I haven’t done Thursday 13 in a while so here goes:

1. Going on vacation with my family and not having to worry about anything. Now that I’m the adult and have to do all the travel/financial plans, it’s just not the same. I remember our 3 day trips up the east coast to our family house in Western New York. My parents made sure we stayed at a hotel with a good pool and the carefree feeling of knowing they had everything under control was just so wonderful.
2. Backyard picnics. We had a really big fenced in yard up until I was 15. I specifically remember summer days and even  days when I stayed home sick and my mother made sandwiches and tossed out a huge blanket right in the middle of the yard.
3. My mother’s cooking. I cook for my family now but I miss the every day surprise of what she’d have on the table. We typically had a variety of dishes, from casseroles, to salmon patties, meat loaf, etc.
4. Sleepovers. I preferred to go to my friends’ houses because they always had the cooler toys. Now that I am married with kids, it’s really like permanent sleepover and there’s no fun in it.
5. The thrill of getting good grades. I was a serious over-achiever and smarty-pants so when those report cards came out and I saw the row of As down the line, I was ecstatic. Even better was the fact that in elementary school, the principal took the All A kids out for pizza AND my grandparents send a 50 dollar check. Sweet!
6. Saturday Morning Cartoons. I tended to wake up very early, even earlier than my parents and I remember going out to our den and flipping on cartoons. I guess they don’t really have these anymore because we end up watching specific things on kid-specific channels.
7.  Bike rides with my dad. We used to ride up and down the alleys of South Florida all the time. I began in a little kid seat mounted on the back of his bike but quickly learned to ride on my own. He taught me how to be careful of cars and cross busy streets and avoid crazy dogs that chased us. They were good times.
8. Going to arcades/kid places.  We used to have a big Chuck E. Cheese like place called Circus Playhouse and they had pizza and coin operated rides, arcade games, bounce houses, ball pits, and an animatronic show. It wasn’t far from the mall where my mother worked part-time so sometimes after dinner my dad took us to play games. The thrill of it is something I just don’t get out of many events these days.
9. Slip ‘N Slide. My son’s birthday is coming up and we’re having a big extravaganza. We rented a bounce house/water slide and we’ll set up a bunch of other water fun things. I remember when Ash turned 26, we bought a Slip n Slide but it was so not as fun, or easy. When you get big, it’s hard to throw your body on a plastic tarp and have it be any kind of comfortable. In fact, it downright hurt. I recall feeling so light and free as I zoomed down that yellow stretch of vinyl into the little splash pool.
10. School. I know it sounds odd but I miss the fact that school was my job as a kid. My parents went off to work and I went to school, and I was expected to perform and do well and succeed. But there was so much more to it: picking out the perfect backpack, getting great pens and pencils, award certificates, seating assignments, elective classes… there was so MUCH fun stuff involved that I miss the excitement.
11. Being fast. I was a fast runner and I ran all the time; on the playground, when the family took walks, and I was once in the Running Club. Sure, I run now but it doesn’t feel the same and I know I can’t go nearly as fast as when I weighed a mere 50 pounds, legs and arms working in perfect harmony to propel me through the world.
12. Forts. I always made forts over my bed. For a while, I had two twin beds in my room and I figured out how to rig sheets using the fan and bookshelves as to make the perfect cozy hide-out. To this day, I tend to zone in on comfy spaces and I see why, from my early fort building days.
13. Zero Worries. I alluded to this in #1 but even when I worried about a school project or whether or not Brian Zimmerman liked me back or if I’d place first or second in the uneven bars, I never had the kind of worries I do as an adult. All responsibility lies on my shoulders now and when I think about this, it reminds me to let my kids be kids, for as long as they can.

Hey, if you’re interested, I’m giving away four books at this post. Comment and be entered!