Summer 2013 bucket list wrap-up

With summer officially coming to a close in less than a week (noooo!), I figure it's about time I recap all the things we did on our bucket list, some of which I never blogged about. Doh!

Unlike last year, we completed everything on the list. Unfortunately, you'll have to take my word for the fishing and the sparklers. The boys went on a fishing trip with the grandparents so I wasn't there to take pictures (bummer, because I'm sure the pics would have been so stinkin' cute! Adam and I will have to find time to go with them sometime...). And we did sparklers on the 4th of July when we were waiting in front of Target for the fireworks to start, but it wasn't really dark yet, and since we were in a parking lot, the only 2 pictures I took were lame. Maybe this weekend at the beach we can try again?



Anyway, we really did have a great summer and I'm super sad to see it go.

• We played in the rain
• We went to a baseball game
• We made ice cream (but need to do it again...many times...for sure!)
• We went to the beach
• We went to the movies (twice--Monsters U and "Despicable Moobie" as Lorelai says)
• We made lemonade (several times, so yummy!)

We also ran through the sprinkler and had some water balloon fights. Two birds, one stone...twice! Once at the beginning of the summer when their cousins from Atlanta were in town.





Oh, how we love seeing them, and wish it could be more often. The kids always have so.much.fun together!





And then again at Lorelai's birthday party. I think that might have actually been three birds with one stone, because that ended up being the most perfect activity for a party I was completely stressing about. (Thanks to Desiree for that awesome suggestion!)




Pay no attention to the weeds and dirt we call a back"yard." We've since done some patch seeding and it's looking...maybe a little bit better?





Since our summer break from school is only 5 weeks long, it's easy to feel like we got gypped out of a "real" summer. But darned if we didn't make the most of it, even after the boys were back in school.

Although many of these are things we probably would have done anyway (some probably not!), it's nice to put them in a list that we can check off and look back on to see that we really did make a lot of great summer memories.

Not ready for summer to end

Labor day is supposed to be the symbolic end of summer, but I'm really not ready to say goodbye. Teeth chattering, cold toes, frozen fingers? No thank you. Sure, pumpkin spice lattes are great, boots are cute and Christmas is fun, but as soon as we get our first cold day, I'm already dreaming about the magic of spring and warm weather while cursing as the thermometer dips anywhere below 55 (okay, 60, if we're being honest).

But saying goodbye to summer is a must, which we started to do this Labor Day.






We went to the pool and had a cookout with family to celebrate, and soaked in every bit of the warm weather, cool water, and yummy grilled steaks and hot dogs.









We even checked the last item off our summer bucket list just in the nick of time--Grandma brought her ice cream maker for the kids to make homemade vanilla chocolate chip ice cream.


Should even I mention that I ordered our very own ice cream maker at the beginning of the summer but never pulled it out of the box? Oops. Grandma to the rescue!



I'd say the whole day gets a two thumbs up all around, even if it does mean we're that much closer to fall. Notice I'm still hanging on tightly to these last couple of weeks before the officially official autumn equinox on September 22. The day we get back from the beach--perfect timing. :)

When life gives you lemons...

(Or you go to the store to buy a bag so you can cross an item off your summer bucket list)...you make lemonade!

Ingredients:
1 1/2 c. fresh squeezed lemon juice (we used 10 lemons, but added a fair amount of pulp)
1 1/4 c. white sugar
8 c. water

Directions:
Combine sugar and 1 cup of water and bring to a boil on high heat, stirring constantly. Let cool
to room temperature and then chill in the fridge. While the simple syrup is cooling, juice lemons and mix with the rest of the water in a large pitcher. Add the simple syrup and enjoy!


Aidan and Logan were eager to help me make this yummy treat while Lorelai napped. I cut the lemons in half and they used their muscle power to juice the crap out of those lemons.

I even bought a juicer just for this occasion, and I'm SO glad I did. It would have been a nightmare to juice 10 lemons by hand. And now we have a good excuse to make fresh-squeezed lemonade (or limeade, or orangeade) all the time!

When Lorelai woke up, all 5 of us enjoyed a nice tall glass of it. But shhh, don't tell Lorelai--the boys got an extra glass for all their hard work (and because the entire amount was too big for my 2qt pitcher, whomp whomp).

They're already asking when we can make it again. I'm excited to experiment with some other recipes as well. Strawberry lemonade, anyone? Yum indeed. :)

Rain rain go away...

...now that my children got to play.



We crossed another item off our summer bucket list this evening, and I think they kiddos had just as much fun as last year playing in the rain.



