Monday, June 27, 2016

Summer Bucket List #11: Family Movie Night

#11: Movie Night at Woodmont Hills Church


Summer Bucket List #10: Picnic at Cheekwood

#10: Picnic at Cheekwood

Now that we have a Cheekwood Membership, we decided to take advantage of one of their Family Nights. So we grabbed some barbecue on our way and had a little picnic dinner outside while listening to live music. It was still pretty hot, but it gave us the opportunity to check off "picnic" on our bucket list and the kids loved it.











Summer Bucket List #8 and #9: Vacation Bible School & Swim Lessons

#8: Vacation Bible School

One of the highlights of L and E's summer is attending the VBS at one of our local churches. The church always does such a great job and, because it's in the daytime, it's like a mini summer camp (that's free!). They learn new songs, play games, eat snacks, watch a video, and have a Bible lessons every day of that week.





#9: O is still a little young for VBS, so while they were at the church, I put O in swim lessons and then swam with him. It was so perfect. I dropped off the big kids at VBS, took O to swim lessons, and then played in the pool with him until it was time to pick up the big kids.








He actually had such a great time in his lessons that I signed him up for lessons the following week too! After two weeks, he's still not swimming independently yet, but he's certainly more confident in the water.









Summer Bucket List #7: Splash Pad

#7: Splash Pad.  Last year was our first year at our local splash pad, but the kids had such a great time that we made the trip out to our neighboring county to play again!










Wednesday, June 8, 2016

Summer Bucket List #6: Cheekwood

#6: Cheekwood

Another item that we failed to cross off last year was a visit to Cheekwood. So as soon as we had a day available, we met some friends, explored the new tree houses, and had a picnic lunch. It was really hot, and we weren't able to stay a full day, but we did decide to get a membership so we can come back several more times this summer.

Learning about the train exhibit:



Free Play with Friends:





Tree Houses:



Summer Bucket List 2016: #4 and #5 Edwin Warner Park

#4: Dirt Park

One of the things that I really wanted for my kids this summer was for them to have lots of time to play, explore, learn, and just be together, as siblings. So as they came up with the items on our list, I tried to encourage them to include places where they could have some unstructured free time too. One of those items, was a visit to Edwin Warner Nature Park. I will admit, I did get in the dirt with them some (mostly to help move rocks), but I also tried to give them time to explore and work together as siblings too.








#5: Nature Walk

As it warmed up at the dirt park, and the kids started getting too hot in the sun, I suggested that we take a little nature walk. I'm not sure it was an official item on our bucket list, but we took a little morning hike and added it to our list when we got back in the car.















Summer Bucket List #3: Holiday World

#3: Holiday World.

We broke our every other year tradition (201120132015), and decided to go back to Holiday World again this year. The kids are the perfect ages and we just all have such a great time. So this year, as we've done in the past, we spent Memorial Day at Holiday World. I've given several reviews of the park in the past, so I'll just post a few of the photos from our trip this year.