Bucket List: Check That Off!

✔️Make glitter slime

Milk a cow

Plant a garden

✔️Catch a fish

Make huge bubbles

Go golfing

✔️Go to the zoo

Learn to water ski

✔️Boulder Ridge

Fly a kite

✔️Learn to tell time

✔️Read a book

✔️Farmer's market

✔️Teach Diesel a new trick

✔️Play with worms

✔️Have a water balloon fight

✔️Blueberry picking

✔️Airport viewing park

Learn to flip pancakes in the air

✔️Work on penmanship

✔️Go bowling

Splashpad

✔️Try one new food a week

✔️Baseball game

✔️Tube without mom or dad

✔️Learn to count money

Do you ever add things to your to-do list just so you can cross them off? I was notorious for this in my BDO days but this summer I adopted it at home. You may notice a few new items on that list that we didn't originally plan on attacking. We crammed a lot into the week before I had to go back to work - including two bachelorette parties (more on those later). I'm sad to say we didn't manage to cross everything off our list but I'm in a little bit of denial that summer is actually over yet. I returned to work last Monday and my head is spinning with the great deal of stuff I have to do to prep for the fall semester. I never thought I'd enjoy the summer home with Lily as much as I did but I'm so excited we will have Fridays home together. In no particular order, here's a whirlwind of the things we raced through in an attempt to finish our bucket list.

Bowling - did you know there is this thing called kidsbowlfree.com? Each day in the summer kids can bowl 2 free games if you register. We had to pay for shoes ($3 bucks) and lunch ($10 bucks) but it was totally worth it to hang out with some of our friends in the AC.

Baseball Game This year I've been trying very very hard to declutter. It's hard when you have a four-year-old who thinks she needs to keep her baby toys out just in case a baby comes over to play. What does this have to do with baseball games? Earlier this year I decided that I would also not give clutter for birthdays. I've done a variety of things - museum passes, baking kits, etc. For our friends two and four year old's we decided we'd give them something we could invite ourselves to - a baseball game! We picked one of the hottest days of summer but we managed to find some shade!

Count Money - Lily knows the value of a quarter can buy her two pieces of candy at swimming. The promotional item at the baseball game was a bank shaped like a ball hat and she wanted to empty her piggy and put all of the quarters in the hat so she could get to them faster. My rule is that if she wants candy, she has to pay for it. For awhile she was hard pressed to part with any of her coins, now she doesn't mind so much. She even offered up her pig to buy a new boat... So as she was separating all of her money, she asked me if I wanted her "long money" aka dollar bills, because she didn't need it. That's when I decided we would have a little lesson on what it was all worth. We got out the paper wrappers and counted up her lot - a whopping $40 bucks she's been hiding in there. Imagine if she hadn't been buying candy every week. She's getting a hang of the worth...she got really interested in when I started valuing the dollars in terms of the number of Shopkins she could purchase.

Airport Viewing Park - Until I joined the Cascade Community Foundation I had no idea this place existed. For the past three year's we've been working to raise funds in order to put in permanent bathrooms (to replace the port-o-john) and erect a pavilion to provide shade. Groundbreaking in September!! Right now it's a glorified parking lot with some picnic benches. But it's the closest viewing park in the country to a live runway and it's free entertainment to watch the planes take off and land.

Farmer's Market - On Tuesday's there is a small farmer's market in Ada not too far from our house. Our favorite bakery Sugar Momma's always has a booth and Lily makes sure we stop every time. Our list must include lettuce, raspberries, and cookies. Whose doesn't?

Work on penmanship/Read - I had to try and do something that involved learning this summer and decided we'd work on writing and words. I downloaded a free workbook off of Pinterest and had Davenport's copy center print it up and spiral bind it just for her. Whenever I was doing dishes or working on dinner she would whip it out and practice her letters. And at the grocery store - she was in charge of the list. She had to cross things off as we shopped by sounding out the words and associating the letters. She took it upon herself to tell me I needed to improve MY penmanship when writing out the list...

Tube alone - If I wasn't going to convince her to ski I was sure going to convince her she didn't need anyone in the tube with her. SUCCESS!

Lily started in a new building, still part of Appletree, but in their K-Prep program. She was so excited for her new classroom and to see all of her friends from last year. I can't even stomach the fact that I will have a kindergartner at this time next year.