11 December 2011

Summer Bucket List 2011

Last year I put together a Summer Bucket List and when I went back to see how well I'd done in ticking off the list I was pleasantly surprised that most of them provided some wonderful moments of enjoyment over the summer. Sure, I still haven't made a bead necklace at a bead shop, and I'm not sure whether we managed to go to many 'new to us' spots in Wellington but we did pretty well on all the rest. So without further ado, here's my Summer Bucket List 2011:

1. Play mini golf



We are mini golf fans from WAY BACK. We love this game. Or should that be we love BEATING each other at this game. Plus we now have at least one cheeky chappy who has the ability to smash a plastic golf ball using a tiny plastic golf club from one end of the house to the other, so we're pretty sure it'll be a fun family outing that will get a thumbs up from the boys. A must do this year.


2. Go blueberry picking

When both my parents worked on a blueberry farm for many years, I didn't stop once to appreciate the amazing quantities of free blueberries we could devour without a second thought. I know we didn't make the most of it the opportunity, and now that we have to pay, shucks have you seen how much a tiny punnet of blueberries go for in the supermarket? And we were getting them by the icecream container for free? Booo hooooo!



Righty-o moving on...We have one boy who has always been particularly partial to anything remotely BERRY-ish so I think we will definitely be finding a field to raid do some PYO this summer!


3. Family bike expeditions

I am so looking forward to riding up and down Nana and Poppa's deserted country road with my big boy who can now ride on just 2 wheels. And if we borrow Nana and Poppa's bikes, we'll all be able to ride together...although we're still working on how we can also get the littlest involved in the fun!




We've also recently put an extra hole in the seat of Noah's old Mocka running bike so it goes down lower, and Mylo can just about reach the ground on his tiptoes. With any luck, we're hoping that with all the flat land around, we might just be able to convice Mylo to give it a good go over the holiday.


4. Play swingball

As a kid, for me summer holidays weren't complete without a few backyard activities like swingball, badminton, frisbee, kiteflying or backyard cricket. This year we've got Noah a swingball set for Christmas and with all that space to swing several cats at Nana and Poppa's, it'll be the perfect place to get some good rallies going.




5. A visit to The Big Smoke

This year we're taking a big detour on the usual Hamilton-New Plymouth leg of the holiday to spend a couple of nights in Auckland. It will be lovely to be able to stay and catch up with Andrea and her family, as well as hopefully take the kids to the Auckland Zoo and Kelly Tarltons Underwater World.

Noah is beside himself with excitement at the prospect of seeing an elephant!

6. Get a spray tan

A bit of a random one I know but I've never done it, and I'd kinda like to avoid looking like a complete lily-white never-seen-the-sun gal when we head off to Melbourne in March. Any recommendations for companies to use or avoid for that matter?!



7. Enjoy the dress

Ah yes. That dress. Lovely that it is, recent investigations of the bathroom scales have determined that I was a good 2kg lighter when I bought the dress for my brother Nic's wedding in Melbourne and it fitted perfectly, albeit snugly at the time....eek! Too much snacking and wine drinking in the lead up to Christmas me thinks! So unfortunately I will have a few Weight Watcher weeks ahead of me in the New Year if I'm even going to be able to do the darn thing up. Oh well, we've done the hard yards before and Mark reckons he will join me on my quest which is exactly what I need...some healthy competition! If there's one thing we're good at, it's competing with each other!


8. Recreate a Ruth Pretty dish over Christmas

Now that our dinner chef duties are shared a bit more evenly, my confidence in my kitchen abilities is returning. And I am already salivating imagining being able to serve one or both of these up to the family over Christmas!




9. The Time Traveler's Wife and The Shack

A few lovelies like Simone and Renee have put The Time Traveler's Wife in their top reading list for the summer. I watched and enjoyed the movie so I'm hoping the book is even better.



I have already read and loved The Shack. I know it's not everyone's cup of tea, some people (even Christians) find it hard to contemplate thinking of God in anything other than as a traditional father figure, but for me it blew my mind (in a good way!). This time I plan to make really good notes of the parts of the book that really resonated with me, and I may even share them here.


10. Make mulled wine

OK so I cheated, and I'm already tcking this one off the list right now! Between starting this post a couple of days ago and finishing it now, I've consumed nearly a whole batch of my very own homemade mulled wine. Yes I had a bit of company in the form of our annual life group Christmas party, but I still consumed a fair amount all by myself. And given it was 2 whole bottles of red wine that went into it, that's pretty impressive wouldn't you say?!

When I mentioned mulled wine in a recent post, Penny over at Little Feet, Big Shoes suggested trying Jamie Olivers recipe, and I have to say, once I'd sourced all the ingredients, it was plain sailing from there on in. This flows over the tongue and down the throat like the smoothest silk. And I have enough ingredients to make another batch for Christmas Day - RESULT! You better believe, I'll be sharing the recipe real soon!



So, what's on your bucket list this summer? And if it's not summer where you are right now, do you have a Winter Bucket List?!

8 comments :

Jules said...

Yum, love mulled wine, looking forward to the recipe.

That mini golf place must be new in Welly, looks super cool! We're big mini golf fans too.

Have fun ticking off your list!

jacksta said...

what a great list. We haven't played mini golf in years! Must get out there this summer, the old two would love it I imagine.
Love the Shack.
Looks like you will be having a great summer! Enjoy!

dearfutureme... said...

Super cool list! You can dooooo it! Love mini-golf, and I need to lose 10kg (or 15!) so will be hitting the WW pretty hard soon enough!!

Sammy said...

Love your list!
Both those books are amazing. I cried during both. Have to say the shack was life changing and I would also like to reread it and share my thoughts. Looking forward to yours!
xxx

PaisleyJade said...

Love your list - must make something similar! Loved the Shack too! xoxo

Penny said...

I have a few things on my list too...like a bus ride!
I'm with you on the spray tan...would love to try it but scared it would go too dark and I'd look horrible. Let me know how it goes
The Shack is amazing...enjoy

Tracey said...

I had a spray tan before headed to Raro when we worked together at M-co - I went to Kathy Davies (sp??) and was fairly happy with the result, though I would say that you can buy Clinque spray on tan for about the same price I think, then you will have the product to reapply to enhance the tan ... just saying .... Bucket list looks like a recipe for an awesome kiwi summer. xox

remaliah said...

What a fun-sounding bucket list! That's a great idea. I get you on the blueberries...I LOVE them! Funny how we don't realise when we get the chance to have unlimited supplies of something good :) our bucket-list? That's a good question! um...we looking forward to having a dear friend come and stay with us over Christmas/New Year, we'll have to get the girls out in the snow this year and make a snowman with them, making mulled wine sounds yummy! And maybe a Christmas market would be fun too :) I'll have to think of some others for us. Thanks for your comment! Have a lovely day there xx

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