Bucket List for kids

I watch my kids run around in the rain outside and I gets me thinking.

I think about all the things that I loved to do as a kid and the things that I want to share with my kids.

I think about how fast they are growing up and how it seems to just be passing away so quickly.

There are so many things that I want to share with my kids and so many adventures that I want to go on with them. It is important that we cherish them and our time with them and instill in them great memories as well. We, as parents, are the number one source of memory making for our kids. 

I want to give them great memories that last a life time. I want them to smell certain thing, or see certain things when they are older and have memories come rushing back to them and hopefully put a smile on their face.

I decided that I would make a list of all the things that every kid should have on their bucket list and share it with ya'll in no particular order.

A Bucket list of Fun for kids

• Play in the rain.
• Go on a long bike ride
• Have a dance party
• Catch lightening bugs (this may require a trip to a place where they actually have lightening bugs.)
• Build Christmas houses
• Build Halloween houses
• Go camping
• Go to Disneyland (world) at least once
• Go on a cross country road trip
• Go to summer Camps
• Make their own music video
• Tell ghost stories over a camp fire
• Visit a foreign country
• Have trick competitions on a trampoline
• Feed the ducks
• Stomp in mud puddles
• Play hide and go seek (in the house, in the woods, at a park, and in the dark)
• Have a puppet show
• Be in a play (at home or a theater)
• Go to a play
• Fly a kite
• Built a snow man
• Have a snow ball fight
• Drink hot cocoa under a blanket on the porch while watching the snow fall
• Plant a flower or a tree and watch it grow
• Go to the beach
• Play in the sand and build a giant sand castle
• Look for crabs and sea shells on the beach
• Build a tree house
• Play pick up kickball and baseball games
• Play tag at the park after its super dark
• Skip rocks
• Go fishing
• Go water skiing
• Go Snow Machining 
• Lay on the grass and look at shapes in the clouds
• Make a big pallet on the floor and have big family slumber parties
• Make and decorate sugar cookies for every holiday
• Visit the Elderly Homes and bring them some cheer
• Help make and take food to the sick
• Attend a General Conference at the Conference center
• Go on a church History Trek
• Go on a Pioneer Trek
• Go on a tour of all the Early America sights
• Go on an American History road trip
• Go to a water park
• Go to an Amusement Park
• Go on Hikes
• Explore the woods and find all things nature related
• Play in a giant foam pit
• Learn a dance routine
• Go to football games
• Do a reading contest at the Local Library
• Go hang out an read books at the Library
• Have a lemonade stand
• Have a pool party
• Go to all the Children's Museums you can
• Do arts and craft projects as often as I can
• Learn silly songs
• Built forts out of pillows and blankets and have a party in there
• Make homemade pizza and have a party on the floor in front of the TV with a really good movie
• Play ultimate Frisbee
• Learn silly songs
• Learn how to build things out of wood
• Learn electrical and plumbing tips
• Build a volcano
• Go on a sight seeing cruise
• Pick wild berries
• Swim in a lake
• Go paddle boating and canoeing 
• Go on a haunted house tour in the south
• Write a "book"
• Visit New York and tell them about 9/11
• Cook meals together
• Play games with side walk chalk (four square, hopscotch, shuffle board, etc.)
• Have a picnic in the park
• Watch a sun rise and a sun set
• Have a pillow fight
• Jump on a hotel bed
• Have a scavenger hunt (I seriously LOVE these)
• Have a door decorating contest for the holidays where they each get to decorate their bedroom door.
• Play card games late into the night
• Have a marshmallow eating contest
• Build a big giant puzzle together
• Visit family and have big family slumber parties
• Visit as many zoos as we can
• Make homemade popcorn in every flavor we want
• Tell stories together
• Read books as a family
• Go to an Antique store and show them all the things that I love, and the things from my childhood
• Make eatable Play Dough from scratch
• Make snowcream
• Make homemade popsicles 
• Tie dye shirts
• Make a blanket together
• Write letters to each other
• Play freeze tag
• Go on a treasure hunt
• Learn magic tricks
• Do science experiments 
• Learn to play checkers and cheese
• Fly kites
• Barbecue whenever possible
• Go snorkeling 
• Volunteer at the food bank on Thanksgiving
• Volunteer anywhere
• Create an obstacle course
• Have a slip and slide contest
• Learn cool dives at the pool
• Have a back yard camp out
• Roast marshmallows
• Compete in a three legged or sack race
• Have a water gun and water balloon fight
• Prank call family members
• Play trivia games
• Build paper airplanes and have a flying contest
• Teach and tell jokes
• Learn to juggle
• Go to a musical
• Thumb wrestle
• Bake and decorate a cake
• Play dress up and pretend to be different people all day
• Go to the Circus
• Climb trees
• Go roller skating
• Make silhouettes using a slide projector or a flash light on the wall
• Make and do crossword puzzles
• Play the A-Z car game
• Play bingo as a family at a local community center
• Make collages about ourselves using pictures from magazines and newspapers
• Go to garage sales and see who can find the best bargains
• Go to a Saturday market or Farmers market 
• Make plaster of Paris or wax hands
• Make a homemade pinata
• Go bowling
• Play charades or "Guesstures"
• Write a song together
• Press wild flowers that you pick together
• Make a mobile of special treasure that we find on a walk or at a flea market
• Build villages using Lego's, blocks or Lincoln logs
• Visit a farm
• Play 20 questions
• Go on family walks
• Trace your body and color it to look like you
• Learn jump rope games
• Make caramel apples
• Go to a Fair and ride fair rides and eat fair food
• Make paper strings for each holiday (hearts, people, pumpkins, gingerbread men, trees, ghosts etc.)
• Go sledding
• Design your own shirts
• Go horseback riding
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Halloween/Fall Bucket List

