Summer Bucket List

Even though we haven't reached the official first day of summer (June 20), now that school is out it seems every where I turn people are eagerly filling their calendars with summer activities.  Swimming lessons, library reading programs, zoo trips, ballgames, vacations, etc.  It dawned on me that there are a whole slew of things for kids and families to do, right here in our community and the surrounding area, that we have never taken advantage of.  Like the Deanna Rose Farmstead, Wonderscope Children's Museum, the new LEGOLAND in Kansas City and Laugh out Loud Family Zone in Lawrence.

And so the Elser Family 2012 Summer Bucket List was born.

Much like our Advent Calendar from the holiday season, I wanted to create some sort of system for keeping track of the activities we wanted to tackle before summer comes to an end and the ones we had already checked off the list.  Naturally, I turned to pinterest for inspiration.  I found several ideas that had promise, made a few slight modifications and got crafting!

Here is the cast of characters.

Bucket from the Target $1 Spot, Foam Star Stickers, Clothespins, Custom Label
(And cute little guy in the background wearing his new prized possession - a golf visor with his VERY OWN ball marker!)

I added the label to the bucket and then turned Jack loose with the star stickers.

I have to admit, I envisioned multi-colored stars randomly placed all over the bucket.  But I resisted my urge to "guide" Jack and let him choose his path.  It is art, after all.  He elected to use all blue stars (his favorite color) and make 1 straight line around the bucket.  He loves it.  Therefore, so do I.

Next, I wrote an activity on each of the clothespins in multi-colored sharpies.

As you can see, many of our activities are outings.  Like trips to the zoo, museum, ballpark and theatre.  But we also added some more spontaneous items like flying a kite, making homemade ice cream and running through sprinklers.  We have plenty of extra clothespins too, so if other activities come to mind as the summer goes on we can just add them to the bucket.

Here's the final product.

As we finish an activity, we'll just drop the clothes pin in the bucket.

I have to admit, I'm a little concerned that our bucket list is a bit too ambitious.  Unfortunately, Drew & I don't get a couple of months off so we have to fit most our summer fun into the few evening hours we have free during the week or the weekend.  And let's be honest, after a full week of work sometimes our energy level on the weekend isn't exactly at it's peak.  But I'm determined to try.

And I love our Bucket List.

I put it in a high traffic area of our house (right on the ledge at the top of the steps) so it serves as a constant reminder of all the fun things awaiting us this summer. 

And I'll be sure to post all about it as we drop our clothes pins into the bucket!