My Summer Bucket List

There's a little more detail about this photo over on my Instagram, where it first appeared, but let's just say it's a result of making my kids pose for a million photos mixed with a lot of luck. It's one of my most favorite Instagram pics that I have ever taken!

How was your Memorial Day weekend? We spent ours at our lakehouse where we had one beautiful sunny day and two gloomy ones. But now it feels like summer is (unofficially) here! We've already got some fun stuff planned for the summer (I'm taking my daughter to see Taylor Swift in July--it will be her first concert, I'm going on a West Coast road trip--Seattle, Portland, Northern and Southern California--with the fam, we're spending some time with my parents down at the Delaware shore, and more!).

But there's still lots of other stuff I want to do! So today I've compiled a quick bucket list of things I'm hoping to accomplish this summer. (Truth be told: I stole this idea from my friend Meghan!)

So here--in no particular order--is some of what I'm hoping to do before the end of August. Any of these on your list, too?

Host a dinner party in our new backyard. After five years of living in our home, we are finally, finally in the process of redoing the backyard. (And it is a process. It was supposed to be done in February and still has a long way to go. Help.) But once it's finally done, I can't wait to host a party there! We designed it primarily for entertaining and we're going to have a big dining table (spoiler alert: I chose this one), two lounge-y areas, a firepit, and even an ourdoor kitchen.

Take a nap outside. Maybe it will be in our new backyard, maybe it will be at the lake, but somewhere, at some point, I want to take a nap outside. How great does that sound?

Read. I mentioned awhile back how I wanted to start reading more. I've gotten mildly better at this (right now I'm just over a third of the way into The Heart's Invisible Furies and I love it so much! Highly recommend...), but I still need to up my game some more. So I want to read a lot this summer. And I want to read outside! (Are you sensing a theme here?)

Eat multiple ice cream cones from Cliff's. Cliff's Homemade Ice Cream is a little old-school walk-up shop near our lakehouse and it truly has some of the best ice cream I have ever eaten. They have over 70 flavors, and I'm told that all of them are amazing, but I wouldn't know that considering I get chocolate chip cookie dough every. damn. time as it is (legit) the best cookie dough ice cream I have ever eaten. I want to go to there. Repeatedly.

Make a cobbler. I love fruit cobbler. But weirdly, I've never made one. I'd like to change that. Let me know if you have a good recipe!

Go fruit-picking. And maybe I'll make that cobbler right after completing this bucket-list item! We've done fruit picking before and it's always a good time, but we usually forget until the season is nearly over. This summer, I want to take the kids...soon!

Teach myself how to make a "green" acai bowl. Are acai bowls big where you live? They are huge in Hoboken right now. In our small town, we have multiple acai places with new ones opening seemingly constantly. My favorite spot is the latest to open: Playa Bowls. Oh Em Gee. They have acai bowls, yes, but they also have coconut bowls, chia bowls, pitaya bowls, green bowls, etc. I'm especially loving the green bowls right now, which are basically a more-frozen version of a green smoothie loaded with all the great acai-bowl toppings. My favorite is the Pacific (it was actually recommended to me by one of my Instagram followers!), which is a kale base topped with strawberries, banana, granola, shaved almonds, honey, and chia seeds. I actually get mine without chia (I don't like it) or honey (I don't need it), though. But as much as I love Playa, I want to learn how to recreate these at home, so I can save an occasional $10 a pop. (Note: If I can't figure this out, I reserve the right to change this bucket list item to "Eat all the green acai bowls.")

Go on more date nights. We go on embarrassingly few of them--especially considering we now have a live-in babysitter! (Yes, really...! More on that at another time.) I want to go on date nights with just my husband and also with couple friends. We just need to get out more and summer is the perfect time to start, no?

Plan some solo activities with each of my kids. We make lots of memories as a family with both kids in tow, but I rarely get alone time with each kid. So I'd like to plan a few mommy-and-me activities with each of my kids. I'm actually taking my son to The Lion King next month (I took my daughter last year), and I'm now trying to think of something fun to do with my daughter, as well.  

What's on your summer bucket list?