For Nicole, Stephanie & Ryan...

Tonight's blog entry is for the O'Connor kids, Nicole, Stephanie & Ryan.  While I don't have any kids of my own, I have kids via my friends that I adore.  For these kids, there isn't anything I wouldn't do for them.  They can pretty much get away with anything around me as I would fall for their cute little faces every time!

Nicole is 10 going on 30, blossoming into a young lady.  She is as smart as she is beautiful. She is outgoing & outspoken.  She loves horses.  She can talk to the adults & keep up her end of the conversation.  She is at the pre-teen age when she is looking to become a woman, but you still want her to be a kid.  Secretly you know she is growing up, but you want it to stop...well, at least for a little while longer.  I'll never forget her asking me, hand on her hip, what my intentions were with her uncle.  She was six at the time!  For the record, her uncle is my best friend...nothing more. (Sorry Nic!)

Stephanie is 8.  The athlete of the group.  She is the wild one.  She is resiliant as she is sweet. She has these cute little freckles across her nose.  It makes me laugh as I had them too when I was her age.  She will reveal during our dinner out Sunday that her usual order from Mister Softee is a vanilla cone with colored sprinkles...mine too!!  She is a huge Justin Bieber fan.  And she has me hooked on going to Build-A-Bear.  She is also curious & outgoing.

Ryan is 6.  He is the cutest little dude in town!  He has these adorable brown eyes & that little smirk that melts your heart.  You can't say no to him...I dare you to try!  And he has these cute chubby cheeks that everyone likes to squish.  Plus he is funny without trying.  And he enjoys drawing.

They each have their own personalities.
They each have their own special spark.

While out to dinner Sunday night, I get to sit with these three great kids & get a ton of ideas to add to my 40 things list. I love their enthusiasm for my list.  They are always giving me ideas. They are into this mission for me.  Okay, they are also looking forward to joining me on a few of these missions.  And I'm looking forward to the missions that I can invite them on.  I'm pretty sure there are going to be several....

So tonight's blog entry is for Nicole, Stephanie & Ryan.  For all their hard work of thinking up ideas.  For all the laughs.  For all the good vibes they send my way.  For all the fun things I am going to do because of them.

Oh & thanks to their dad Brian for the idea of going to Five Guys for breakfast, lunch & dinner so I can say I had 15 guys in one day!  haha!  Good one!

Trisha, we'll work out the details on some of these missions.  I've already started doing the price checking on most of them.  And I'm actually looking forward to going to Build-A-Bear...even if we do it before the 40 weeks actually start.

Keep in mind folks, not only do the O'Connor kids get to give me ideas.  There is still time to make your suggestions for the list. 

Here is the list tonight...

