Summer Bucket List Progress

Well since summer is officially over, Id say its time to do a tally of how many things we got checked off of that list I posted in June.  I think its amazing how you make a list and say I can get all of this done, and then life hits and it doesn't always happen that way.

 

So here was the list

 

 

Overall, we didn't do too bad. Of the 26 items on this list we did 22 of them. We didn't get to a Pirate Game, Point State Park, Story time or to play in shave cream.  So we did get to 85% of the list. Overall not too terrible. 

 

The truth? We didn't go to a Pirate Game because I didn't want to pay for tickets when I didn't think Grayson would sit still. Point State Park is fun, but finding parking to go there can suck. While I would have loved to go to story time at the library we stayed home and had our own story time, which was just as fun. And as for the shave cream? Well, I just plan forgot. So theres that.

 

But we did get to do lots of the fun things on this list. I just hope that Grayson can look back on the things we did and say that we had an awesome summer together.

 

 

 

Playdates were a big thing this summer. We went to the park, carnivals, lunch dates, bounce houses- you name it we were down. Its such a fun time when your kiddo can start to interact with other kids, you really get to see their little personalities come out. After this fire truck experience Grayson has decided Uncle Mac has the COOLEST job and he wants to drive the truck too.

 

 

 

If you have a trampoline park like Skyzone and they have a toddler time, I highly recommend it. Skyzone has a great toddler time and that hour wears them out like nobodys business. As you can see, Grayson was a Wildman. His favorite part was the foam pit. Because lets face it, if you can bounce off of a trampoline and land in foam blocks it just must be done over and over again.

 

 

S'Mores take work, me eat marshmellows.

 

Family Camping Selfie- despite the bumps in the road I really did enjoy hanging out with these two. I just so wish it would have been in a Doubletree with a heated pool and room service.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

We hit splashpads, the water steps and the pool. My little fish loves the water for sure. But he isn't a fan of a splash pad that can spay him in the face. He prefers to be the one spraying you in the face with his squirtguns. The bubble foam pit was also super fun, even if he thought since he was up to his belly in bubbles he wouldn't have to take a bath that night.

 

 

 

 

 

Grayson liked the Aviary so much we actually bought a year long family membership. He now knows where every bird is located and what time he can see each type be fed. I wont even mention how two of the front desk workers know him by name. Its embarrassing how often we are there.

 

 

 

Taking a two year old mini golfing was one of the funniest moments of my life. When he got annoyed at trying to use the club he just gave up and started throwing his ball to the hole. Once he actually got a hole in one with a toss. That's pretty awesome if you ask me!

 

 

At the beach, we fished. And lovelies, I was GOOD at it. I caught four fishes, and had I known what I was doing I probably could have caught more.  But don't worry, each fish was returned to the bay because Lord knows I wouldn't eat them. 

 

 

 

 

Children's Museum was also a hit. If you ever get a chance to check it out, you must, but its also a must to bring a change of clothes. These two were soaked after playing on the water table floor.  

 

 It was a fun filled summer for sure, and I cant wait for the next one. Until then, you can find me trying to check things off of our Fall Bucket List!

 

 

 

Summer 2014 Bucket List

This summer is going to be short for me- like 9 weeks total. This year I go back to work in the middle of August, which is way early. Now I know, if you're not a teacher you're telling me to suck it up, no one else gets summers off and yada yada yada. I wont argue the validity or non-validity of your point, I will simply ask you to come into my classroom for one day and then we will see if you think I deserve a nice long break in the summer. If you don't think I do, then we can discuss your reasoning.  

 

Anyway- knowing that my time at home with my bubs is limited, I wanted to make sure that I got all of the fun things in that I simply had to do with him. Grayson is at such a fun age, you really do get to experience everything through his eyes. Even things we did last summer are new again, because he was simply too little to remember them.  Here's the problem, I'm also a procrastinator to the core. So if I know I want to take him to the museum, Ill push it off because its sunny today and Id rather go to the pool. Now that's all fine and good until I'm back with my teenagers and I never got to take my kid to the museum.

 

All that changes however when I make a list. I'm one of those people who get a strange satisfaction by checking things off of the list. It makes sure I get them done, and when the things on that list are staring at me I will not ignore them. So I did what any sane person would do I spent a good 15 minutes using Pic Monkey to make our bucket list, printed it out, and stuck it in a dollar store frame.

 

Now I can cross off what I want using a dry erase marker and make sure that the things I want to experience this summer get completed.

 

 

So tell me friends, what's on your summer bucket list?

