Summer Bucket List 2016

I don’t think I’ve given much info on our summer bucket list for this year.  It’s shorter than last summer, which is probably good considering that the entire month of July was jam packed with activities.  We did manage to cross 4 items off the list during that time.  So August has been spent trying to finish up the rest of the activities.

The first item Ella wanted to check off the list was Learn to play Battleship.  For her birthday she had gotten not just regular Battleship, but Star Wars Battleship!  She was determined to learn how to play.  She has now mastered the game and is getting better each time we play.

As you can see, there were several dessert items listed on our list.  Ella still loves to cook and desserts are among her favorite.

She made homemade S'mores.  These are not your traditional S'mores (as you can see).  These are S'mores from the Pioneer Woman.  Basically it's graham crackers with marshmallow cream in the middle, then dipped in chocolate and topped with whatever toppings you want.  They turned out delicious...although they were pretty messy.

The heart cakes were also delicious!  Ella's Grammy gave her a heart cake pan for her birthday, so we got chocolate fudge cake mix and made little cakes.  Sorry, I don't have a picture of the final product.

The homemade ice cream we also ventured into new territory.  Instead of traditional ice cream, I found this no churn ice cream.  Basically you whip heavy cream, add sweetened condensed milk, and freeze.  Ella decided to add food coloring and turn it into the dye ice cream.

The kids also completed a movie marathon.  We went back and forth about which series to watch.  Originally Ella wanted to watch all 7 Star Wars in a row, but once I explained to her that we would have to sit in the basement for approximately 16 hours straight, she changed her mind.  Instead we opted for one of my old favorites, Back to the Future!  I was really excited about this since I hadn't seen the movies since I was a kid.  The movies were great and Ella actually got a lot of the 80's jokes because I'm such an 80's fan.  BUT, I had forgotten how terrible the language is!  I kept praying Ella wouldn't know what they were saying or repeat any of the words.  I did explain to her that there were a lot of words in the movie that I don't want her to say.  So far we're good.

As her book marathon Ella read the Addy American Girl series.  She has read almost the entire AG series and this was one of the few she had left to read.  Ella prefers the older AG books because they focus on girls in history.  She's read a few of the newer ones, but they tend to focus more on dancing or specific activities the girl likes to do.  Not really Ella's style.

We completed our 10 chapter books.  Ella read 6 on her own, and I read 4 with her.  The only reason I read a few with her is because I wanted to read them too!  We read How to Eat Fried Worms, which I thought was hilarious when I was a kid.  Ella's favorite was a book called The Mystery of Meerkat Hill.  We finally finished the 2nd book in the Little House on the Prairie series, and we read a Kate DiCamillo book (she's our favorite children's author) that Ella had actually read before and wanted to read it again with me, The Tiger Rising.  Now we are reading Harry Potter together...well, the first book.  Ella has never shown much interest in reading Harry Potter, and I've never read any of them, but she was asked by a cousin to give it a try.  We agreed to read the first book together, then she can decide if it's a series she wants to continue.

The only items we have left on our list are Make an Ice Cream Cake, Katie and Hal's wedding, and a Train Trip.  We look forward to checking those items off in the next few weeks!