Summer Bucket List

It is that time again! Goodness Spring goes by in the blink of an eye doesn’t it? Time for our summer fun list or summer bucket list. We have been doing these lists for many years now with the exception of one year. There are always differing opinions on summer fun lists.. in fact I just read an Insta post about not scheduling so much and taking time to relax and let children just be children… I appreciate those sentiments for sure and I think there is a sweet spot for every family. In our house if I don’t make a rough plan, I feel like summer just fades away and we look back and say what did we do last summer? Nothing. So I try to come up with a list of things that we would like to do. We might not get to everything and there is zero pressure to go-go-go. This is just ideas for adventures to create memories with my girls.

My oldest daughter will be 10 this summer and my youngest just turned 8 so I am looking at maybe 6 or 7 more summers with my girls. The years are too fleeting to waste for sure.

So here goes our summer fun list which hopefully inspires you to create one of your own!

I just typed mine up on Pages and printed it out and stuck it to the fridge. Here is what is on our list this year:

Summer Bucket List ideas

Outdoor Fun: splash pads, outdoor movies (we do these at home- see the details here– this year I called it a dive in movie and told the kids they could watch the movie from the pool on rafts and they are very excited), catch fireflies, fly a kite, have a picnic dinner, water balloon baseball (my friend did this for a birthday and it looks so fun!), watch a sunset (or sunrise), watch the fireworks, berry picking, outdoor concerts, trying our hand at golf this summer… (real golf not mini golf)

Summer Bucket List Ideas

Hey It’s Too Hot: Indoor Rock Climbing place, Minions Movie, library movie night (these are fun- lay out blankets, bring snacks and watch movies at the library- hoping to arrange to do this with our soccer team), light up lanterns (I bought lanterns to release on New Year’s Eve and we never did get to them. Saving them now for the end of summer to release and possibly correspond with a Tangled movie night. There are actual festivals nationwide that do this on a grand scale- details here), kick ball (don’t laugh but my husband plays on an adult league and it is so fun! The kids love to go and play and we actually just did a birthday party at the kick ball place.)

summer things to do

Adventures: Visit a local lavender farm, hoping for a weekend in Oregon to visit a few places, a trip to the CA coast, local festivals, my girls love to go to antique faires with me, Tahoe is a quick drive away- hoping to spend at least one weekend there…

Let’s Eat: Make ice cream ( we make tons of ice cream in summer but I have a special idea I will share soon), plus a few local spots that are fun/interesting.different – BJ Cinnamon for awesome doughnuts, Devil May Care Ice Cream, The Bee Box (my littlest loves honey and bees)…

Reading is Cool: Reading is super cool and I have a ton of ideas to make books come alive this summer. Local British pub (Fox & Goose) for a traditional English breakfast followed by a Harry Potter movie marathon and starting book 5 in the series, (we read aloud together almost every day.) I have a post coming with our summer book recs for kids but we just finished Fanny in France and now the kid’s picked out a few recipes to make from the book… I have three books we have lined up to read: Anne of Green Gables (we just watched Anne with an E and loved it), Rump and Summer of Gypsy Moths.

Other Stuff: Vacation Bible School, soccer camp, Ancestry Book (we have been researching our heritage and plan to keep working on the project this summer- plus visit a few places locally like my great, great grandfather’s farm and his home), Glamping (my oldest wants to do this for her birthday this year)..

Summer Fun List Ideas

So that is about it. We have some crafts and DIY planned but I didn’t list everything out this year. You can check out my children’s crafts board on pinterest though for tons of inspiration. We have a few soccer tournaments out of town that should be fun and I invested in a slip n slide so my little baseball players can practice sliding this summer 😉

What are your summer fun plans? I’d love to hear them or tag me on Insta so I can see what you are up to!

And here are some prior Summer Bucket List posts:

Summer Bucket List