Summer Bucket List

For a few years I have seen other moms posting their summer bucket list on FB. Often these lists have 100 things on them, and usually the kids have had a part in creating such a list. In early June  I wrote a list of 80 things (our very first summer bucket list), and I thought if I saved this list and showed it to Nadia and Ian next April, they could help me write next year's list. I am defining "summer" for us this year as May 1 - August 23. Some items on the list were things we have done in the past, and some things would represent our very first time doing it. The "first time" experiences on the list included:

1. Fly a kite
2. Tennis lessons for Nadia
3. Annie musical for Nadia
4. Kennedy Space Center
5. Children's Museum of Virginia
6. Touring a lighthouse
7. Colonial Williamsburg
8. Camp Susque
9. Bounce House
10. Spanish Class 
11.  K9 search and rescue dog program
12. Military dog program
13. Pick strawberries
14. Pick blueberries
15. See Sideways Stories play
16. See True Stories of the 3 Little Pigs play
17. See Winnie the Pooh play
18. See Alice in Wonderland play
19. See Jungle Book play
20. Dutch Wonderland
21. Idlewild
22.      State Museum
23.      Ride a bike without training wheels (Nadia)
24.      Learn to swing himself (Ian)
25.      Liberty Splashland
26.      Eat at Be Our Guest Restaurant
27.     Chuck E Cheese (first for Oliver not a first for the other two)
28.      VBS (first for Oliver not for the other two)

     We only have about one month left of our summer vacation, as I plan to call August 24 as Ian's first day of Kindergarten and Nadia's first day of second grade. I thought it would be good to look at the list and see how many things haven't yet been crossed off the list. We've done 61 of the 80 things on the list so far, and several of the ones we haven't done yet have been scheduled on the calendar. Three items on the list aren't going to happen - the Pirate Adventures cruise will have to wait until next year because I goofed up on the date they were having the $5 sale, Port Discovery has been rescheduled for September because of the pirate snafu, and the basketball camp I signed Nadia up for was cancelled by the YMCA. The ones on the list that we haven't done yet that also aren't on my calendar include:

1.      Kids putting on a puppet show
2.      Eating lunch outside
3.      Eating popsicles (would be good to do that right along with #2 since they're so messy!)
4.      Liberty Splashland
5.      Idlewild (although I do have a particular week in mind)

    All in all, I think the kids have had many opportunities to make special memories the past couple of months, and we have special things planned for the next month including: swimming lessons for Ian and Nadia, National Night Out, DelGrosso's, Chuck E Cheese, State Museum, Lycoming Fair, four more plays, Oliver's birthday, and two more movies at a theater.