What do you do with a teenager who just returned from Europe aglow to find she’s stuck with her Mom (who has to work) while her sister and dad fly off to Japan? You make the most of it, of course!

The day we dropped Bart and Ella at the airport, I sat her down and painted a picture of how we could co-exist peacefully and each enjoy the experience. We’re going to be roommates while they’re gone, and to me, here’s what that means:

• Communication is key. Need something? Ask. Have feedback? Share.
• We’re on our own for breakfast and lunch during work days. Need help? Ask.
• Pick up after yourself. Don’t be a crappy roomie.
• Check in with one another and offer help. Give space, give support.

With raised eyebrows and the hint of a smile, she was in. And spoiler alert: It worked just like that, and we had a magical two weeks together. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

The first weekend together included the 4th of July, so we went down to our friends’ house in Long Beach for their annual pool party, which was odd without the other half of our family, but still fun!

We also had a pre-planned theater experience, thanks to our friends who have season tickets to the Ahmanson Theater. They were unable to use their Mamma Mia tickets, so we got to go! It was super cool to watch it with Zoe, since we had seen her school’s production of the show a year before–her first on-stage high school performance! We knew all the words to all the songs and had a blast.

I also made a proposal to Zoe in our first sit-down meeting to chart our roommate adventure: I would pay her $100 to help me clean–I mean REALLY reimagine–her sister’s room. Neither of us can stand the disarray that little Ella seems to like, and Ella truly hates cleaning her room.

First, we had to head to IKEA to find some storage solutions. There’s simply too much stuff, much of which (like a tiny little kid desk under her bed) she never uses. You know what a trip to IKEA means? Swedish meatballs!

With a handy 8-box IKEA Kallax storage unit in hand, we headed home to begin assembly. Speaking of assembly, among the lists Zoe assembles (she is no doubt my daughter), she has a list of movies that it seems everyone has seen but her–those are her words, not mine. So during the evenings, we’d pick a movie and do our best to get caught up. Here’s a multitasking session where we watched Forrest Gump as Zoe put together Ella’s new furniture:

Run, Forrest, Run! We spent HOURS reorganizing, cleaning, sorting, and reconfiguring Ella’s room, careful not to get rid of or hide anything she loves. Though one day she will surely kill me for sharing what a freaking mess her room was, you simply must see the before and after pics:

Yes. Ella left her room in complete disarray, a worse mess than ever, honestly. Sure, I could have just closed the door, as my mother did for my sister’s room growing up, but I couldn’t. Yes, it cost me money, and blood-sweat-tears. But it also gave me teen daughter time, and we were SO PROUD when we were done! And before you ask, it still looks pretty amazing in there.

Our friendly (ha) cat, Jasmine, was zero help and wanted little to do with us the entire week. Bart is her person, and we were no substitute.

But what about that Bucket List, you ask? Well, some time in the Spring Zoe had mentioned she had a bucket list. I laughed but was intrigued, so she shared it with me. Some things on that list had nothing to do with parents (go to Coachella, weekend getaway with friends to an Airbnb), but many were not only in reach, but entirely doable.

I decided, with her blessing, that I was going to make as many of those wishes come true on our free weekend as roommates, so she could keep on filling that list with even more and bigger dreams–and know that all it takes is planning and a little legwork to make those dreams come true.

Here are the items we chose to check off the list on our roomie weekend (this is a copy/paste):

• go on a swan boat thingy
• bungee jumping workout class
• eat caviar
• drive (in) a convertible

First, bungee jumping (the safe kind). I’d never even heard of this, but I quickly found AirFit Bungee near us in Burbank and signed us up. If you haven’t done this before, do it. It was freeing, super fun, and a completely doable workout. They have you share your height and weight at signup and have your bungee apparatus set before you arrive. Students are staggered with plenty of distance between–in fact, enough distance to “FLY”!

Seriously, we laughed a ton and had a blast! Who knew?

Bucket list item #1: SUCCESS.

Next, the car. We don’t own a convertible nor know a friend who does, so I searched Turo, which is basically Airbnb for cars. People list their cars on the site and rent them out. I’d never tried it before, and the process pretty fascinating. You can go pick up the car or have it brought to you. Everything happens in the app–the keys were literally left in the car parked on the street in a neighborhood. I quickly found a red Mini convertible not far away and booked it for 7 hours. So cute!

In our case, we wanted the top down, so I asked the owner to be there to show us how it worked. Would have sucked to break it or not be able to get the top back up when we parked it at our destination. We arrived to pick up the car, got trained, and then took TONS of pictures of the car in the app. And finally, top down and teen in the passenger seat, we headed off to our swan boat thingy adventure!

We hit the freeway, which was jammed with cars. If you’ve ever been in a convertible moving fast, it’s loud. So if you have to be on a freeway in a convertible with the top down for 1.5 hours, you might as well be stuck in traffic. Best part: Zoe loved every minute of our top-down trip! We couldn’t figure out how to connect our phones to the car, so we ended up listening to [GULP] the radio and found an alternative rock station that was amazing!

Bucket list item #2: SUCCESS.

We took a pit stop in Long Beach for a lovely lunch at a nice mediterranean restaurant, Ammatoli, which was super cute inside and had the hands-down best hummus I’ve ever. My lunch date was quite cute, too.

Up next: Swan boat thingy. If you’ve never been on a pedal boat, it’s fun–but beware. Someone has to pedal. HA! We both did our fair share of pedaling around Rainbow Lagoon, after having driven around for too long looking for a good place to park someone else’s convertible car safely. It was a gorgeous day and the waterfront areas were filled with people and energy.

Bucket list item #3: SUCCESS.

Finally, after another 1.5 hours in traffic on the way back up (still fun!), I had found a place for caviar, which was near our house ironically. The reviews were fabulous, and it is literally named Caviar & Delicatessen, no joke. One of the reviews said they’d let you “taste” before buying, though when we arrived, there were limited options–all for sale not tasting. So Zoe asked some questions and picked one out to take home.

We looked up online how to best “taste” caviar (white bread it is!), and Zoe gave it a whirl.

Don’t let that smile fool you. It was BEFORE the tasting, and to all the thousands of suitors wishing to take Zoe’s hand, you may have to buy a convertible, BUT you will not have to pay for caviar. Having tasted caviar on random appetizers at events, I can say that maybe the black caviar is best, buried in some other flavors where it just tastes like salt. OR maybe you, dear reader, have had excellent caviar. If so, please keep your opinion to yourself.

Bucket list item #3: SUCCESS? I mean, she did eat caviar, right? HA!

No, mine was not a trip to Europe or Japan, but I wouldn’t trade my Summer Trip experience for anything. In fact, I’d give pretty much anything to repeat that “hey, we’re just girls here hanging out” time with Zoe. #winning

Until then, we’ll always have our Bucket List two weeks!