Summer Bucket List 2013

Summer is here!

Both girls have been out of school for a week now. The 2012-13 school year could not have passed any quicker and I have a feeling I will be saying the same about the summer before I know it. 

My ideal summer would be plenty of fun, a few trips and cool experiences, and as much relaxation, down time, free time as possible. Summer offers more opportunity to be non-schedule oriented. Notice I said "more opportunity" - our days of being completely non-schedule oriented are behind us but I don't see that as necessarily a bad thing.

Sometimes, however, I have grand ideas at the beginning of the summer. Hundreds of ideas floating in and out of my mind of cool things to do and see. A mental list of all the activities I'm going to do with the girls and all of the projects I'm going to get caught up on around the home. And then August comes and we are shopping for back to school supplies and gearing up for another crazy schedule. And I find myself getting a little disappointed because all of a sudden I remember those things I had wanted to do. I am saddened at the idea of the summer that could have been. 

OK, so maybe I'm being a little dramatic (maybe that's where G gets her theatrical side from!). But summer definitely goes by quickly and there are always things I had really wanted to accomplish or places I wanted to take the girls that never happened. This year, in an attempt to savor the summer and make the most of it, the girls and I created a Summer Bucket List. 

On this piece of paper we have 40+ ideas, activities, things to do, to make, places to go and even foods to eat. The items on this list range from big vacation trips we have planned for a while to simple things that we can do spur of the moment - making s'mores, water balloon fun, star gazing.

The final item on our list is to create a Summer Bucket List photo album/scrapbook together. I hope to capture as much of the fun as I can in photographs and for the girls and I to decide on which pictures to print and include and even have G and Sam draw some pictures and write some captions for the photos. 

I'm making it a goal to also record as much of the fun here on my blog which has sadly been neglected for a long, long time now. 

We may not get everything checked off our list. I certainly want to leave room for spontaneity and unplanned opportunities. But we shouldn't ever wake up and utter the words "I'm bored....there is nothing to do." As long as there are items uncrossed on this list, we have something to do!!

Happy Summer everyone!!