Inspired by my weekend at The Mighty Summit and my own experience creating a Life List (see right column of my blog), I sat down with my own kids and asked them what they'd put on their list. Here's the first one, shared with permission by it's author, 9-year-old Beatrice. I love the way reality and fantasy co-mingle....

Be a number one New York Times best selling author - at age 10.

Be an awesome knitter.

Really learn how to sew.

Find a sport that I'm good at.

Have people mention my name on TV.

Finish all of my school work by Monday (her homework is given in weekly batches, so if she's organized, Bea thinks she can get all her work done for the week on Monday).

Invent a time machine so I can:

Travel back in time and visit my own birth, however inappropriate that may be.
Meet Charles Dickens and Einstein.
Try to make myself a better person by looking at some of the fights I've gotten into and see how I've acted.

Get into Stanford.

Travel to Ireland.

See the pyramids and obelisk and the Sphinx in Egypt.

See the Eiffel tower and add to my beret collection in Paris.

Make a dress out of silly bands, a dress out of pom pons and a dress out of markers.

Attend Hogwarts Academy.

Visit Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory.

Learn 5 different languages (Mandarin Chinese, Spanish, French, Hindi, Gaelic).

Solve an ancient mystery, like the Loch ness monster or Peter Coutts' Tower.

Get the first of many lead roles in a musical play.

Be cast as Elphaba AND Galinda in Wicked (at the same time!).

Get a lead part in a movie.

Get married to (name removed to protect the innocent).

Have 10 babies, all girls, all beautiful.

Live in a modern mansion.

Play the role of Kate in the film adaptation of "The Mysterious Benedict Society".

Have a room made of fluffy pillows and a bed that has a trampoline built in to I can bounce into bed (for the record, Beatrice says she wanted this before i-Carly had it).

Live in a palace made of Jell-O.

Spend a weekend in San Francisco eating things from Miette.

Spend a whole week at the San Jose Tech Museum.

Build a successful babysitting business in my neighborhood.

Work for an afternoon as Hank's Mother's Little Helper.

Make a life size gingerbread house decorated with all my favorite candies.

Meet all the big pop stars to see which ones are jerks and which ones are nice.

Have my imaginary friends come to life.

Be able to talk to animals.

Live on a farm for a week.

Visit with my Grandma Isabel, who died.

Become friends with JK Rowling and Elizabeth Gilbert.

Bring Trixie (our deceased cat) back to life so she can meet Sunny (our new puppy).

Be a super hero.

Meet Trenton Lee Stewart, author of "The Mysterious Benedict Society".

Run a business that helps saves the earth.

Learn karate.

Go to spy school.

Read the works of the Bronte sisters.

Read "War & Peace" and "Anna Karenina" without getting bored.

Meet Yoda.