My Autumn Bucket List

I read a thorough autumn bucket list on Early Childhood Family Education and thought that since I did a summer bucket list, perhaps I should do a fall list as well. I was successful in completing all but one item from my summer list. The painting never got done. Guess I’ll have to carry that over to the fall list. The first day of fall was last Wednesday and we’re already getting fall temperatures and weather.  Nice and cool at night which makes it perfect for sleeping, though we don’t get much of it (we’re early risers, even if we don’t want to be). So what’s on my list?

Bon Fires
We have a small fire pit in the backyard. More like a large metal bowl that we can put away when we’re not using it. But it’s great to get it out, set up the camp chairs around it and have a powwow. Especially now that cooler weather is here and it’s getting dark earlier. We’ll roast some marshmallows, eat s’mores, drink some drinks and laugh a lot. Perhaps if it’s not raining this weekend?

Get ready for Halloween
We have our costumes picked out. The kids are excited about them. DW is excited about them. I’m excited about them. I want to share now, but it must wait. Only 31 more days. It’s going to be awesome! I’ll also get the house all decorated. We have bats and crows and skeletons and spiders and webs and tons of stickers for the wall. We don’t go all out crazy, but we certainly do have fun with it.

Carve Pumpkins
They’re already sitting on the front porch, not carved yet, of course. Pumpkins last a long time. But once you carve it, it’s only a matter of days before it rots. I’m not sure what we’re going to carve this year. I just know we’re going to have fun digging the guts out. I’m sure Crash will something “Minecraft” carved into his. I can’t even begin to imagine what Bang will want. He’s pretty random sometimes.

Take a hike
This is the time of year when the tress are dressed in their best colors. The temperatures are ideal for walking comfortably. There is a trail near us that leads to a 25 foot waterfall. It takes about a 1/2 hour to hike to it and it’s a beautiful trail with a small bridge or two to cross. Plus the smell is intoxicating. I love it!

Watch Halloween shows
My favorite is “The Nightmare Before Christmas”. I know all the words. I know all the songs. Yes, I’m proud that Crash loves it, too. Did you know it took nearly 110,000 photos and three years to create the stop motion animation? Charlie and the Great Pumpkin Patch and Hocus Pocus are great ones, too.

A Farm
Not just any farm, but a farm that has hay rides and a pumpkin patch and corn maze. Those corn mazes have always intrigued me. Plus, I think the kids would love it. We already have two pumpkins, but there’s something about actually being in the pumpkin patch. The giant box of pumpkins in the grocery store just doesn’t cut it. And since Bang is all about tractors (and everything that has wheels) a hay ride would be right up his alley.

Leaves
I remember raking up a huge pile of leaves to jump and play in when I was a kid (if 13 still counts as a kid). When we lived in Virginia, I raked up small piles for Crash to run through. The piles weren’t nearly big enough to jump in. He had a blast running through them and kicking them into the air. Or throwing them up and letting them rain down on himself. It made for some fun pictures, too. Unfortunately, I’m not sure if we have enough leaves in our backyard to rake up a pile big enough to jump in. Guess we’ll just have to try!

What’s on your list to do this autumn?

Thank you Pinterest for this

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My Summer Bucket List – In Review

Back in June, before school dismissed for summer vacation, I wrote out my bucket list of what I wanted to do. This list included:

• Hiking and seeing waterfalls
• Geocaching
• A Road trip
• Kayaking
• Relaxing at the cottage by the lake
• Skip rocks
• Grow a vegetable garden
• Watching/playing baseball with Crash

DW returned to work today so there’s clear evidence that summer vacation is just about over for the kids, too. Did I do anything from list?

You betcha. Even better, I was able to complete the list. We made it to a waterfall in Pennsylvania. I didn’t make it to the 100′ North River Falls, but I knew that was a long shot, at best. The one in PA was great because the kids could play in it and there wasn’t a two and half hour hike to get to it.

I found six geocaches. One was on my birthday. It required a little bushwacking through the trees. Then it started raining on our way out. The second and third was on a rails to trails trail. The bugs were so bad we cut the trip short. There are eight more on that trail that we’ll get when the weather is too cold for bugs. Bang and I found two more while DW was visiting a family member in the hospital. Then Bang and I found one while Crash was in the hospital having oral surgery. Great finds!

Our road trip was spectacular. Just find my Traveling posts to read all about our two week vacation to the States.

We have been out kayaking twice now. Once was down a fairly large river. Too big for our liking. We were hoping for a wooded, lazy river, but no such luck. So the kayaks are out at the cottage we’ll just paddle on the lake. Crash had his kayak out and was having a blast (as were his cousins as they all took turns on it).

Speaking of the cottage – we’ve made a few trips there now. It’s so relaxing out there. Especially yesterday when there was only a small breeze and the water was as calm as bathtub water. That made kayaking a lot of fun. 

I’m sure I’ve skipped hundreds of rocks by now. With water this flat, how could I not? I even helped teach nieces and nephews to skip them.

The onions are growing well in the garden. We’ve already harvested the lettuce – 2 one gallon bags worth. The green and jalapeno peppers are coming along. Unfortunately, the broccoli went to seed to quick. The thyme smells delicious!

Crash is great hitter. He’s okay at throwing and his catching is much improved. Unfortunately, he’s only made it to two practices. He had one before we left for vacation, though a couple were rained out before that. Then we were gone for two week, but even those were rained out, too. He made it to a practice (they don’t play games in T-ball here) the week after we returned. But then had surgery the week after so he missed that one, too. Hopefully, the rain will hold off so he can have practice tonight! It’s looking like it’s going to rain!

My bucket list is complete, everything I do from here out is just icing on the cake – yummy, delicious buttercream frosting.

The one thing that hasn’t happened yet is painting. Our hallways are dire need of some new paint. We have it. We just need to get it on the walls. Maybe I’ll just open the paint bucket, give Crash and Bang a paintbrush and let them do it. 🙂

What’s something exciting or relaxing did you do this summer?

My Summer Bucket List

Next week is Crash’s last week of school. I’d say it’s his last full week, but it’s not even that because there is no school Friday. His last official day is the 30th, but he’s only in school long enough to pick up his report card. Then we have two month of summer. I just wish summer like weather would get here so we can start the summer bucket list!