Embracing Now: 3 fun ways to enjoy your summer
“Summer, Summer, Summertime!”
It’s official!
Our household is now on summer break. For the next ten weeks, our family will be in full summertime mode. Needless to say, this momma has been counting down the days until we completed this school year.
I love summer.
No matter how old you are, where you live, or how busy you are, something is exciting about the summer. Maybe it’s the idea of spending countless hours out in the sun, enjoying sweet watermelon at another cookout, or a cold popsicle on a hot day. Summer is just a fun time.
With a household full of boys and two working parents, we are creative in continuing to build summer memories while keeping our boys learning and active. So I am always looking for helpful ways to make the most out of summer. How about you?
Let’s chat about three fun ways we plan to enjoy our summer and hope they can help you plan a fun summer too!
Create a bucket list
Creating a bucket list is one of our family’s favorite activities. We create bucket lists all the time, whether it’s summertime or Christmas break. Bucket lists allow everyone to have input on what you do as a family. At the beginning of summer, we sit around at our family meeting to discuss what we want to do during the summer. We do create some budget boundaries to help them understand how to be financially savvy and the importance of planning. Other than that, we let our fellas give all sorts of suggestions.
This list is great! They love being able to choose which activities we will do for the day and then check it off. Plus, it helps cut down on the dreaded “I’m bored” that is bound to come up multiple times during the summer. (Remember, this is a great activity for couples and families).
Build your own summer camp
Many of us have fond memories attending some sort of camp or vacation Bible school during the summer. So why not plan your own? Whether you are a couple or a family of five, you can create your summer camp complete with themes, activities and field trips. Plus, it doesn’t have to take up the entire summer. You can create your own timeline and decide what activities work for you.
Some summer camp themes could be:
- Welcome Summer: set aside a day of no planning, just enjoy the day: enjoy your favorite summer food; talk about your favorite summer memory; create a new favorite summer memory; learn about how people celebrate summer in different cultures
- Art camp: visit local museums (in person or virtually) exploring various forms of art, plan a painting party, host a gallery dinner where everyone brings a piece of handmade artwork.
- Sports Camp: learn about an unfamiliar sport, research athletes who significantly impacted the sport, attend a local sporting event, create your team name, mascot, and player.
- Fun under the sun: plan events outside each day. Go on nature walks, create a checklist of all the local parks and playgrounds then visit them all, plan a picnic, go to the beach
Plan a no-spend weekend
A trip anywhere can add up quickly when you are a large family. One fun way we enjoy the summer is to plan no-spend weekends. Some of our best summer memories are “no-spend” weekends. From running around playing tag or building a fort in the living room, these are some of our favorite memories. We don’t need to continually spend money to enjoy spending time together as a couple or as a family. We can have a great summer simply spending quality time together.
Below are 20 ideas to help you get started. Don’t forget to invite a few friends over too! The more, the merrier.
What are you doing to enjoy the summer? Have any ideas that I can add to our summer lists? Share below. I would love t hear from you.
Enjoy your summer,
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Zuri-Starr
These are such awesome ideas. I will plan a summer camp for my 4-year-old.
Mamie L. Pack
Zuri-StarrThat is great. Any ideas for your theme yet?
Brandy Nicole
Great ideas! Our summer bucket list includes lots of fishing, hiking, swimming, marshmallow roasting, and blackberry picking 🙂
Mamie L. Pack
Brandy NicoleOh, we love blackberry picking too!
lisajakesmomma
Love all of these ideas! Especially the no-spend ideas! Sometimes activities and outings can get very costly. Your list proves how much fun you can have without spending a dime.
Mamie L. Pack
lisajakesmommaAbsolutely! We don’t have to spend a lot of money to have wonderful memories and have fun.
Mrs g
Oh my goodness what a great idea about creating a summer bucket list!
daniellemomof8gmailcom
These are terrific ideas! I love the idea of a bucket list I haven’t ever thought to do one with the minions. A no spend weekend is right up my alley with 8 kids everything is SO DARN expensive! We have purchased a couple memberships this year so that we could use them for at least a low cost weekend. We still have one more week before we begin our summer break officially! Thanks for sharing your great ideas!