We've had plenty (waaaay too many) rainy, dreary days lately, but they've almost all been part of thunder storms with crazy wind, thunder and lightening. Not ideal for playing, obviously.

But this afternoon, I cut out of work a little early in an effort to beat the rain (and let's face it--start my glorious 4-day weekend a little early!). As I was driving the kids home, there were no storms, just rain. Perfect for playing, finally.



We got home and they got changed, but it stopped raining right as they walked outside. Total bummer! So we watched a movie instead, had dinner, then went out to play. And just when we thought all hope was lost for playing in the rain, like magic, the skies opened up and the rain started to fall.

They splished and splashed and ran around like crazy, enjoying every second. More childhood memories were made. Even before we were all the way inside, they were asking when it was going to rain again.



Gotta be honest though, now that we've checked this item off our list, I'd be happy to not see another rainy day for the rest of the month! The storms and rain we've had lately are crazy and so not normal for June/July in NC. Rain rain go away! Unless it's at night or a quick, harmless shower in the evening so I don't have to water my plants...

Summer break is FLYING by

On Friday, I had a moment of panic, realizing that we were already 2 weeks through our 5-week summer break from school.

We were sitting at the pool having an impromptu pizza dinner, hanging out with our neighbors and a friend from Logan's class. The kids were having a blast, and I was totally enjoying the evening. A great way to celebrate the first official day of summer.



As I was chatting with Logan's classmate's mom, she said that open house is on July 11 (school starts on July 15). I had my moment of panic, and her response was more, "Only 3 weeks of summer left, yay! Back to "normal"! But in my mind, I'm thinking OMG only 3 weeks left, oh no!!! There's so much fun stuff we still need to do, and it seems like 2 weeks just slipped by without much notice. In 3 WEEKS I'll have to deal with packing lunches, homework, and much less flexibility to spend time enjoying ourselves outside, going the pool, and hanging with friends on any random weekday we choose. Panic, I tell you. (It's the homework that gets me, if I'm being honest. Adds so much stress to the evenings.)

Fortunately though, we've already checked two things off our summer bucket list. Last Monday, we went to a Durham Bulls game with my work. Had hot dogs, got cotton candy, ate ice cream sandwiches, saw an awesome home run, and stayed up past bedtime. Still only made it to the top of the 3rd inning (damn these 7:05 games, so not good for little ones!) but it was a great night. Lorelai cracked us up because she kept asking where the cow was. We would all tell her it was a bull, but she couldn't grasp the concept. By the end of the night, it was a "bull cow" but she couldn't let the whole cow thing go.



And then on Saturday at 9:20am as we were eating breakfast, Adam just happened to check movie times and saw there was a 10am showing of Monsters U. We scrambled to eat and get dressed and made it to the theater just in time. I was so proud of us for being so spontaneous and fun (that's two days in a row!). We even hit up the food court afterwards for some lunch. Cool parents for the win!



It was a great movie. Unfortunately I missed several parts because Lorelai had to go to the bathroom literally 4 times, which never happens at home. It was her first movie in a theater, so I think she was just antsy and wanted to walk around. But all things considered, she did really well.


We rounded out the top-notch "make the most of summer" weekend with a cookout at my Aunt and Uncle's house--another very summer thing to do.



But I still can't shake this feeling of not enough time. Maybe it's part of an overall sense of time flying that's really getting to me. Aidan turns 9 in a month, and Lorelai turns 3. Logan's not far behind them when he turns 7 in September. Kind of blows my mind every time another year rolls around for each of them.

In the same way my mind jumps 3 weeks ahead to homework and lunches and our typical frantic evenings, it also jumps years ahead to middle school, high school, my baby going to kindergarten, driver's licenses, boyfriends/girlfriends, and my kids just plain old growing up and not needing me. Wow, this post just to a turn...


(Hey look, I even just so happen to have pictures to semi-illustrate my point! My daughter is almost 3, going on 16...and it freaks me out!)

I don't know. I guess the thing I need to learn (and I keep going back to this) is to enjoy the moments we have now, and try not to worry about the future until it gets here. Technically we only have 3 more weeks, but on the other hand, that's 3 whole weeks! Look at that, the glass just got half-full again. :)

(And now I'm off to order an ice cream maker so we can check off one more item on our summer bucket list.)

Summer 2013 Bucket List

Since our summer break has officially begun, the kids and I put together our 2013 summer bucket list this weekend.



There are several repeats from last year because there are just things we do that are a given (the beach, duh) and ones we really liked last year (playing in the rain), so the boys wanted them on the list. But we did come up with a couple of new ones, and I hope to get creative with at least one new one each year.

