50 Fun Things to Do This Summer!

I love lists. To-Do lists, bucket lists, goal lists, grocery lists. It’s a good thing I recycle, or else my lists would fill a good portion of the local dump.

Last year, the kids and I made a poster board of 100 things to do in Summer. That was quite the ambitious goal since they get about 72 days of break, I work full time, and I have to share them with their other parents (we’re a combined family, step-parents, step-kids, ‘other’ parents, and all the fun that brings). We accomplished almost half.

This year, we downgraded and made our official list; 50 Things to Do This Summer. And we’re SO excited! We’re excited about summer, excited about the sun, and excited to do the fun things we picked for this year’s list.

Some people find ‘lists’ a little overwhelming (my husband for example). The point of our summer list is to encourage family activity, and to promote activities outside the norm. Plus, how fun to do awesome stuff, AND be able to mark it off the list! Woohoo!

Here is a running list of our 50 Things to Do This Summer list, updated when completed. Make your own summer list, or download ours HERE! (Changed a tad as I don’t know how many people have a fort in need of renovation or a kiwi!)

– Night Tag

– Hike… Lexi and I went on a 6.1 mile loop from Wahkeena Falls to Multnomah Falls… Absolutely amazing. 

 

 

 

 

–Garage Saling; Done… several times. I love garaging saling. One man’s junk is another’s treasure, right?

– Game Night

– Drive in Movie; We drove about 37 miles to the nearest drive-in movie theater. Our kids had never been, and Jesse doesn’t remember ever going. It’s not right to never experience an outdoor movie on a ridiculously large screen. I remember going as a kid. It was awesome. This theater was slightly different… no field to play catch in and the cars were so close together that you could barely open the door. The occasional cigarette smoke, and weed smoke to boot. BUT, the stars shining above us while we watched the newest Transformers… priceless. The movie was alright (the first one in the series is still my favorite), the old-time reel of ‘visit the concessions’ and the Star Spangled Banner was great.

– Movie Night

– Make lemonade

– Photo booth

– Farmers Market

– Picnic

– Pick Berries … One for the bucket, one for the mouth… We picked over 18 pounds of raspberries. I made jam for the first time!

– Paint our fort. Jesse built a fantastic fort in our backyard, but it sits unpainted, and unloved. This summer we shall make it a fortress!

 

– Sprinklers. Last year we went to the local college and ran through their enormous sprinklers, something else I did when I was younger. We may think of another place to go… or not… the college sprinklers were great.

 

– Go to the beach. First day off this summer, we headed straight for the beach. Good times. Salt water, sand, volleyball, and Chico’s pizza!

 

 

 

 

 

– Play Twister

– Craft Night

– Take the Kiwi out

– Kids plan dinner

– Croquet

– Treasure Hunt

– Factory Tour; (Tillamook cheese and ice cream… here we come!!)

– Tennis

– BBQ with friends and family

– Library… I had an extremely overdue book, so we returned that and grabbed some Sports Illustrated and a video game magazine for my son.

– Badminton; We put up a net in our front yard. Maybe not the best looking yard ornament, but hey… it’s fun!

– Visit a Nature Center

– Pillow fight

– Make ice cream

– Swimming party… Our first swimming party. Found a great place at the creek. More swimming parties to come!

 

 

 

 

 

 

– Write to someone out of town

– Make cookies for friends

– Fireworks; The 4th of July just passed, so unless you were hunkered down in a basement with no windows (where I should have been with my poor, frightened dog!), you most certainly saw and heard fireworks.

– Pinterest dessert… we made a Peach smoothie. Found the recipe on Pinterest, but definitely made it my own (added frozen raspberries, and used vanilla greek yogurt. SOOO delicious)

 

 

 

 

– Caramel popcorn

– Obstacle course

– Basketball

– Zoo

– Build a sandcastle

– Ride bikes… Everyone has ridden their bikes this summer except me! I better get with it!

– Cook out

– Soccer

– Fishing

– Bowling

– Feed ducks

– Breakfast for dinner

– Catch bugs

– Service Project

– Send a postcard to someone

– Make shirts

– Frisbee

Well, that’s our 50… we’re on our way to successfully completing the list and making some amazing memories. What to do next?!?

What’s on your list?

Until we meet again…