I love the holidays.

One of my favorite thing about the holidays is all the fun family activities that are available.

Most of our family traditions are centered around the holidays.

Something about this time of year just makes my heart pitter patter.

I love the smells. I love the sights. I love the weather. I love the activities. But most of all I love all the Family time.

The organized side of me likes to plan ahead and make sure that we have all of the activities planned and prepared ahead of time.

I start by creating a list and then I look at our calender and start the schedule the things in. I learned  a few years ago that I don't fit these things into our schedule but I schedule stuff around these things. I think that its important to spend time as a family and to create long lasting memories. 

Sometimes our activities are small and sometimes we can fit multiple into one day. 

Its important to look at the list, decided that you want to combine and how much time you will need for each activity. The planning out and scheduling also helps with the preparation. 

If I know that in 4 days we are going to make a witches brew then I will be able to buy the things ahead of time to make sure we have them when needed. 

Planning ahead of time will ensure that your family has a blast this holiday season and that you are able to fit everything you want into your schedule. There is nothing fun about a holiday season passing you by and you realizing that you did not do everything that you wanted to do.

Here is a list of fun Halloween/Fall activities that we try to do every year.

Take this list, copy it, or use it to create your own.

•  Pick pumpkins

• Dress up in old Halloween Costumes and be silly

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•   Make Halloween crafts like: witches hats, ghost feet, pumpkin hands, witch brooms, etc.

• Carve pumpkins
• Go on a "spooky" Halloween scavenger hunt
• Watch "Hocus Pocus"
• Paint Pumpkins

•   Have a Halloween Party

• Build a Scarecrow 
• Go on a hayride 
• Make a giant pile of leaves and jump in them
• Drink hot cocoa or apple cider while sitting under a blanket on the porch
• Make pumpkin bread and pumpkin cookies
• Gut a pumpkin and cook the seeds
• Go on a fall walk
• Make fun Halloween treats: ghost cookies, witches hats, pumpkin shaped cookies, candy corn pudding, zombie fingers, graveyard cupcakes and so many more

•   Go trick or treating

• Make a witches brew
• Make Halloween cookies
• Decorate spooky houses

• Go to a corn maze

• Drive around and look at Halloween decorations
• Have a bonfire and make smores
• Collect leaves and make art with them
• Make caramel apples
• Take pictures with lots of pumpkins
• Bake apples in the crock pot

Have a happy, family fun filled, Holiday season.

Things I want to share with my kids

Over the years I have come to realize that as a mom some moments stand out for me more then others. Some moments speak to my heart and make it beat a little harder and a little faster.

Usually those moments are tied to my own childhood memories. 

I love watching my son play soccer and remembering how I felt when I played. I always wonder if he feels the same way. If he is taking it all in like I was and if he is committing it to memory like I did. I wonder if he is creating memories that he will one day want to share with his children, the same as I love sharing them with him. 

I love watching old Television shows and movies that I loved as a kid, with my kids. 

Shows like:

Rescue Rangers, Darkwing Duck, Ninja Turtles, Robin Hood, The Jungle Book, Tarzan, The little Mermaid, Fraggle Rock, Tale Spins, Power Rangers (there, I admit it, after almost 20 years I can come out and say I did watch power rangers, and I GASP!!! liked it!) and much, much more.

I love to build forts with them, jump on the trampoline with them, make after school snacks and sit and talk to them about their day, help them with their homework, take them on walks, play board games, and build puzzles with them. These are all things that I loved about my childhood.

Its in these moments with them that I feel a connection so deep that I can't even quite explain it. It seems as though our spirits and souls are so deeply rooted together. I, for a small, moment know how they are feeling and understand the excitement that they are expressing to me, because I too have been there and felt the same thing. Its these moments that create the bonds between us. These moments I believe are so essential to the growth and development of their future selves. My own memories shaped me into all that I am. The feelings that I felt, the mistakes I learned from, the joys that I experienced, the things that I loved, these all made and continue to make me who I am. 

