Under an old brass paperweight...

...is my list of things to do today
-Toby Keith, "The Next Thing on My List"

I always seem to envision summer as 3 perfect months of lounging poolside, frolicking on the beach, and catching fireflies.  I remember my childhood summers that way - whether that actually reflects reality of summers 25+ years ago is still up for debate.  Anyway, I imagine these fun-filled summers, then end up working crazy long hours, spending the hottest weekend days indoors (got to protect those babes from sunburn, ya know), and wishing away the humidity of summer in the south.  Then somehow it's late August and I'm thinking "Wait!  I'm not ready for summer to be over - I didn't do half the fun stuff I wanted to do!" 

Early in the summer, at the inspiration of a handful of other blogs I read, we made a family summer bucket list. By "we" I really mean "Jay."  We asked him what fun things he wanted to do this summer, and he came up with a pretty comprehensive list - and luckily chose things that we grownups wanted to do, too.  It's been hanging on our fridge as a daily reminder of the fun things we wanted to accomplish during the summer.  Fun stuff doesn't always just happen - sometimes you have to plan for it.

So, how did we do?  Pretty good, I'd say!  You can see from the list that there are a few things still unchecked - Zoo, outside movie, Bulls game, Dinosaurs in Durham (that's the Museum of Life & Science for those who don't live nearby!). Zoo will likely get moved to a "some other time during the year" list when we can take the heat.  Outside movie is tough at this age - when it doesn't get dark until after 9:00 and the boys go to bed between 7:30 and 8, an outdoor movie is likely to be an unpleasant experience for all parties.  When they get a bit older we'll try that. 

And while it's hard to classify September/October activities as meeting the true definition of "summer," we'll go with it.  We finally saw an outdoor concert last Friday night, and Jay and Derek are sleeping in a tent as I type this. 

The boy was stoked! Words can't quite describe how excited he was about backyard camping.  As we set up the tent, he was shaking and giggling and squealing with delight - just the picture of sheer joy.  We shall see how joyous they are in the morning after fending off mosquitoes and bouncing acorns and deer all night.  I don't care.  The smile on his face when I took some hot apple cider out there was priceless. Now we just need to get ourselves a fire pit & some marshmallows, and we could call it real camping.

The verdict on the list?  We'll definitely do it again.  And next year we will give ourselves extra credit for each new ice cream venue we sample, 'cause we do ice cream in a big way.  Live it up.