Summer Adventures

Now that we have our own car to drive whenever wish it, we can do practically anything we desire. Our world is open, and we're ready to conquer it.

Normally each summer I have scheduled the entire thing, something different for every single day of the month. I found that when Ariel was on summer vacation after kindergarten the summer flew by and I was saddened by how little we actually did together. I did not want that happening ever again. My time with my children is very precious to me, and so short. I must be making the most of it.

This year our summer adventure schedule is looking quite different. I wanted to have a more spontaneous summer. We do have a list we'll follow, but it's not yet decided what we'll do and when we'll do it.

During the first week we were off, I sat down with the kids and made a huge list of what we'd like to do and accomplish this summer. I now have broken the list into three categories. We have the things that cost money, the things that are free, and the activity days which require a little more planning. Totally separate from those categories are the things that must be done on certain days, or require scheduling for my husband to get off work -- Like vacation time!

Here is the list my kids came up with at random:


Swimming at Condo
Swim beach
Chocolate party/ movie day
American girl tea party
BBQ at park with friends
Camp out in backyard
Tom Sawyer book party
Movie theater
Projector movie night in basement
Reading day/ write stories
Bird day/ experiments and learning about different breeds
fly kites
Zoo
Museum inside toys
Museum outside toys and hike
Veggie Tales day
All of the city playgrounds
Slip n’ Slide / Sprinkler
Spray Park
Bike race
Hawaiian Ice
Beauty day
Hike
Tie-dye
Lunch with dad at work
Cake decorating
Putt-putt
Carousel/ train
Water fun in backyard
Jungle/ Rainforest day
Tea party
Breakfast at park
Alphabet Hunt
Library / bookmobile
Paddleboats
Lake
Artist day
 zoo/museum – camp out
Play in rain
Sonic
Tent/ board games
Rainbow day
Art Lab
Picnic on a trail
Museum movie night
Jesus bingo
Children’s museum
Dr. Seuss Party
Make homemade ice cream
Contact paper / t-shirts
Cookies for teachers
Banana smores

On Sunday night, we choose an activity day that we'll schedule for sometime during that week. This can be anything from Rainbow day to Beauty day to an American Girl Tea Party. Usually we like to put a lot of thought into our activity days, and we love to include our friends for them.


In the past I have spent lots of money on our summer fun. This year I thought we'd try to cut back a little and have only one day a week maybe two that cost money. We might be going to Orange Leaf, making tie-dye t-shirts, or playing putt-putt.

With our remainder 3 days, we'll have fun that cost nothing or very little. We have lots to choose from here. There are so many places that you can picnic or take a nature hike at! We might have a bike race, or make homemade ice cream, have lunch with Titus at his work, or build a tent in the house and play board games. Our fun is practically unlimited here.

I think we're really going to enjoy making our summer fun so spontaneous. Every night at dinner, we have drawn a slip of paper for the next day's activity, and each night a different kid gets a turn drawing that name. We're still going to stay very busy this summer, but each day we'll have a surprise at what will be happening next!

Maybe you can use some of our ideas to make your own summer full of fun!