My heart soars when I see these same memories being made and feelings being felt by my children because its in those moments that I know I am doing something right. Amid all the teaching, disciplining, and correcting we do as parents on a daily basis we need to make sure there is MUCH, MUCH more loving, cherishing, sharing and connecting with them then anything else. I want my children's memories to be full of laughter and happiness and joy. I feel like these moments where they connect so deeply with something, whether it be a tv show or a book or a game or an activity, are the moments where the little future adults in them are being shaped and formed. 

Each kid is different. Each kid develops a love and connection with different things and when we can connect with them on something its like all the walls come down and we really know who they are. Its these moments where they find their passions that they are discovering who they are and we get glimpses into their future. 

I walked down the girl toy aisle one day shortly after I found out we were expecting our daughter and I cried. I seriously bawled as I stared at all the toys from my childhood.

 I stopped in front of a baby that went potty in her diaper and I remembered the Christmas where I got one just like it and I changed that dolls diaper a million times in the first day. I was so serious about being a mom that I was still asking for baby dolls the Christmas after I turned 13. (my love for them never went away, I just realized it was not cool to be a teenage girl playing with dolls.) 

I stopped at the barbie section and remembered all the "houses" I built and the clothes I made. I remember when I got my first brown haired, brown eyed barbie and how I finally felt a real connection to Barbie. 

I cried looking at all of these things because I realized that I was finally going to have a child to share this with. A child whose eyes would light up the same way mine did and who would pretend to be a princess all day, just because she could. Someone who would sing along to all the princess movies with me, and dream of finding her Prince Charming some day. Someone who would pretend to be Ariel, Snow White, Belle and Cinderella. Someone who would want every baby accessory under the sun. I would have a little girl who I could connect with on such a deep level and who I could share most of my childhood loves with.

Don't get me wrong, I ADORE my boys and I love having super heroes, pirates, spy's and secret agents in my house all the time. I love all the bugs that get brought home and all the boy shows we watch. I love that my 4 year old wants to grow up to be a daddy and loves to play with babies. I love that my 6 year old loves to build things and help me make things in the house. I love that my two year old loves to sing songs and twirl around and dance. I love playing with them and connecting with them on all those things, especially since I was a bit of a tomboy myself when I was a kid, and so there are lots of things we can connect with. I love the deep connection we form and I get giddy when one of them develops a love for something from my childhood that I too loved. And now I get to share the girly side of me, that deep girl connection with my daughter. I get the best of both worlds

I love this part of being a mom.

I love the deep bond and connection you feel.

Back when the television show Parenthood first aired, one of the brothers asked his older brother what makes all the crazy, nasty stuff of being a parent worth it? 

Crosby: What makes all of this worth it?
Adam: What makes it worth it is the connection, the bond you feel, their yours. You know, you're part of them.

It really is just that.

The connection and bond. It makes it all worth it. 

Every hard time.

Every painful time.

Every emotional draining time.

Its all worth it when we look into their eyes and we know them.

I am often blown away by my kids and who they are.

I look at them and think "Wow! you are a little person. You think for yourself. You know who you are and what you want. No matter who I want you to be, you are you! And I applaud you for that."

Its in these moments where I just want to squeeze them and tell them how proud of them I am, and how amazing I think they are. 

The connect and bond is so worth it. 

Its what its all about. 

Man, I sure do love being a mom.

There isn't a better gig in the whole world.

Mamma Mia!.....top 10

So I just watched the movie/musical "Mamma Mia!" To tell you the truth I was not really looking forward to it, I did not really know anything about it besides it was the theatrical adaption of the musical. I netflixed it about a month ago, (mostly because Pierce Brosnan was in it) and its just been sitting on my entertainment center since then. So today durning nap time I was just pooped from all I had been doing and decided to just sit down and watch it and I was pleasently surprise. I could not contain my smile through the whole thing. It was very cute. I probably mostly like it because it had three of my all time favorite things (well beside the obvious like our family, health, job, church) anyway 1) Pierce Brosnan (and that would be enough, okay there is my MAJOR celebrity crush, and yes Noah knows!) 2) Music/dancing 3) Greece!!! Ahhh all those add up to a good movie!!!

So since I listed those things I was thinking about something a friend had on her blog,

THE 10 THINGS I WANT TO DO BEFORE I DIE!!! so here is my list in no particular order

1)See Greece in person

2) be in a real play/musical (not just high school or church stuff)

3) Visit Germany and see all the WWII stuff

4) Visit NY during christmas and new years

5) swim with sharks (this will probably be how I die) :O)

6) watch my kids get married in the temple to wonderful companions

7) Take professional cooking classes (Noah and I always talk about opening a resturant one day and him running it while I cook)

8) Learn true christ like love

9) see the Titanic up close (I have to of course get over my clastaphobia)

10) Serve a mission with my husband (hopefully somewhere forgien, so I can learn a new language too)