5 Steps to an Amazing Summer Bucket List

We’ve been making a family summer bucket list for about 4 years now. We started when my kiddos were 4 and 7. I’m lucky enough to work in a job where I have the summer off, and at the end of June I always had visions of idyllic weeks of leisure, checking off a dreamy to-do list and filling the days with endless memories. In reality, we’d be in the second last week of August saying ‘where did the time go’, how is it the end of summer’ and ‘WHAT did we do???’ This changed when visiting a friendĀ  @blackdogimages, and noticing that they had created an amazing summer family bucket list full of fun and a sprinkling of stuff you can only get away with in summer. Things like eating ICE CREAM for DINNER. We were sold on the idea.

Fast forward a few years, and we have had everything on our summer bucket lists from eating at the Pizza Hut lunch buffet {G’s fave} taking a trip downtown on a ‘bendy bus’, eating hot dogs from a street vendor, riding a roller coaster, watching a movie under the stars, and hosting a tea party, to going on a family bike ride. Here’s why we love our summer bucket list: it gives us some focus to our vacay, it reminds us that around all the ‘must dos’ like painting the fence and weeding the garden we need to make time for some FUN, it gives everyone a chance to share their dreams for summer and creates some awesome family dialogue and negotiation, and whatever we don’t check off this year we can ‘save’ for next summer. There is no ‘perfect summer’, but if we end with a few good things checked off our list we all feel pretty productive in the family memories department.

Here are our top 5 ways to create a killer summer bucket list:

1. Make sure EVERYONE in the family has some input. Some of our best summer memories have come from the everyday magic our littles suggest. Things like running through the sprinkler in our PJs. Easy? Check. Inexpensive? Check. LOADS of fun? Double check!

2. Take everyone’s suggestions and put them on a ‘rough list’. Scratch out any that aren’t achievable, or any that are more of a ‘to do’ list (READ: painting the fence).

3. From what’s left, have a vote or family discussion and narrow it down to 10-15 items. Put these on your printable and post them up somewhere visible.

4. At the beginning of each week, glance at the list and decide if any of the items might be achievable in the upcoming days. You may want to re-evaluate the list as you go in case a new amazing idea pops up, or depending on what you have time for. Take pictures!

5. At the end of the summer, talk about the list as a family. What were everyone’s favourites? Are there items you didn’t get to that you’d like to remember for next year? Look back over your pics and high five each other for creating some stellar summer memories!

Happy bucket listing everyone, we can’t wait to hear how you’re all spending your summer!

Xo Mel