I find every summer passes much too quickly and before I know it summer has come to an end, school is beginning and we're left wondering what we did with all that time and why we didn't get all those things done that we'd said we were going to. We wanted this year to be different and thanks to the Happy Family Movement, it is going to be an epic summer for our family.
A few weeks ago we sat down as a family and brainstormed all of the things that we love to do during the summer, as well as things we'd like to do but have never followed through on. There are many more days over the summer than what we came up with, so when it came time to get down to business and put together a visual display we made extra cards so we can add as we think of things. Our two oldest will also be at summer camps and visiting family lots, so most of the items we add will be stuff to do with our youngest.
I have a habit of never doing anything simply, like just creating a plain old list, so I researched on Pinterest (of course) and created a board of my favourite display ideas and activity ideas. You can find my board here if you're curious!
We wanted a big visual that our whole family can read and be inspired with every day, and our dining room was the perfect location for it. We had 4 square corkboards sitting here waiting to be used that I stuck up with 3M velcro picture hangers, and to dress it up we punched out fancy squares to write out bucket list on. Once we had it all up it still looked plain and I thought a banner would be the perfect touch. I had the twine, burlap and fabric dye at the house already so I went out and bought the letters and the entire banner cost about $6.
The great part about having teenagers involved in the project (our kids are 15, 13 and 3... ahhh! She'll be 4 tomorrow!!!!), is they are able to be so much more involved. I included a memory jar to put in items we'd like to collect like ticket stubs, special leaves, the finished activity squares, notes, etc. I also purchased a family notebook to copy our list into and then journal about our activities and crafts as we do them. We'll remember a lot more at the end of the summer and it keeps the kids writing over the summer!
The picture below is our finished Summer Activity Wall. Everything in one place and a great visual reminder to enjoy the moments we spend together and with friends over this fun time of year!
Just in case you are curious... here is the start of our family's Summer Bucket List:
*summer skating
*swim at an outdoor pool
*camping
*read 5 books
*play at a new playground
*fishing trip
*sleep in!
*trampoline sleepover
*s'mores
*camp in the backyard
*harvest our garden
*Sun Peaks flower hike
*make our own ice cream
*go on a walk
*backyard BBQ
*play at a waterpark
*birthday party for J
*waterslides
*pick flowers
*plan a family trip
*have a garage sale
*hang out with friends
*Canada Day celebrations
*baking
*sleepover at grandma & poppa's
*quad ride
*car ride
*birthday party for H
*boat ride
*make a ghillie suit
*paintballing
*make one new friend
*water fight
*family bike ride
*Enchanted Forest
*fly a kite
*build a faerie village
*farmer's market
*outdoor movie
*go for ice cream
*date night for mom and dad
As you can see, our list has something for everyone, and some things that are specific to just one or two of our family members. We included big and little events, and I would eventually like to plan some rainy day crafts that can be added to the list for those not-so-nice days that we've been having a lot of lately.
I hope you enjoyed this post, please feel free to add it to Pinterest, share it on Facebook, or email the link.
Have a wonderful, fun filled summer my friends!
xoxo Carrie