1 - full body massage
2 - take a hike
3 - frozen hot chocolate at Serendipity in NYC
4 - Gravity Hill in Bedford, Pa
5 - learn to speak Spanish
6 - read 'War & Peace'
7 - get a tattoo
8 - take Salsa lessons
9 - take a cooking class
10 - get set up on a blind date
11 - hostess a tea party
12 - ride a Harley
13 - buy 40 different pairs of socks
14 - get a make over
15 - get 40 people together for a picnic in a park
16 - go whale watching
18 - cook a Thanksgiving dinner
19 - karaoke night w/some friends
20 - visit the gravesite of Billie Burke, Glenda from 'The Wizard of Oz' in Vallhalla, NY
21 - learn sign language
22 - paint my bedroom
23 - clean out the living room closet
24 - go to Niagara Falls
25 - Spend the day in Philadelphia
26 - go on a "spiritual Retreat"
27 - rodeo riding
28 - bungy jumping
29 - walk across the Brooklyn bridge
30 - go to the Statue of Liberty
31 - start a book club
32 - go skinny dipping
33 - go on a photo taking tour of Queens
35 - get a group of people to walk in the Breast Cancer walk at Jones Beach
36 - write the next great American novel
37 - go to a movie every day for one week
38 - learn to knit
39 - go to a Zumba class
40 - go to a hot yoga session
41 - try the belly dancing class at the gym
42 - visit a state/city that you've always wanted to visit
43 - try pole-dancing
44 - chop down your own Christmas tree
45 - donate to a charity you never thought you would give money to
46 - volunteer at a soup kitchen
47 - volunteer at an animal shelter
48 - go Christmas Caroling
49 - horse drawn carriage ride in Central Park
50 - ice skating at Rockefeller Center
51 - make holiday cards & gifts for 2011
52 - trip to Smithsonian Museums in Washington, DC
53 - go to Junior's for a slice of cheesecake
54 - volunteer at Woodstock Farm Sanctuary
55 - go to Sylvia's in Harlem for chicken & waffles
56 - take a trip to the Long Island vineyards
57 - check out the Montauk lighthouse
58 - visit a cranberry bog
59 - go see a Broadway play
60 - visit Mark Twain's house in CT
61 - go to Atlantic City & lay down a $50 bet
62 - hot air balloon ride
63 - stock car racing
64 - white water rafting at the Delaware gap
65 - take a picture w/the Naked Cowboy in NYC
66 - go to Medievil Times
67 - go to a Murder Mystery Dinner
68 - go for dinner at Havana in NYC
69 - go to the circus
70 - go to a football game
71 - go cayaking
72 - Fleet Week in NYC
73 - Circle Line cruise around NYC
74 - Hayden Planetarium laser show
75 - Hershey Park, PA
76 - visit a dude ranch
77 - take a photography class
78 - bike riding with Hippie Dave
79 - go on a vacation alone
80 - go to the beach looking for seashells with Hippie Dave
81 - Howe Caverns
82 - go see the Mets at Citifield
83 - rock wall climbing
84 - fly a kite
85 - archery w/Anthony
86 - go to the Halloween parade in the village
87 - go to the Museum of the Moving Image in Astoria
88 - go line dancing
89 - Governor's Island
90 - ride the Staten Island Ferry
91 - ride the Roosevelt Island tram
92 - go to a midnight movie show w/Tracy wearing your jammies
93 - go to the Noguchi Museum in LIC
94 - go to the King Manor Museum in Jamaica
95 - go to the Fisher Landau Center for Art in LIC
96 - go to the Sculpture Center in LIC
97 - go horseback riding
98 - ride a mechanical bull (Johnny Utah's in NYC)
99 - Mystic Aquarium, CT
100 - stop to see the sun rise and sun set on the same day
101 - go trick-or-treating with Mikayla & Connor
102 - plan a surprise party for someone
103 - ride the Cyclone & see the Freak Show in Coney Island
104 - midnight bowling
105 - plan a girls night out
106 - try a new hair color
107 - hostess a come as your favorite character/celebrity party
108 - go to the Museum of Sex in NYC
109 - be a nude model for an art class
110 - disco rollerskating
111 - go for pizza in all 5 boros; Queens, Manhattan, Brooklyn, the Bronx & Staten Island
112 - tour the Brooklyn Brewery
113 - plant a garden
114 - get a drivers license
115 - go vegetarian for a week
116 - find out how many licks it takes to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop
117 - go to Adventureland
118 - sail in a rowboat on the lake in Central Park
119 - sail a toy boat on the pond in Central Park
120 - make a boat out of materials found in nature & see if it floats
121 - go to Five Guys for breakfast, lunch & dinner so you can say you had 15 guys in one day
122 - go on the ferris wheel in the Toys R Us in Times Square
123 - go to Alice's Tea Cup in the city with the O'Connors
124 - go to the Top of the Rock
125 - paint a realistic flower
126 - spend the day in NYC with the Iglesias' & O'Connors
127 - take a Hudson River cruise
128 - buy a telescope to see the stars
129 - bounce on a trampoline
130 - make a paper mache artwork
131 - go for a helocopter ride over NYC
132 - go to a concert
133 - get new clothes
134 - go through the Corn Maze at the Queens County Farm ~ see if you can get out in 40 minutes or less
135 - grow out your hair for Locks of Love
136 - go for breakfast at the Belmont Race Track
137 - go to Build A Bear
138 - go to a Cirque deSoleil show
139 - go see 'TheLion King' on Broadway
140 - go see a foreign language film
141 - Madame Tussaud's in NYC
142 - Cirque de Soleil in NYC
143 - Magical Nights magic show & dinner in NYC