Like last year, it's not long and crazy because we only have 5 weeks and most of these will have to happen on the weekend, but it's a good way to focus on enjoying the summer and not treat it just like any other weekday/weekend. Since let's face it--it's really not that different from school weeks or trackouts minus the homework, of course.

But we're ready for some fun in the sun. Summer 2013, bring it on!

So long, Summer Break, we hardly knew you

And just like that, our 5-week summer break from school is over. For some reason, it seems like this one went by much faster than any of the previous ones we've had since Aidan's been in school, and I'm pretty bummed about it. Aidan's first day back to school is tomorrow, and Logan's is on Wednesday. Thank goodness they seem to be really excited about it.

We did make some more progress on our summer bucket list though.



We did sparklers on July 4th.



Aidan was really worried he was going to burn himself as the flame burned down, but Logan was totally into it. We only had one pack, we should have gotten a bunch more, if for no other reason than I could practice with my camera settings and do one of those cool photos where everyone writes a letter with the sparklers.



Last weekend we had a picnic at the pool.




We swam for a while and then moved to the picnic tables in the shade to eat our tuna salad. It was fun, despite the oppressive heat and bathtub water.



This weekend, we went out hunting for fireflies. Unfortunately, we only saw a few and didn't manage to catch any this time. Maybe they were scared of ghost Aidan? :) The boys were really bummed. I told them we'd try again later, but I'm thinking we might be too late this year. Procrastination fail.



Tonight, we ate some homemade popsicles. I really wanted to do some creamy chocolate Fudgsicles from a recipe I saw on Pinterest, but I couldn't find any canned coconut milk at the store, so I scrapped that idea and just used some vanilla pudding we already had, and put some chocolate chips at the bottom of the mold.



Simple, but I think they were a hit, if this face is any indication. :)



Nothing like waiting until the last weekend of summer break to check off a chunk of items on our list! Procrastination, as usual.

I don't think we'll end up doing a moonlight walk this year, since I completely blanked and missed the full moon this month. Although, I guess we could give it a shot next month, since it'll technically still be summer.

We're also heading to the beach in a couple weeks, so that will conclude our summer bucket list for this year. I don't think we did too bad checking things off. I do wish the ice cream truck had come around a few more times and we had some more rain without thunder storms, but I still think we had a pretty fun summer break.

For the love of baseball?

We can check another item off of our summer bucket list: on Wednesday, we went to a Durham Bulls baseball game. It's an annual outing my company hosts, which I always look forward to. What's not to love about free tickets for the family, which includes dinner on a shaded party deck and covered seats? (Besides the fact that I don't care about baseball in the slightest?) We even lucked into an extra ticket this year so that my mom could join us.

Logan was all decked out in his Durham Bulls gear, ready for the game!

It's something the boys had been looking forward to for a while, and Lorelai even had fun. Although I have a suspicion that had more to do with the cotton candy, baseball hats, and tractors on the field and not so much about the baseball itself. ☺



I'd like to point out the rare smile on Aidan's face in the picture above. I know he was tired from walking around the museum all morning on a camp field trip, but dude was a total grump for most of the time we were there, unfortunately. I was so excited for him to have this fun experience (it wasn't on our summer bucket list for nothing!) and his bad attitude prevented him from fully enjoying it. Such a shame.

Thankfully, Logan and Lorelai were all smiles. Logan was totally into it, and even got to stay longer with Grandma when we had to leave to get Lorelai to bed. Aidan came with us because of his attitude.

Doesn't Logan look so much like Aidan in the bottom right picture? I very rarely see the resemblance between them anymore, but that picture kind of blew my mind. Even Logan got confused for a minute and said it looked like Aidan.

I can honestly say I didn't pay more than 5 minutes total attention to the actual game. I was too busy watching (and taking pictures of) Lorelai being silly. And making sure she didn't try to drink my beer. And socializing with my coworkers. And helping the boys eat the cotton candy quickly before Lorelai could beg for more. Clearly I was too busy to be bothered with actually watching baseball at a baseball game. Ha! I did notice they were down 3-0 when we left at (I think) the top of the 3rd , and I heard later they came back to win 4-3.

No one can get Aidan to smile like Lorelai can. Thank God for her in so many ways.

Despite Aidan's grumpy attitude, I think (hope!) he did enjoy it somewhat, just like the rest of us. Nothing like watching your kids have fun to make you enjoy something as boring as a baseball game! (Which I say without meaning to offend all the baseball fans out there, clearly I'm in the minority in my opinion. ☺)