorable day. I’m not sure if my girls will remember it, but I surely will.

It was so worth it.

Some Miscellany – 7 Quick Takes Friday

Posted on June 21, 2013June 21, 2013 by Amy

— 1 —

I am kind of obsessed with reading the blog Conversion Diary right now. Is it possible to be “kind of obsessed”? Probably not. I think that’s an oxymoron. Whatev. I’m calling it “kind of obsessed.” It’s a blog about the author’s conversion from Atheist to Catholic, among other things. Love it.

Every Friday the blog’s author Jennifer writes a post called “7 Quick Takes Friday.” Then lots of other people write “7 Quick Takes” posts and link them to her blog. Fun, yes? I enjoy random thoughts on a Friday. So this week, I’m going to throw my hat in the 7 Quick Takes ring and see how it works out.

— 2 —

During the seemingly endless winter that we had here this past year I was desperately wishing summer would come. I was so eager to be able to take my kids outside to play without spending 3 hours getting them stuffed into several layers of clothing, snow pants, boots, coats, etc. And the mittens! Oh geez. I loathe mittens. Can’t anyone make mittens for toddlers/preschoolers that actually go on easily and stay on and keep their hands warm and dry?

Anyway, I don’t love the process of getting three kids under five ready to go out and play in the winter. So I was excited when spring arrived.

Except I had forgotten about sunscreen.

*Insert audible sigh here*

I think it takes at least as long to get sunscreen on them as to put on mittens. But sunscreen is messier. And they squirm and scream more during the process.

— 3 —

We have two butterflies in our little butterfly cage. Of six caterpillars that came in the mail, two of them successfully formed chrysalides and emerged as butterflies. There is one more chrysalis that may still successfully birth a butterfly, but the rest didn’t work out.

The girls are so excited about the two they’ve got. They are sure one is a girl and one is a boy.

I, on the other hand, am worrying because they don’t seem to be eating. I mixed the sugar water as instructed and even put a piece of fresh watermelon in the little butterfly house. I keep looking in there, “Come on little Painted Lady. Unroll that proboscis. Doesn’t that sugar water taste yummy when you step on it?” But I don’t think it’s happening.

In case you’re thinking me cruel, don’t worry. They’ve only been “hatched” for 1-2 days. We’ll be letting them go soon and they can find their own flowers and drink all the nectar they want.

My girls have even been scoping some out for them.

— 4 —

Miss completed Safety City this week. Yesterday I went to watch her graduation and she got to show off some of the stuff she learned. They had a karate instructor to teach the kids about “stranger danger.” He called Miss up to demonstrate what they are supposed to do if a seemingly nice stranger speaks to them, such as a little old lady asking for help finding her dog. Karate Man knelt down, imitated a sweet old lady voice, complete with sad face and “Can you please help my find my little lost dog?” Miss turned and ran and yelled, “NO THANK YOU I’M GOING TO GET MY MOM AND DAD!!!!” I was so proud. I almost started to cry.

— 5 —

In the past few weeks I have read three Awesome-with-a-capital-A books. Two of them were on my Summer Reading List.

“The Hiding Place” by Corrie Ten Boom has just gone straight to the top of my list of all-time favorite books.

And “The Screwtape Letters” by C.S. Lewis has made the favorites list as well.

The third one wasn’t on my summer list but I had to read it anyway. “My Sisters the Saints: A Spiritual Memoir” is an amazing book (and another favorite now).

From my summer list I’ve also read “On the Beach,” “The Sun Also Rises,” and “The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry.” All enjoyable reads as well if you’re looking for a good book.

— 6 —

My hubby starts working nights tonight. I don’t love the weeks that he works nights.

I’ve been trying to plan ways for us to be out of the house next week during the day, but Miss has Wee Camp at the YMCA in the mornings, so we can’t take any big day trips to some of the fun places I’m wanting to visit this summer (See our Summer Fun List).

So far I’ve got grocery shopping and two play dates with Super Friend (God bless Super Friend) to help us get through the week. And one day I’m just punting to our babysitter to take Lass and Sis in the basement to play while Daddy sleeps. Throw in Church one day and a possible closing on some property another (I’ll post more about this if it happens, because I don’t want to count my chickens…) and I think we’re pretty well covered.

— 7 —

Speaking of our list of stuff to do this summer, I would like to note that I officially changed the name of it from “Summer Bucket List” to “Summer Fun List.” I did this after reflecting on the origin of the phrase “Bucket List” and realizing that the name came from the movie characters’ lists of things to do before “kicking the bucket.” Seemed a bit extreme for a list of fun things to do with my little girls before summer ends.

For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!

Summer “Bucket List” – 50 Summer Activities for Kids

Posted on June 11, 2013 by Amy

I am working on creating a list of activities to do with the girls this summer. Our very own Summer “Bucket List.”

The list has been a work in progress in my brain for a few weeks now, so it’s helping me to get it written down so I won’t forget what I want to do.

And I like having a list because I’m a bit compulsive about checking things off. Speaking of which, since this has been vaguely floating in my head for a few weeks, some of the items are already done. Yay me!

Here’s our Bucket List for this summer:

Go Fishing – Done (though Lass still wants to catch a whale…)

Sleep Out in a Tent
Hunt for Bugs – Done, but we need to do it again when it isn’t raining
Go to the Beach
Pick Wildflowers – Done.
Roast Marshmallows and Eat S’Mores
Watch Fireworks
Grow Caterpillars into Butterflies (Got caterpillars. They’re growing. Waiting on the butterflies.)
Go to the Zoo
Go On a Treasure Hunt Outside – Done.
Visit a Horse Farm and Ride a Horse – Done for the visit to a horse farm, but we didn’t get to ride the horses, so we’ll try again.

Swim in a Lake or Pond
Go to a Splash Pad
Run Through a Sprinkler
Put a Sprinkler Under Our Trampoline and Jump
Visit a Butterfly Garden
Play Hopscotch
Make Popsicles
Play with Water Balloons
Catch Tadpoles – Done.
Go to the “Dirty Weird Zoo” Again (and try to avoid the goat attack this time)
Picnic Lunch in the Yard
Build a Sandcastle
Water Play (and maybe a math lesson?)
Have a Dance Party in the Yard
Go For A Bike Ride
Read Books Outside
Do an Outdoor Scavenger Hunt
Make Ice Cream
Catch Fireflies
Go For a Boat Ride – Done.
Get Ice Cream from an Ice Cream Truck
Go to the Farmer’s Market
Make Unpoppable Bubbles
Go to the Park
Make Art/Pets from Rocks
Go to an Outdoor Concert
Visit a Farm
Have a Cookout and Movie Night with Friends (Super Friend and Her Family)
Find Outdoor Treasures and Use Them to Make an Art Project
Make Old-Fashioned Lemonade
Make Firework Glitter Art
Bubble Painting
Plant a Garden – Done.

Make a Fairy Garden or Maybe a Home for Our Rock Pets
Pick Strawberries, Blueberries, and/or Raspberries
Complete Summer Reading Programs (our local library, Scholastic, and Half-Price Books)
Shop Some Yard Sales
Make Huge Bubbles (maybe use the unpoppable bubble recipe from above for this?)
Do Family Date Night at Our Local Old-Fashioned Drive In Restaurant (maybe even with a picnic in the back of my Expedition like we did a few years ago)

I’m going to make a poster with these items so that the girls and I can check them off as we complete each one. Miss says she wants to “make her own list,” so we’ll see what ends up on hers.

What’s on yours?