Our Summer To Do List: A Comical Adventure

Friday marked the last day of school for my kids. I know, I know. Getting out of school for summer vacation before Memorial Day seems really early, but we're Hoosiers. We like getting out of school by the end of May.

Every year at the start of summer vacation, my husband has a mild freak out that the girls and I will waste the entire summer doing nothing because we can't think of anything better to do than watch a marathon of Dance Moms or Long Island Medium. Puh-leeze. Then (he fears), three days before school starts, we will think of one point five million fun things to do. But sadly, we won't have time to do them.

In an effort to not have the girls feel like they've wasted the summer, Friday night my husband insisted that they make a list of all the things they would like to do over summer vacation.

As in a formal list.

Like actually written down on paper.

With neat handwriting and numbered items.

And spaces to check off activities as we do them.

Good grief.

I think a written down, formal list is just this side of ridiculous. The girls think he is torturing them. But we obliged him.

I'm sure my husband was envisioning a list full of fun activities such as go to the park, eat a picnic lunch, or rollerskating. And I will admit the girl's list started out that way … until I stepped in with a suggestion. My suggestion was to have some serious items like hike on a trail and go to a drive-in movie and then veer off in the more comical direction.

Grow a beard may have been my first suggestion.

I might have pitched the idea of learning new swear words.

And I may have proposed the idea of using my husband's current favorite expression 'back in the day' into the conversation at least once a day.

My kids took the idea and ran with it. They added my suggestions and came up with more. I won't bore you with the entire eighty-four item list (eighty-four items because there are eighty-four days of summer vacation), but here are some highlights taken directly from their list:

4. Get a dog

11. Pretend to have a severe allergic reaction to showering

12. Build a time machine and travel back in time to see if Dad ever had to make a summer to do list

17. Freak mom out by laying in a ditch pretending to be dead

29. Paint Dad's toenails while he sleeps

40. Drive a fire truck

56. Have a totally chocolate dinner

63. Fart

68. Put goggly eyes on the people in the photos hanging up in the living room

77. Lift weights and get really buff like Larry the Lobster on Spongebob

82. Get matching duck tattoos (my personal favorite)

The girls handed my husband their list late Friday night. I was impressed because they handed it to him with completely straight faces and giving no indication that matching duck tattoos awaited him. I, on the other hand, started giggling and had to leave the room in order to not give anything away.

At first my husband was pleased … then he looked puzzled … then he laughed because it's hard to keep a straight face when envisioning your children nightly faking anaphylactic shock every time you tell them to get in the shower.

Here's to a great summer! Pin It Now!