Thursday, August 2, 2012

The Summer Bucket List

For moms, summer can be a real test -- the kids are home from school all day, every day -- unless you send them to camp, of course. Our kids do attend a couple of weeks of summer camp, but the rest is up to mom!

Although we all look forward to the break from school, it takes a lot of endurance and planning to keep the summer happily humming along.
Tyler and Alyssa making the summer bucket list!
This year we decided to try something new -- a visual summer bucket list. We sat down together at the beginning of the summer and made a list of all of the fun things we wanted to do. Then, we wrote them on small sheets of construction paper, assembled them as a collage on a bulletin board and hung it up in the kitchen.

We checked things off our list as summer went along, and with only three weeks of summer vacation left, I can report that we will get to almost all of them. How exciting!

Anything we don't get to can certainly be carried over into fall! In fact, I like this idea so much, I think I may keep it going for a while -- I don't know about you, but I'm the kind of gal who needs visual, in your face reminders -- and lots of them! That's why this board, displayed so prominently in my kitchen, was so helpful.

The other thing that was great about it was that everyone got to have a say in what they wanted to do this summer, so it created a sense of equality. Plus, the act of making the board was a fun project. It also created the sense of living our summer with intention.

It's been such a wonderful summer, but I still think we will all be ready for the school year to start!

I'd love to hear from you about how you keep your summer fun and interesting!

A couple of people have asked me to share some of our ideas ... so here you go!

  • Go out for ice cream
  • Work on scrapbooks
  • Grill out with the neighbors
  • Purge from under the bathroom sinks (yes, we put a few work-related things on there, too!)
  • Chicago Botanic Garden
  • Menchies Frozen Yogurt
  • Go to the library
  • Catch fireflies
  • Organize the craft closet
  • D'Agostinos Pizza
  • Field Museum
  • Painting pottery
  • Six Flags Great America
  • Cooking fun in the kitchen -- trying new kid friendly recipes
  • Visit a farm
  • Ice skating
  • Roller skating
  • Try Marco's Pizza for the first time
  • Swimming at the pool
  • Downtown Chicago 
  • Arlington Park Horse Races
  • Bowling
  • Try Smashburger for the first time
  • Go berry picking

1 comment:

  1. I would personally love to hear what all was on your bucket list! Sometimes we moms need a few creative ideas... other than shopping, which is what my girls always list off first. :-)

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