For many, Memorial Day Weekend is the kick-off for Summer.  School does not get out until mid-June for my kiddos, but that’s not stopping us from getting a head start on some summer fun!  This weekend, we’re going on our first camping trip as a family.  So, I’m sure you can expect a camping related post in the near future.  In the meantime, I am so excited to share with you my 50 Fabulous Summer Bucket List Items to do with your kids!

My personal summer bucket list includes the following 50 items along with 20 more items that are specific to the region where I live.  I highly suggest that you take this list and add some of your favorite things to do locally.  Most of these were on my list last year, but I’ve added some new ones and removed the ones that were a bust.  This will be my third Summer using a bucket list and I can’t wait!  My Summers have never been better, since I let a bucket list guide my way.  My love of completing lists keeps me motivated to carry out all these items, and makes it a fantastic Summer for all of us!

1. Find and Follow a YouTube Tutorial – The possibilities are endless.  I recently just used a YouTube tutorial to create a low-budget Cleopatra costume for my daughter’s Wax Museum Project at school.
2. Take a Full Moon Walk (6/2, 7/1, 7/31, 8/29)
3. Do a Day of Service – Last year we spent the morning serving at a church event, then we took cookies to a Fire Station, and homemade cards to a local Retirement Home.  We did this with some friends, which made it that much more fun.
4. Celebrate a “National” Holiday – National Ice-Cream Day is on Sunday, July 19th, this year.  If you’d prefer National Watermelon Day, you can celebrate on Monday, August 3rd.  Don’t let me hold you back though, celebrate as many as you want by looking through Foodimentary’s National Food Holidays.
5. Do Letter Boxing – What a fun activity this was to do last year!  I had never done it before.  We did it as a family with my BFF, who was visiting from Southern California.  If you’re not familiar with it, it’s like going on a treasure hunt.  I feel like the Letterboxing websitemay be able to describe it better than I can.  We completed two locations.  Not only was it fun to follow the clues to the Letterbox, but it was also nice to see the beautiful sites along the way!

   

6. Attend a County Fair
7. Participate in a Reading Program – Last year we did the Barnes & Noble Summer Reading Program.  Your local library likely has one available as well.
8. Have a Water Balloon Fight
9. Go on a Picnic
10. Make a Popsicle Stick Puzzle

    

11. Have a Family/Friends Game Night – I may have cheated and had our friends play Pictionary with us (#45 on this list) last Summer, so I could kill two birds with one stone.
12. Host a Minute to Win It Night – My best suggestion is to hit up Pinterest to decide which games you want to do for this one.  We did a few different ones that involved plastic cups so that we could get the most out of the supplies we had available.  We also did two activities that used a tissue box.  One activity was to see who could empty a tissue box faster removing the tissues one-by-one.  Once we had an empty tissue box, we used it for the Junk in the Trunk game.  Some of my most hilarious video footage from the Summer was from this night with friends.
13. Go Camping
14. Go on a Bike Ride
15. Wash the Car
16. Stargaze
17. Help in the Yard
18. Have a Lemonade Stand
19. Play Glow Stick Horseshoes – We played glow stick horseshoes while we waited for the fireworks to start last Fourth of July.  As I noted last year, I found this cool activity posted by one of Design Dazzle‘s contributors, Jamie from C.R.A.F.T., titled Summer Camp: Glow In The Dark Ring Toss
20. Do Sidewalk Chalk Drawings
21. Write and Illustrate a Story
22. Host a Talent Show – Hands down my favorite Summer Bucket List Item.  I have done this for the past two years.  Every family that participates has to have at least one child and one adult perform in the talent show.  We use my friend’s sound system, and families bring their chairs, some treats to share, and their talent.  We hold it in our backyard and it is such a fun night!  You can learn more about this activity by checking out my post The Power of a Bucket List, which also includes my first Summer Bucket List.
23. Complete a Jigsaw Puzzle
24. Get a Manicure and Pedicure
25. Visit the Coast
26. Read a Book, Then Watch the Movie – As mentioned in last year’s Free Printable Ultimate Summer Bucket List post,  Andrea’s Notebook is perfect to make your search easier for the right book-movie.  We did Nim’s Island last year, which my kids love.  I’m thinking we’ll do Charlotte’s Web this year.
27. Build an Indoor Fort
28. Play a Board Game
29. Make Play Dough – I have not done this before.  I’m going to try out a no-cook Play Dough recipe I found on Laughing Kids Learn.  This recipe calls for glycerin, which is also found in the Mega Bubbles recipe (#36 on this list).  I had no idea where I could buy glycerin last year.  I ended up finding it at Walmart in the First Aid aisle.
30. Sleep Wherever You Want Night – A friend of mine does this in her home sometimes.  The kids get to pick where they sleep that night.  Sometimes her kids have chosen to sleep in the closet or in an empty bathtub (ouch).  Kids just love to try something different.
31. Pick a Craft to Make and Make It! – I am not crafty, so I was happy that my Mother-in-law took this item on with my girls.  They made charms out of clay.  She purchased the kit at Barnes and Noble, but I found the same Make Clay Charms byKlutz for cheaper on Amazon.

