Summer Time Fun

Summer is one of my family's favorite times of the year.  We love the longer days, sleeping in, working in the garden, and lazy days with nothing planned.  Each of the kids usually has a couple of summer camp activities or swimming lessons, but we kind of prefer the unstructured days with the freedom to do what we want whenever we want. 

Since M has been a bit sad about the school coming to a close (she loves going to school and seeing her friends), we made our annual Andrews Family Summer Time Fun List so she would have something to look forward to.  Our list is pretty informal.  We basically write down every possible thing that sounds like it might be fun to do.  Then we pull out the calendar and see how we can get to as many of these activities and ideas as we can.

So far it's worked pretty well for us.  We don't usually get to everything on the list, but we save it to use as  next summer's inspiration.  This year, some of our list includes the following:

1. See redwood trees
2. Bubbles
3. Cherry picking
4. Swimming with friends
5. Play dates with cousins
6. Leaf pressing
7. Letterboxing (visit here to learn more about this really cool activity.  In the past 7 years, we have done this in 2 continents and 6 states!)
8. Gardening
9. Picnic at the beach 
10. Visit Angel Island
11. Ride bikes and skateboards
12. Build a geodesic dome
13. See the new Monsters, Inc. movie
14. Make cheese
15. Make lots of ice cream

Last summer we tried having theme weeks (i.e., Olympics Week, Scrapbooking Week, Beading Week, Science Week).  The girls are considering if they want to do something like this again.  Our theme weeks were definitely a lot of fun, but required some planning and organizing.

I hope that this gives you some ideas and inspiration for your own summer plans!