Outdoor movie nights — Cuban-American Lifestyle & Food Blog — My Big Fat Cuban Family: A Cuban-American Blog

The definition of the word manifesto from Dictionary.com:

man·i·fes·to

[man-uh-fes-toh]

noun, plural man·i·fes·toes.

a public declaration of intentions, opinions, objectives, or motives, as one issued by a government, sovereign, or organization.

I know from experience that unless I am very intentional about doing something, it just doesn't happen. I know manifesto sounds like a big and serious word, but I like that it adds some gravitas to my summer goal making process. Besides, Summer Bucket List just doesn't sound as impressive.

Every year we make a list of things we'd like to accomplish and places we'd like to go over the summer. I've had a People I Need To See Live list for as long as I can remember.

Last year, one of my heroes, Ali Edwards turned the Summer Manifesto into a scrapbooking project (which I love). This bit about writing down intentions is totally how I work.

I didn't want to make my list too long. Also, there are things that don't need to be on there because we already do them. Much like not needing to remind myself to "brush my teeth," I don't need to write down "go to the beach." We automatically do this on a weekly basis all summer.

I wrote my Summer Manifesto down in my journal and decided to turn it into a piece of Subway Art. (Which, by the way, I plan on opening a Custom Subway Art Shop online very soon, so stay tuned...but that's not important right now.).

Here's my Summer Manifesto 2013:

Attend the Pageant of the Masters in Laguna Beach.

Shop at local Farmer's Markets as often as possible.

Make S'mores (Cuban style!) over an outdoor fire.

Take a Lake Cruise.

Visit the Orange County Fair (and eat decadent food, but that goes without saying).

Go to a Dodger Game. (Usually this would say Angel game because I love live baseball on summer nights and I think it's cool that we all get to wear RED, but hello! Yasiel Puig and Dodger Dogs!)

Build a Farmhouse Table and have lots of meals outdoors. (Check!)

Enjoy lots of Outdoor Movie Nights.

Build a Sandcastle. (Not just a flip-your-plastic-bucket-over Sandcastle, but a serious all-day one. This requires a trip to Del Mar. Yes, please. Oh, wait! Did I forget to add "Go to the Del Mar Horse Races?" Consider it added.)

Make ice cream. (I tend to forget that I have an ice-cream maker stashed away in my cupboard. And I'll be really mad at myself if I don't make my famous Homemade Dulce de Leche Ice Cream.)

Take the train to San Diego. (The train station is just blocks from Little Italy and our favorite Italian restaurant, Filippi's Pizza Grotto, so technically this should really read: Take the train to San Diego and go to Little Italy.)

Take the LA Bus Tour. (Lucy will be in Los Angeles taking an Improv class for 5 weeks and my friend, Jana and I decided we would visit her while she's staying up there and do the whole touristy-tour of movie star homes and point a lot and say things like, "there's the Hollywood sign!" and all that.)

These are all the big things. The little things that I don't have to remind myself to do are to go swimming as often as possible and as I mentioned before go to the beach every week. (On Wednesdays, if you must get technical.) Eat outdoors as much as possible on my new farmhouse table? That already goes without saying.

And I know I've forgotten things, but we'll continue to add over the summer as we come up with different ideas. And, trust me, I've always got ideas.

Maybe this fall I'll also do a "Best Cuban Places to Eat in Los Angeles" tour. *starts doing research and making notes*

That's my Summer Manifesto. It's in a prominent place in our home and we're already slowly working our way through the list. It's shaping up to be a fabulous summer. And of course, I'll definitely be Documenting the Magic.

So, what's on your Summer Bucket List Manifesto? Tell me.

I know this might sound odd, but at the beginning of every summer, we make a Summer Bucket List. I may just have to blog about it soon, but today is not that day.

We've always been pretty intentional about the things we choose to participate in and the places we go. I think it's a holdover from being homeschoolers for so long. There's always a plan.

A few years back, Eric got me the Best Gift Ever. He bought me a projector and a giant screen in order to show movies in our backyard.

One of our signals that summer is really here is when we start making plans to watch movies outdoors on our big screen.

We usually invite friends and there's probably going to be dinner or dessert, or both. Sometimes we just run over to Costco and buy boxes of candy and set up a concession bar. (I'll blog about that another day, too.)

But what to show?

We determined early on that we would keep the movies family friendly. Comedies? Definitely. Musicals? Absolutely. Animation? Of course. The key is that they must be good stories and have great plots. Or maybe movies that have lots of good lines. We love movie lines.

We choose the kind of movies that we don't get tired of seeing over and over. A mix of classics, action-adventure, cheesy love stories, old-school black and whites, and frankly, they should just be fun.

This Summer Movie List is serious business around here. There's lots of talk and arguments and suggestions. Mostly arguments. Loud ones. With lots of hand gestures.

So, in order to keep from hurting each other we started a list of the ones we all agree on.