    

32. Eat a Snow Cone
33. Have a BBQ with Friends
34. Watch Fireworks on July 4^th
35. Attend a Farmer’s Market or Festival
36. Play with Mega-Bubbles – This one was a blast!  An important thing to note is that the mixture needs to sit for at least one hour before use.  I didn’t see that until after the kids were already geared up to start making bubbles right away.  Take that time into consideration.  Also, the more bubbles you make, the easier the mixture gets to use.  Last year, I used a Homemade Giant Bubble Recipe I found on the website Happy Hooligans.

    

37. Read a Book in the Shade of a Tree
38. Play Balloon Ping Pong – All you need are spoons, a balloon, and a table.

    

39. Make a Backyard Obstacle Course – MyBFF and I set up this course for my girls to do, but we took our own turn at it.  We each  did the course one at a time and timed each other to see who could get through it the fastest.

    

40. Go on a Scavenger Hunt – My favorite scavenger hunt to do is one where you have each letter of the alphabet with a blank line following it.  This makes it a little more flexible, plus it helps the younger ones work on the letters of the alphabet.  For instance, we had spent a couple of days with a scavenger hunt list and we had yet to find something that started with an “O.”  We went to watch a movie and during the movie one of my kids spotted an octopus, which gave us our “O” item.  I thought this was a fun way to integrate our activities.  Last year, we did the same type of scavenger hunt on a road trip to help the drive go smoother.
41. Do a Science Experiment – Last year, I did a couple of science experiments that didn’t prove as exciting as I had hoped.  We did the paper towel/food coloring/water experiment, but it took too long for my kids attention span.  I plan to pull from BuzzFeed’s 24 Kids’ Science Experiments That Adults Can Enjoy, Too for this year’s experiment.

    

42. Write & Mail a Letter to Someone
43. Play Hide and Go Seek
44. Go on a Date with Daddy
45. Play Charades or Pictionary – Pictionary seems to be a crowd favorite at any age.  The best part is that all you need is a Game Word Generator, a large paper pad, and a pen.
46. Have a “Late-Over” Night – I’m a “No Sleepover Type Mom.”  This is the alternative that I give my kids.  All the fun of a sleepover, but the other kids head home around 10 PM.
47. Have a Tea Party – I have a friend who has four daughters.  It’s an absolute blast to co-host this one with her every Summer.
48. Play at a Water Splash Pad
49. Go to $1 Movie at Regal Cinemas – The 2015 Summer Movie Express includes nine weeks of kids movies offered for $1/person.
50. Kids Cook Dinner Night

There you have it, Folks!  Please feel free to download the free printable version list of my 50 Fabulous Summer Bucket List Items.  Preparing this post has me pumped up for this coming Summer.  It was fun to remember all the activities we’ve done since I started this tradition two Summers ago.  I can’t wait to see what the Summer of 2015 has in store for us!