Last year for the first time I wrote a Family Summer Bucket List, we wrote it out with little pictures to hang in the playroom and ticked off when we did the most exciting and the most ordinary of things and it was just lovely. This year I wasn’t planning on doing the same as we would have been away but as those plans have changed I feel like this is more important than ever!
Again it isn’t full of expensive huge days out or exciting moments, nor is it a list of everything we must complete in 6 short weeks (goodness knows I have enough to do lists around here already). I am also not about to be one of these people who tells you (or myself) to soak up every single second and make you feel bad for ‘wasting’ hours, days or even weeks either. But what it is; is a reminder to us all that the simplest of things have the biggest impacts in terms of spending time together with the children. That an amazing summer can be had no matter what budget or circumstance you have. A reminder too for the girls that when we have had a bad day (inevitable right?) or when they say they are bored (again) there is something to look back on and say that we have done so much, we have made the ordinary meaningful just by writing it down right here to appreciate; and that more than anything we did it together, well we tried!
This is it, a list to return to to inspire our next adventure.
So here goes……
- Visit the cinema
- Toast Marshmallows
- Go to the library for the Summer Reading √
- Stargaze
- Have a BBQ
- Watch the sunset
- Go on a family holiday
- Eat breakfast out
- Have a playdate √
- Spot a rainbow
- Read a book together
- Eat ice cream
- Summer dance party
- Go camping
- Strawberry Picking √
- Baking √
- Visit a New National Trust
- Random act of kindness
- Unplugged day
- Go to our first festival √
- Make friendship bracelets
- Chalk art contest
- Snuggle around the fire pit in the garden
- Skim stones
- Make a fort
- Pillow fight
- Watch a movie at home
- Make mud pies
- Pyjama day
- Evening scoot
- Play board games
- Take a road trip
- Go pond dipping
- Collect shells or stones
- Paddle in a creek/brook
- Have a picnic
- Leave notes for strangers
- Read a book to a friend
- Face painting
- Make pancakes/waffles
- Write a story
- Go to a sweet shop
- Paint rocks
- Perfect hand stands and cartwheels in the park
- Go on a bike ride
- Watch clouds go by
- Have a water fight √
- Go on a nature treasure hunt
- Splash in the rain or watch a thunderstorm
- Climb a tree
- Make up a dance
- Build a sandcastle
- Wash the car
- Play cards in a pub garden
- Make healthy ice lollies
- Children choose dinner
- Visit a photobooth
- Bird watch
- Explore somewhere new
- Make pizza
- Stay up late
- Run in the park
- Make fruit rolls
- Explore the woods
- Paint our nails
- Have fun
And last but not least, keep a summer diary/scrapbook every day. Even just one sentence or picture because as much as I will blog, I might vlog, I will take hundreds of photographs as I always do, we all know there really is nothing like a good book, especially a handwritten one by a child.
We are 3 days into summer holidays here and whilst I am definitely still not ready or planned due to the changes we’ve had, we are definitely all so ready and enjoying just relaxing and seeing where the next 6 weeks take us. Truthfully I don’t care how many of the above we do, because no matter how many get ticked off or how many of those days we feel like we ‘wasted’, it will still make up our summer. September will still roll around and come to think of it ‘wasting’ time is actually a pretty wonderful way to be together in the last summer before both of the girls will be dropped off on that September morning quicker than I would like. I think as long as we have achieved that last bullet point about 80% of the time (I’m aiming high here) we will all look back with fondness and smiles and really that’s what childhood life is all about isn’t it?
So, who’s ready and planned and who is terrified and winging it!? I’m probably still a mix of both but I have to be honest I am mostly just looking forward to not having to do the school run! Gosh I still hate the school run!!
Happy Summer