 



Train Obsessed Toddler Heaven

We did it again, we took Grayson to see Thomas.

 

Toddler Mind, Blown.

 

This is our second year in a row trekking out to Ohio to ride on the Blue Choo Choo, and I will say that this year Grayson really understood what was going on a lot more.

 

What a difference a year makes...last year to this year he really has gotten so much bigger.

 

 Can I point out that Thomas the Train is pretty much a toddler addiction? Whenever his whistle would sound there were literally hundreds of kids screaming and yelling. It was almost like being at a Justin Timberlake concert for toddlers :)

 

 

At first he wasn't too sure- it might have been the 2 hour car nap fog had not worn off yet.

 

Once we got on the train however, he was much better.  Except when the train stopped- then he just kept saying Green Light Thomas, Go Fast!! Meanwhile Mommy gets motion sick like woah, and that stupid train goes backwards. See that smile on my face? That's really me attempting not to lose my Starbucks. The things we do for our kiddos, right?

 



Me gots a Thomas paper, Mommy!!

 



Overall it was a great day. If you have a train obsessed toddler in your ranks, I highly suggest Day Out with Thomas.  The train ride seems pricy at around $20 each, but all of the other activities are completely free.  The big arse Thomas balloon cost me $10, and approximately two minutes after tying it to my hand the top part let go and Thomas floated away.  Luckily they did give me a new one, since that was obviously not my error. Otherwise I would have shelled out another $10 because Grayson was already telling everyone who would listen that Mommy let his Thomas go up to the sky. He still looks up at the sky and asks where his Thomas balloon went. He's got the guilt game down, for sure.

 

Now he's asking for Gigi and Pap to take him to ride on Thomas, so we'll see if there are two train rides in our plans this summer!



Finally took the kid to Idlewild!

Western Pennsylvania is kind of unique as we do have some pretty awesome amusement parks within 30 minutes of us- Kennywood and Idlewild.  I've spent many a summer day at both, and last Tuesday we packed up the kid and took him for his first taste of amusement park fun.

 

Storybook Forest is a trip through all of the nursery rhymes and fairy tales we heard as kids, so of course that's where we headed first.



Such a creeper. 

He didnt want so share the big chair with Mommy and Daddy. 

In the crooked house

The lady on the good ship lollypop gave him his first sucker- he was in love.

No such luck, hubs.



Riding the train over to Raccoon Lagoon

Mr. Rodgers Neighborhood

Mesmerized. The whole trolly ride.

Watching the Thomas and Friends show

Idlewild also has a ginormous pool complex complete with slides, a wave pool and a pirate ship. It is awesome. Unfortunately this day it was also only about 75 and overcast, so my bum was not getting in that water.

Such a good Daddy. 

 

I'd say he had a blast.

 

Can't wait to go back when he can enjoy a few more rides and really get to use the pool. Otherwise, it was a pretty awesome day and a nice check off the summer bucket list!



Let the Summer Fun Commence!

Its been a crazy end of the school year- I had one of the best years ever with some of my absolute favorite kids I've ever had the pleasure to teach- but thank.you.sweet.baby.jesus. it is summer time!

 

It's not their fault, once the weather gets nice they pretty much just start checking out on us, and I cant really get them to get excited about things like weather forecasting, tornadoes, earthquakes and cells when there are pools to swim in, sun tans to achieve and outside things going on that are way more fun. Truth be told, I'd rather be outside too- but trying to explain to freshmen that they need to focus for a few more weeks is like explaining to my toddler why he needs to try peas at dinner. Its a lost cause come June 1st.  I'm super excited that next year I get to teach some biology, meaning I can get some of my freshmen back as sophomores. It's fun to see which ones the maturity fairy visits over the summer and to watch them grow.

 

I did a summer bucket list last year and had a blast checking things off with Grayson and hubs.  This year, I've amped it up seeing as how he's now a man-child who can participate in so much more.

 

 

Here goes-

 

Idelwild Park

PNC Park Water Steps

Ducky Tour

Kennywood Park

Beach Trip

Splash Pad

Pool Date

Walk the Montour Trail

Catch Lightning Bugs

Play in the Sandbox
Water Fight with Daddy
Round Hill Park
Blue Slide Playground at Frick Park
Soergels Orchard
Triple B Farms
Street Fair
International Village
Phipps Conservatory
Go to a Pirate Game
Play Dates
Sarris' Ice Cream Parlor
Feed the Ducks
Go Fishing
Catch Lightning Bugs
Steelers Training Camp
Story time at the Library
Carnegie Science Center
The Children's Museum
Gus and YaYa's
Picnic in the park
Pittsburgh Zoo
Take pictures while playing in the rain
Family Pictures
Go visit Aunt Sammie
Take a day trip
Make a big mess
Complete as many Pinterest projects as possible!

