Summer Bucket List Update 7/14/13

Well we have been slowly chipping away at our summer bucket list and it has been harder than I expected to get everything done. Trying to balance infant sleep schedules and the husband's work schedule has made it a bit of challenge. I love the idea of a "bucket" check list, it gives you ideas of things to do when the "I'm bored's" start popping up but it does add a level of stress I wasn't expecting. It might have something to do with my perfectionist nature that I want to do EVERYTHING before summer is over and trying to fit it in is making me a little anxious (I realize of course that anxiety was NOT the goal of this endeavor). I'm trying to relax and enjoy the time with the kids, making memories that I hope my daughter will remember. Here is what we have gotten done so far...

#2, #11, and #15 Run in the Sprinklers, Water Balloon Target Practice, Ice Cream Sundae Party
We had friends and their kids over last Sunday for brunch and I planned a little splash day in the backyard. Joe built a kid wash out of PVC a while ago and the girls ran in that, we threw water balloons at targets I drew on the fence with chalk and we made sponge balls (and idea I stole from my sister) and the girls threw those at each other (and us). When they were finished playing outside we made ice cream sundaes for everybody (I realize as I'm typing this I forgot to cross that one out on the other image). They had a great time and we will definitely do that again. Three bucket list numbers checked off in one day, I guess I'm nothing if not efficient.

 #4 Swimming
We actually accomplished this one twice so far. On the 4th of July we went swimming at a friend's house. We took E in the water for the first time, and as expected he wasn't a fan. K loved it of course and we could tell her swimming lessons were paying off. This Saturday we went to Joe's Aunt's house to celebrate her birthday and K went swimming with Joe's 11 year old cousin. We kept E out of the water this time but I think he might have liked it better as the water was hovering around 85 degrees.

#30 Go to the trampoline park
When we found out they were opening a trampoline park near us we were very excited. We had been to one in Southlake but it's a minimum 45 minute drive for us, so we had only been the one time. These things are great, you pay by the hour and your kid can jump like crazy in a safe padded environment. It wears them out and for $8 an hour it is totally worth it. If you live in Fort Worth and haven't been to the Flight Deck (off of Cherry in west Fort Worth)  yet I totally recommend it especially for us westsiders, so we don't have to drive all the way to Keller or Southlake to take our kids jumping. K and our friends daughter had a blast and were both tired and ready for lunch after their hour of jumping.

#40 Indoor Bowling
I had seen this on Pinterest and thought it looked like an easy indoor activity that K would really enjoy. We saved water bottles for about a week and and used a small rubber ball K had as our bowling ball. The pin showed rocks at the bottom of the bottles but I decided to help K out knocking them down we would just leave them empty. We played for at least an hour and K really liked it, she even set the pins up in other shapes and tried to knock them down too. This is super easy and fun and I recommend trying it out (especially on rainy days).

#44 Make Sun Catchers with Pony Beads
Way back last year I did a blog entry about making sun catchers with pony beads (you can check it out here). I wanted to do that again but with a few changes. One change being this time I would use the clear colored pony beads instead of the solid ones (we ended up using a mix of both) and I would use metal cookie cutters to make my shapes instead of just making round disks. We used a set of woodland creature cookie cutters I got at IKEA for our shapes and we ended up with a wonderful set of sun catchers in the shape of a moose, squirrel, fox, snail, hedgehog, and bear.

Love the multitasking she's doing!

They came out great and easily popped out of the cutters. The smell wasn't great but it went away pretty quickly after they came out of the oven (400 degrees for 20 minutes). I'm going to have Joe drill a small hole in them and maybe turn them into ornaments. I think K and I will do this again around Christmas time and send them to people as ornament presents. My biggest tip is to make sure each bead in laid down flat and you try your best to only have a single layer of beads. A few of our creatures have rough edges because I wasn't so careful doing quality control after K put in the beads.

Well that's it for now, we have a few more planned this week and a few I might try if we have the time. I'll update when we have crossed off a few more on our list.