The Bucket List

When I first found out that we would be HOME all summer I started dreaming.  Dreaming of the many things we would do, the adventures we would have, and the crafts and games and fun that would happen over the summer months all spent at home.  In my excitement I might have glossed over the reality that I would spend the first half of the summer very pregnant and uncomfortable and that during the second half of the summer we would have a newborn and be exhausted.  In my excitement I made a "bucket list" for our summer.  Literally a bucket filled with craft sticks, many craft sticks, each with a wonderful summer activity, craft, game, adventure to be had.  I imagined that we would pull out a few each week.  But here we are, full into fall with winter just around the corner, and our bucket is still pretty full!  You see, those things that I glossed over...the pregnancy and such...well, it brought us the most wonderful gift we could have asked for (have I mentioned how much in love I am with our sweet Liam?) but it didn't exactly allow for the summer I was imagining when I created our bucket list.  Is that okay?  It sure is...I would trade in a million craft sticks of adventure for that little boy.  So, I still have the bucket and I think I'll tuck it away for next summer.  Who knows what next summer will bring (though I'm pretty certain it won't bring another baby)...but there will be some sort of adventure- of that I am certain!  In the meantime we did have fun this summer and we did take a few things out of our bucket.  I didn't photograph all of them by any means and truth be told even when I did break out my camera it wasn't my best work because the sun in our yard during the summer is crazy harsh and I was very much trying to put my camera down and participate as much as I could.  With that said, here is a glimpse at a few of our fun summer moments...

Water balloon target practice...this one was a big hit!  

Frozen ice blocks of toys.

 

It didn't take long before they figured out that they could "free" the toys much faster by spraying them with water!

  Back yard twister (I though the green spray paint I already had would work, but sadly that turned out to look gray). This was a fun idea, but we didn't let the paint dry quite long enough so eventually we ended up playing the original version in the kitchen...  

Liam watched.

   

Putting out the fire (and learning numbers and doing math at the same time). Oh so many of our activities this

summer involved the hose!

   

They made a bake sale out of playdough (they thought of this one all on their own).  

Each little friend got to choose something from the bake sale! A car wash! Which ended up being a kid wash as much as a car wash!:) And since school started I have sort of given up the bucket list in favor of what we are calling our "afternoon activity." Here and there during the week (certainly not every day) I choose a fun activity for us to do in the afternoon after school (since Lily and Eli are both only in school in the morning). This is my attempt to set aside a specific time in the afternoon to be intentional and engaged with them (because quite honestly between the baby and work and keeping up the house and cooking and everything else it's all too easy not to engage). Some days it happens in a structured planned out way like this and some days it doesn't. But it is fun when it does. And here are a few of those times...

First Day of School Apple Cupcakes And Liam watched (or at least looked outside)! Sadly we didn't get in any camping this summer, so one night Joe set up the tent in the backyard and camped out with the kids. They had a great time, fell asleep, and a few hours later it was a bit colder than expected so Joe brought them in to their beds. They never even woke up! There aren't many kids who have a back yard filled with white water rafts in the fall! Here they are plotting how to attack their daddy while he cleans one of the other rafts! Paddling the ship (and yes, Eli is wearing Superman pajamas here...I don't know why)!  

Homemade Slip n' Slide

An early fall evening roasting dogs and s'mores! And this is a rare picture of me...Lily took it while I was helping Eli with a fall craft we were doing making trees of sticks and tissue paper. Making a buffet for the many deer that roam near our home... And moon dough...this one was fun, but made a complete disaster every single time they played in it! Seriously, they are covered in flour! So, we did have some fun...and there is so much more to be had!