Bucket List

Ahhh.
2 months of solid, bumper-to-bumper fun in the sun!!

Let me tell you, looking at the calendar with 2 months of "open" days for scheduling events, I broke a cold sweat.   I'm used to being home with the kids (this has been an 8 year gig for me) but having all 3 home, all day, every day?  That's a different situation all together.   As the kids get older, their expectations grow larger (and more expensive).    At the end of June, we sat down and created our "summer bucket list".  It was a brainstorming task and I let them come up with anything they wanted- with the stipulation that these were just "ideas" and not all items were reasonable or feasible.

Here's what we came up with:

We started our summer with our BIGGEST bucket list item which was our annual vacation to Maine.   This is my favourite week of the whole year...time at the beach, unplugged and completely removed from our usual family routine.    We were blessed with beautiful weather this year (though the Atlantic Ocean was cold enough to stop your heart!) and we so enjoyed our time together with our friends.   We came home with hundreds of photos, lots of sand, sea treasures, outlet shopping treasures :), fantastic memories and some duty free purchases!    It was a perfect vacation from start to finish.

Little ladies looking so grown up.

Jack quickly becoming a beach bum!

Relaxing at the cottage.

 It is a bit of a "downer" when we come home from this vacation as nothing else we do all summer seems to measure up in terms of fun.  Though some days have been long (and we have given in to the temptation of Netflix as a diversion) we have been enjoying our summer holiday while checking off items on our bucket list one day at a time.




We've had visits to the outdoor pool.    We've played at the splash pad.   We've grocery shopped (nightmare!!) and went to Ikea (awesome!).   We spent a day at Mont Cascades (I needed James with me for this one!!) which was just great! My kids love trips to the library and doing crafts.    We're filling our days and that is good.

Ikea on a rainy day.

Looking at the calendar this past weekend I was very surprised to see how quickly Labour Day is approaching.   I'm not exactly wishing the summer away, but I am starting to crave the structure and schedule that return to school provides.  This year marks a new beginning for me, as my 3 kids will all be attending full days.   Remember my last post about "taking a shot"?  Well, it worked out for me and now I can start to wrap my brain around the possibility of returning to teaching again.  I feel like this is going to be a big transition year for our family.  For now though, I will enjoy the freedom of slip and slide evenings, late bedtimes, skipped bath nights (who needs a bath when you have a hose and sprinkler!!) and sticky freezie-hands.  I'm so lucky to get to spend this time with my kids and our bucket list!!

Hot air balloon festival.