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An Intentional Summer: My Summer Fun List

The whole reason I started my insane list of goals this year is because I wanted to be more intentional with my time. Now that summer is here I want to be intentional about enjoying it. It is easy for Nate and I to be so busy over the summer that we miss out on truly taking advantage of it.

I started seeing summer lists popping up online.  I was completely inspired when I saw these lists by Amy’s Finer Things and Whatever.

Enter my Summer Fun list of 2011!

After brainstorming all the fun things we want to do this summer, I think we came up with a pretty great list.  Here are the highlights:

The Big Things:

  • Our Cabin Weekend – a Christmas gift
  • Visit the “Safari” Zoo – a Christmas gift
  • A Day at a Local Children’s Amusment Park – a Christmas gift
  • A Week at the Beach – a gift from Hubby’s work associate
  • Supper at a Jamaican Restaurant – using a restaurant.com gift card
  • Free Concerts at Local Parks
  • Baseball Game
  • Zoo

The New Things Never Done Before (at least for Grace!):

  • Visit Sprinkler Park
  • Use a Free Museum Pass
  • Picnic in Park
  • Finger Paint
  • Feed Ducks at Local Park
  • Swim at Local Pool
  • Fly a Kite
  • Play with Water Table at a Friend’s House
  • Wash Car – This is the only “chore” on our list & I included it because I think Grace might think it is fun.  I might be wrong.  haha!

The Simple Things:

  • Dance
  • Bubbles
  • Swim in Backyard
  • Sidewalk Chalk
  • Catch Lighting Bugs
  • Family Movie Night
  • Summer Reading Program at the Library
  • Go on Walks
  • Visit Local Park
  • Picnic in Backyard
  • Play in Sandbox at my Sister’s House
  • Story Time at Library – This is actually listed 6 times since we signed up for 6 and I thought it would help “fill out” my list.   🙂

The Ice Cream:

  • Have Milkshakes at my Sister’s House
  • Make Homemade Ice Cream
  • Plus we have 3 difference ice cream shops listed!

I love how so many of our big summer fun things this year were gifted to us.  Experience gifts are such a neat Christmas idea.  Looking over the list makes me feel extremely blessed, but even if we didn’t do a single “big thing” on our list I’m sure we would still have a wonderful summer. Just look at all those simple fun things we can do!

As a stay-at-home mom, I know I’m going to struggle with doing some of these things without Nate.  I often feel bad about doing things without my husband to enjoy the fun and memories.  Grace and I need to do something during the day and Nate has never been upset with us doing things without him, but still I feel bad sometimes.  Am I alone here?

What summer fun do you have planned?

20 Comments

  1. What a fantastic post! We live in a small town with no amusement parks, swimming pools or zoos. But like you said – it isn’t always about the big things. I hope to take my daughter to the park, jump through the sprinkler and splash in our tiny kiddie pool at home, and some indoor activities. Thanks for giving me lots of ideas :).

    1. Miranda, I would love to hear more about the in door activites that you hope to do. I struggle with inside entertainment options for Grace. Sometimes it is just too hot or rainy or mommy simple doesn’t want to be outside anymore and then I don’t know what to do when we come in.

      1. Oh nothing extravengent or anything. I was thinking about doing things like play dough, coloring, watching Mickey, playing with toys, helping mom, etc. Really basic things, really.

          1. As long as they’re not eating it, I’d say whenever. I got a cheapy play dough set with cookie cutters and a rolling pin from a dollar store and she enjoyed it for a few minutes.

  2. So, as the part time stay at home mom, I agree that you have to do things without Nate. It is for your own sanity-and Grace’s! Maybe for some of the more big things, Nate could take some time off…I don’t really know how easy that is for him but it could work.
    As for the activities, finger paint stood out to me. We do that often now. I used to put her in a onesie that I didn’t really care about-just a gerber white one, spread out an old sheet, and let her have at it. It was totally washable but even if it wasn’t, it wouldn’t hurt anything. You have a great deck space that you could utilize. Nowadays we use the Crayola Color Wonder finger paints. I love it. She can do it by herself at her desk and it is great “down” time for me-aka time to do the dishes 🙂
    All that said, great summer list!!

    1. Lisa, is the wonder finger paints the ones that are clear until they are on the special paper? I think that looks like a really good “clean” option, but I haven’t gotten them because I’m afraid Grace is too young to grasp the concept. What do you think?

      1. Kailey is older but I think I have used these since last summer-that would put it about now with Grace. I didn’t always let her do it by herself either. I would show her how to did her finger in and spread it all over. We also have some Crayola (?) ones that are normal. She warmed up to those too. If Grace is picky about textures, get the cheapest ones. One of Kailey’s friends wanted nothing to do with it when we tried to paint pumpkins. She has texture issues. Either way, supervision is needed but when you find one that you like, get her used to it and then less supervision is needed as she gets older=more free time for you!!

  3. Great list!! 🙂 My husband and I actually brainstormed our intentional Summer list yesterday over Father’s Day brunch! We got excited thinking about all the fun things we’re going to do as a family! (e.g. camping, going to the multicultural festival, visiting friends in Ottawa, etc.) I’m going to add this to the list of blog posts I’d like to get to this week!

    I also still have to get to the throw out 100 things challenge. I was initially inspired to do this by your blog post several weeks back but just haven’t gotten to it yet!!!

    1. Kristy, some days it feels like I have hundreds of blog posts that I just haven’t gotten to yet!! I feel honored though to have inspired some of your “sitting on the shelf” blog ideas!

      PS. I just looked at your blog again. Did you change your design??? Maybe I’m getting you confused with someone else. You have some great giveaways going on there that I need to get in on!! Also I love the Canada friendly giveaway link-up that you do! I’ll have to be sure I let you know about my giveaways that qualify!

      1. I changed my designed a few months back so it’s definitely possible you remember the old one!

        I’m glad to hear you like my giveaway roundup! I try to scan over my favourite blogs (such as yours) for any giveaways I’ve missed when I do the listing, however I don’t always have time to do this thoroughly so definitely let me know if you have any you want me to add! I’m also going to add a linky at the bottom soon so this will be another way for people to add their own giveaways.

        Oh – and would love if you entered my current giveaways! They’re all great products I use every day! 🙂

        1. I was going to enter some giveaways, but I can’t leave comments on your blog. 🙁 The only account I have of the options listed is Google, but I don’t have a blogger account so…. it won’t let me. 🙁

          1. Ack – thanks for letting me know about this! I had my comment security set a little too high! I’ve fixed it so now you should be able to comment with your name and URL.

            1. Don’t feel bad about! I’ve been having that problem on lots of blogger blogs. I used to be able to use my Google account, but now that isn’t working for some reason. It is asking me to have a blogger account. I wonder why that changed….

              Anyway, thanks for trying to adjust things for me. I’ll go check it out right now!

  4. What a fun list! I love it. It’s such a great idea to think about these things ahead of time.

    I know how you feel about doing things without your husband. It can be hard. We have to do that too.

  5. I LOVE your list! If you happen to have a summer birthday in your house, sign up for perks programs/birthday clubs for area restaurants. I got a TON of freebies in my inbox for my birthday that we enjoyed as a family: bogo free bizzard at DQ, free shake with any purchase at arby’s, free grand slam at Denny’s, bogo free creation at coldstone…. tons of stuff!

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