Summer Bucket Lists

A few weeks ago our oldest came home talking about the summer bucket lists. Turns out they had a big art project to create one that will come home on the last day of school. After a few minutes of talking with both boys, I realized that for the first time they really had opinions about what kind of things they wanted to do this summer.

Or at least, that they were ready to tell us those opinions.

This was a minor epiphany for me. For years, we've been doing what my husband and I thought the kids would like to do, but it's only been recently that they started expressing their opinions about these choices. From clothing to what we pack in their lunch-they are ready to tell us what matters to them.

So this summer the kids get to help us decide how we spend our days.

We talked and we wrote and came up with a big list of things to do as a family this summer. Some of these are straight from the boys and some are things that the adults chose. This will be our first full summer in New England, and there are things we've just never been able to do with the boys before because of where we lived. It's all fun stuff on this list because I didn't want to clutter it up with the *shoulds*. We should paint the guest room. I should transplant some hosts.


Those have their own list in my Google Docs. They have no place on the fun list that now sits in our living room. I wrote all our plans out on our oversized chalkboard in colorful chalk. We look at it every day and the boys are thrilled to be thinking ahead about our weekend plans. Frankly, it helps the grownups have something to look forward to as well!

One thing I didn't write on the actual list, but is my grownup summer goal:

GET IN THE PICTURES.

We all read that article a few summers back about the mom who was never in the picture. I swore I would do better, and with the advent of the "selfie" I have gotten a little better. I realized that I also need to be better about pictures of other grownups. Pictures of all four of us. Pictures of the kids and the grandparents, but also my husband and I with our parents and siblings. Pictures of us with our friends, not just the kids with their friends.

I never change the profile picture on my social media accounts, because it's only once every year or two that I like a picture of myself enough to put it up there. For goodness sakes, my hair is a different color and twice as long now as it is in the picture on this very blog! (Ahem, Laura…I'm going to need you again!)

In case you need a little inspiration, here's our list for this summer. The picture above, by the way, is from this past weekend when we crossed off not one, but TWO items from this list.

Cheers to summer 2015!

Go to the Beach
Get Ice Cream
See Dinosaur Footprints
Visit both sets of Grandparents
Check out the Pratt Center
Visit our best friends from Oklahoma in their new house
Go fishing
Visit the Butterfly Farm
Ride on a carousel
Strawberry picking
Blueberry picking
Go to a carnival
Find a waterfall
Visit a farm
Go to the Dr. Seuss Garden
Visit a museum
Catch fireflies
Make s'mores
watch a movie outside
See Fireworks
Play in the sprinkler
Have a picnic
Go to the zoo and aquarium
Make homemade snowcones
Star gaze
Have a water balloon fight
Go to the lake
See a movie in the theater
Mini golf
Make a sandcastle
Go on a surprise trip

What are your plans for the summer?