Our Summer Bucket List*

Today is the first day of the six weeks summer holidays. I have been both dreading and feeling incredibly excited about this holiday. It’s LM’s first time ever being off for the whole lot since the past two years we’ve paid for her to attend pre-school but now because she’s on funding she doesn’t get anything towards her time there. The first two weeks are especially daunting because my parents are out of the country and I rely on my mum a lot, even just for adult company. So, to keep us going I’ve put together a bucket list for the summer with things we can do together (not including anything we will do separate like Liv having a sleep over at Nanny’s and me attending SFCC). We are blessed to live in a lovely area of the country, which offers loads of things for families to do, if the weather is right of course, so I’m praying for sun.

As we’re not going away until the end of September, this will be a stay-cation and I want to make it as fun as possible.

See Inside Out at the cinema.
LM has reached the age where she’s able to sit in the cinema to watch a movie. We’ve managed it three times so far and she’s definitely better with animated. I’ve been building her up to the release by introducing her to the characters through her Tsum Tsum’s and of course telling her about what each emotion is. She’s excited. We’ve already booked this for the weekend we’re visiting Bee and her family, not only that but Bee has also made each other girls a dress to wear to the cinema to make it just that extra bit special.

I’ve also been looking into the possibility of taking LM to a special kids club screening. During the summer Odeon offers this every day and the day we’re hoping to go to pick up the Aladdin Tsum Tsum’s it’s showing Home.. a movie LM really wants to see! Bonus. It’s only £5 for both of us too.

Explore the countryside.
My sister is off for the first two weeks of the holidays and we have gathered a lot of leaflets about things to do up this end of the country. Although we have some costly activities planned, we do want to explore the countryside more especially since my sister will be needing to walk her dog every day. I’ll be making sure LM has the proper attire for long walks in the country. You can pick it up for a good price at an outdoor specialist such as Cotswold Outdoor. The kids already have all in one waterproofs for the winter, so we’ll be looking at getting them something lighter to wear against the summer rain (that we will no doubt get plenty of!)

Go for a picnic.
I’ve recently come into possession of a picnic basket and blanket from a campaign I’m currently taking part in, and I’m just itching to get out for a real picnic. We have them in the garden quite often but it’s not the same as going somewhere new with a filled picnic basket. I’m really hoping to combine it with a ride on Heatherslaw Light Railway and a visit to Ford & Etal. My nephew loves trains and you can even take dogs! I’m hoping if the weather is good we can have a few trips to historic points of interest such as Alnwick Castle, Holy Island that will require taking a picnic, any excuse to bake and make pasta salad really.

Bake with Little Miss.
On the subject of baking, I want to try and do more with LM. I love baking, I do.. but usually I’m making birthday cakes that require a lot of time and concentration, neither of which LM has so I try to do it by myself. I do feel bad as she does enjoy it if it doesn’t take a few hours. Packet mix with characters on is so easy to pick up, discount stores have it for about a £1 and then you usually only need to add eggs, or sometimes even just water. The only problem is.. LM doesn’t like cake and she’s not a huge fan of biscuits so I’d end up eating everything myself. Yummy, but not good when I do ultimately want to loose weight.

Join the library.
As ever, LM is still really into books but I can’t bare reading the same ones over and over again. To stop going bankrupt I’ve decided to join the library, well have LM join the library. It was something we did ever summer as kids (well visit the library, we were always members). Until this summer LM hasn’t really been as into having me read books, it was more me wanting to spark her interest in books from a young age. I usually need to go into town once a week anyway so this would be a great incentive for LM to be behave while I do the shopping.

Go Swimming.
I’m a cruel mother in this department, because I personally hate swimming. Well at least in this country. But I won a family swim voucher a few months back at my mum’s school’s fundraiser and I feel like I have to use it. Liv isn’t too keen on swimming. She prefers just to wade about which means a lot of sitting still and getting freezing cold for me. Hopefully I can coax her into at least attempting to swim over the summer, even if we only go just once to use the voucher, it would be good enough for me. It’s not like we’re going on holiday in 2 months to a place where it will be hot enough to go into the pool every day..

Brave arts and crafts
I hate doing arts & crafts in my house. I hate the mess, I hate that I need to sit an ensure she doesn’t get glue in her hair or paint on my walls. But she has a pile of craft sets such as “make your own tiara” “make your own fairy wings” etc that I know I should just be brave and attempt with her. It doesn’t help that I’m just not crafty at all, and I hate mess. But I have dug them out and told her that we will give them a try at some point.

Have a mini photoshoot with all her dresses
Lets face it, we all know just how much LM loves to wear her handmade Disney dresses.. however for fear of them being ruined I rarely let her wear them because i’d rather she had them to wear on holiday. But since we live in such a nice area, and I am going to be taking photo’s for Bee’s new website Closet Geek, I want to get some practice in. I have already picked out some great places to shoot certain outfits and I know LM will just love playing out in her dresses. I figured taking photos is a nice way to thank you to the people who have made LM dresses to at least see her out enjoying them without being a sweaty mess (because lets face it, that’s how she looks in all the photos on holiday, bless her).

I’m sure we’ll come up with more things to do, like go to the beach, the spray park, taking my Nanny out for afternoon tea.. but this is the things i’ve talked to Little Miss about doing and this afternoon we’re going to make a big chart with room to mark everything off. I’m hoping making sure we have lots to do will help the time pass quickly so not only are we closer to our holiday, but she doesn’t meet her friends too much since she is such a social little creature!