Bucket List Summer

Summer is a huge event at our house. It is looked forward too, dreamed about, researched, promises made upon - "when summer comes..."

As the kids have gotten older, we usually have a theme. A couple of summers ago it was our "Summer of Adventure." Every day was a specific kind of day - water day (we went to the beach, crabbing, splash pad, etc.), park day (we checked out all of the parks in our area), library day, craft day, etc. Lots of planning.

Last summer was the summer without a plan. I planned nothing. I think that I was burned out from the year before. The kids eyes rolled into the backs of their heads and everyone begged to go back to school.

This summer I've tried a different approach. Semi-planned and semi-not. It's been great. Except for the first week. The first week of summer is inevitably hard at our house. Everyone is coming off of breakneck speed from the school year and suddenly all activity grinds to a halt. I want nothing except to  hide under the covers in my room and the kids are suddenly bored and unsure of what to do with free time. So instead of embracing their new found freedom, they fight, and pick at each other, and whine. Before this picture was taken, I was contemplating hanging all of them by their toes in the backyard.

So during our first week of adjustment, we all sat down for a massive afternoon of creativity. I was actually stunned with how long it kept them occupied. This is the "Bucket List Summer." (I don't know why, but I feel that I must label our summers.)

We all sat down and made lists of what we wanted to do with our summer. Some of the things were completely unattainable (Hawaii, swimming with dolphins) and some are completely doable (happy hour, family vacation, visiting the museums.)

The lists are hanging on the fridge door and every time that something is completed from someone's list, it gets checked off. The beauty is that there have been a couple of things that have been added to the list so that they could be checked off (a whole afternoon of swimming in the rain.)

We have definitely slowed down and are enjoying the process. Summer is a beautiful thing.