Mamie L. Pack
daniellemomof8gmailcomOh, great!! You have to be creative when you have a large family. Membership definitely help.
Diana
Such awesome ideas! The no-spend weekend would be a great way to be more active outside!
xx
http://www.thedecemberdame.com
Mamie L. Pack
DianaIt helps to teach our children moderation and be more active.
edelcurran
I so love the idea of a family meeting to get everyone involved in decision making! ❤️ I think I will definitely try it out with my little fam this summer. 🤞 we’ll manage to keep everyone happy! 😊
Mamie L. Pack
edelcurranMy fellas love it. They feel invested in the process. Let me know how it works out for you.
Tiffani
I Love Love Love all these ideas!! Sometimes you forget about the simple things like in your “no spend weekend” I can’t wait to do these with my girls!! Thanks for sharing 💕
Mamie L. Pack
TiffaniAwesome!!!! Hope you make some great memories during your no spend weekends.
jennpohlman
I appreciate how so many of these ideas are based around building memories with you family! Sure, there are fun things to do – movies to see, theme parks to visit – but the best activities involve each other! Thanks for sharing and enjoy your next 10 weeks! 🙂
lisajakesmomma
I love the summer camp idea! So much fun. The first thing I did when the weather finally broke was to make a bucket list and we are now working our way through it. Unfortunately, we’ve had a lot of rain so far, so we have some catching up to do!
Danielle
Love this! We created a bucket list this summer too. First time in 7 years I have kids that don’t nap. Hoping to make this the best summer yet. 🙂 Thanks for the list ideas.
Mamie L. Pack
DanielleLosing that nap time is a BIG deal!!! Been there!!!! Hope some of these work for you.
Brigham Knows Best (@brighamknowbest)
I love making bucket list of activities for every season! This year I have a little one so we have even more things we want to do this summer! 🙂
Mamie L. Pack
Brigham Knows Best (@brighamknowbest)Yes!!!! It’s so cool to see the world through the eyes of little ones.
Natalie
This is awesome, being someone who has formerly ran a summer camp these are great ideas! I love the summer time as well. Its my favorite!
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Deb B.
I absolutely love this! I always go into summer having plans and nothing really comes to fruition because the summers go so fast. I love the idea of a bucket list and of course the no spend weekends. I never thought about creating our own camps too. Such great ideas!
Clarice
Love you bucket list. These are indeed great ideas to spend summer. Creating a vision board is actually on top of my personal list. I plan to do it this weekend.
Tiffanie Anne
I love these ideas!! We have been shouting ideas around the house, but I want to make a list like yours!
Ariana
Great ideas, we always make a family bucket list for each season! Great way to get the family doing fun stuff together and each person gets a say!
Mamie L. Pack
ArianaFamily bucket list are so much fun!
Vanessa
These are great ideas for summer that are sure to make great memories for your boys! Water Balloon fights are the best!
Young Mommas Life
These are some great Ideas, I will be creating a bucket lists!
ireayotomiwa
Beautiful, awesome ideas! Sometimes we overlook the simple things and they’re usually the best.
anitadoseck
Love these ideas! Our summer bucket has things like visit a beach, have a backyard camp out, go fishing, play in the sprinkler, visit a local festival, and tie dye shirts.
melinda cummings
Great List!
Mamie L. Pack
melinda cummingsThanks!
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Kari
I love the idea of making a bucket list! Especially if grilling a pizza is on it! How fun!
Audrey @ Two Pink Peonies
Such a fun summer bucket list. Thanks for the great ideas.
Mamie L. Pack
Audrey @ Two Pink PeoniesWe love keeping bucket list for our summer memories.
Audrey
Such a fun list of things to do over the summer. Thanks for sharing!
Raisa
Great ideas! Thank you! x
Mamie L. Pack
RaisaThanks for stopping by to check out some ways to enjoy summertime.
Angelika
Awesome ideas for summer! I’ll refer back to these in the coming weeks!
Mamie L. Pack
AngelikaYay!! It is especially good for no spend weekends.
Jennifer Bradley
These ideas are so fun! Although this summer will be different from most for us, we are embracing the extra time at home!