One of the great things about living in a city like Chicago is that there is so much to do during the summer. Chicago is a wonderful city year-round, but in the summer, it SHINES.
So, like every year, I have a list of things I’d like to do between now and summer’s end–mostly fun things and some not-so-fun obligatory things that just need to get done.
Let’s start with the fun stuff. A lot of these are carry-overs from last year, either because they are so awesome that we want to do them again or because we never got around the checking them off of our list. So, this summer, I hope to:
- Spend more time at the beach than last year
- Go berry-picking (may do that this weekend!)
- Make a lot of homemade popsicles
- Continue our summer tradition of eating outside: park dinners, farmers market meals, porch dinners, etc.
- Get family photos taken before and after the baby comes
- Take Finn to see Thomas the Train for a second time
- Have Finn’s first birthday party (he’ll be 3 in August)
- Grow our own tomatoes
- Keep all of our outdoor plants alive
- Do a glam overnight staycation with my gal (cause Mimi and Pops can’t come long enough for us to actually get away)
- Relax about bedtime, allowing for more evening/after dinner scooter rides
- Have a zoo day
- Let Finn play hookie from daycare a few days, giving us Momma & Finn beach time
- Take Finn to his first-ever Chicago pride parade
- Make the rounds at our favorite farmers markets: Evanston, Green City, Andersonville, Granville
- Visit our favorite water park
- Walk the 606 (an elevated train track turned park/walkway)
- Eat all the Italian ice (Mario’s, Tina’s, Miko’s…)
- Make adult slushies
- Spend 2-3 weeks of our maternity leave traveling with the kiddos (thinking Spain, Portugal, and maybe the Caribbean?)
- Visit the Elkhorn antique market in WI
And the not-exactly-fun-but-it-needs-to-be-on-a-list-too stuff:
- Get Finn’s closet professionally redone
- Re-vamp Finn’s room in time for Elias to move in (paint, new rug, rearrange furniture)
- Put the nail in the potty training coffin (this was on last year’s list, too–HA!)
- Sort through–and organize–all of Finn’s old clothes
- Successfully complete the graduate course that I’ve just started
- Establish a gym routine… again
- Survive the eruption of Finn’s second molars
- Get a new HVAC system (waaaaaaaaaah!)
And, of course, there’s one thing that tops all other bucket list items: HAVE ANOTHER BABY!
Let’s do this, Summer 2018.