What's on your list for summer fun? Let me know if I forgot something!!

 

 



The day Grayson realized he had the best parents ever.

I kid, I kid. Well, sort of.  Sunday was a pretty epic day in the life of my little man- because we trekked him an hour and forty five minutes to meet a big blue engine.  We spent the whole week telling him he was going to go see Thomas, and he would smile and get excited, but he didn't really get it. Sunday we loaded into the car and hit the Ohio Turnpike headed for Akron to take a ride with Thomas the Train.

 

Once we got there, basically all he saw was a parking lot full of cars and a few tents. Nothing too impressive there.  Of course we had to walk through the gift shop tent first- those merchandisers are smart people. I have never in my life seen so much Thomas the Tank stuff and those kiddos were going insane for it.  Once we quickly walked through there, we realized we timed it just perfectly. The lady who was emceeing the event announced that she thought she heard Thomas coming, so we headed over to the fence.

 

 

He was thrilled, to say the least. We told him we would ride on him in a little while, and spent some time seeing what else they had to offer. We watched videos, heard a story teller, colored and played with trains with more pieces than he had ever seen in his little life. Then we stumbled upon the diggers and trucks that the kids could play on. He had a blast- and that was just all the free stuff!

 

 

 

Once it was time to board our train we headed across the street to the depot.  In all honesty, it took FOREVER to get the train unloaded and then loaded- so many a child was melting down by the time we actually got ON the train. It was probably a good 35 minutes of standing in line and getting on the train before we started to move.  That's a long time to do nothing for a 20 month old, but he held out like a champ.

 

Pointing and yelling THIIISS- because he knew where he wanted to go, we just couldn't go fast enough.

While waiting to board the train, he amused himself by picking up every rock on the deck and putting it back in the gravel. My child likes to clean up.

Finally on the train!

He got pretty restless waiting for the train to start moving, but Momma whipped out a bag of M&Ms and that kept him (and the little guy across from us) entertained.

Once we were moving, he was amazed pointing out everything he saw.

Now the ride itself is only about 25 minutes, and to be honest he could have cared less about the ride. Im not saying I think the ride wasn't long enough, because all of the kids seemed to get restless around that time so it was a good length of time to keep them cooped up.  He spent most of the ride asking where Thomas was, because he didn't get the concept that he was ON Thomas. To be fair, the 2.5 year old across from us and the 4 year old next to us didn't get it either. They all would have been pleased as punch to just watch Thomas chug on by, and we wouldn't have had to pay $20 bucks a ticket.

 

He was pretty impressed with the certificate they gave him.

After we got off, we stood in line to have our picture taken with Thomas.  Grayson could NOT take his eyes off of him.

Blowing kisses. 

Now they do take a professional picture with Thomas for you, then you can take one with your own camera. They also take them inside the train. A piece of advice?  If you get a decent shot- save yourself the $15 dollars for the photograph. Honestly, its not any better than the ones you take except it costs money. Lets not forget you still have to walk through the souvenir tent to leave- spend your money wisely.

 

 

The nice guy in front of us took this for us after I took one for them- I love finding likeminded cheapskates in line!

 

Overall- he had an AMAZING day. My Mom went with us, and she made sure he left with a few Thomas souvenirs so he could remember his day. That Nana spoils him rotten and he knows it.

 

Here is my advice for anyone thinking of going. First, its free to walk in the tent and see all of the stuff like the coloring and story telling. You only need a ticket to actually ride the train. If you have little ones that wouldn't get it, save yourself the cash and do all of the free stuff. Stand in line to get the pictures with Thomas and Sir Toppom Hat- but only shell out the $20 if you think your kid would get it. The lady at the ticket counter told us they always have a few extra tickets, so if once you're there you decide you want to take a ride you can always check it out.  Also, if you get motion sick this is not the ride for you. The train started out going forwards and I was okay. Then the stupid train backed up, and I thought I was going to die. Seriously, there is not enough Dramamine in the world to help in that situation.

 

Overall, it was one of the greatest days in Grayson's little life. When we got home and he was getting ready for bed I asked Grayson if he had the best day ever and he leaped into my lap, threw his arms around my neck and said "YES!" That alone made the whole almost tossing my cookies worth it. At least for that night he thought he had the coolest parents ever, and hopefully he remembers that feeling when he thinks we stink.