2019 Summer Bucket List in Pictures

Hello, friends! I still can’t believe we’ve started a new school year and summer break is in the books! At the beginning of summer I sat down with the kids and had them each name several activities they really wanted to get in during our summer break. Over the years I’ve learned that the best way to get the most out of each season and make lots of memories is to make a bucket list. If we put things on a list, we’re more likely to do it! So, we made a bucket list and then marked them off one by one throughout June, July, and August. Today I’m going to share that list in pictures and I’ll try to go through them quickly. So here goes!

1. Visiting cousins in North Alabama

We all love going to my sister’s house and used to go more frequently before our older kids decided to grow up, get jobs, go to college, and have their own schedules, ha. It was so much fun to be back! My sister is a wonderful hostess and a great cook!

Allison lives within driving distance of the Space and Rocket Center. We’ve been a few times but it’s been several years since our last time there, so we spent a day touring the center. It’s amazing!

We also enjoyed time hanging out together at their house, talking, laughing, eating, and playing with their new kitten, Little Rosie. Oh, such sweetness.

2. Peach Park

We actually went to the Peach Park twice this summer for ice cream and peaches, yum!

 

3. Lake Days

Let me just say, it’s nice to have friends and family with lake houses (and the toys to go with them. 😁).

 

4. Movies

I don’t have any photos for this, but we did go see Aladdin and Lion King, and enjoyed them both! We don’t get to the theater much because movies for a family of five is incredibly expensive, and there aren’t too many family-friendly movies offered these days. We were very pleased to find more “clean” movies showing this summer. And what’s more, we went on the $5 Tuesdays so it was much more affordable.

 

5. Thrift Stores and visiting more cousins

My other sister, Katie, lives in the cutest college town where her husband is a campus minister. Their town has the best thrift stores which I used to take my girls to a couple of times a year. The girls asked to go back this summer, so we made it a day for getting together with family as well! My mom road with us and we met my sister and her adorable kiddos for lunch and thrifting. We found several bargains!

Besides several brand name clothing items that still looked like new, we found the white dish and ceramic lighted pumpkin above. Incredi-Boy found his own diamond in the rough: a Flashrider for $5.25! He was so excited over that thing, he road it all around the store just begging to get it. When I commented on its poor condition, he replied, “Daddy and I will fix it up!” How could I argue with that?! He’s definitely gotten his $5 out of it already.

 

6. Frios Popsicles 

We went more than once and we each had our favorites. Mine was the Blackberry Ginger!

 

7. Fishing 

Our family loves to fish! We intended to go fishing at the lake or some other large body of water, but ended up just going to the neighborhood pond. No great catches (unless a turtle qualifies), but we still had so much fun.

 

8. Star Gazing 

Living far away from the city lights affords us some great star-gazing on clear nights. We followed a weekly “Summer Family Astronomy Course” by Experience Astronomy and observed many constellations throughout the summer months. Unfortunately, the one night that I was ready to take some photos, it was cloudy and the moon was too full and bright to see the stars well. But when it’s clear and the moon is waning, the stars are just incredible.

 

9. Catch Lightning Bugs 

We could never find lightning bugs when we were ready with jars and looking for them! We’d only see them at the pond or while taking walks at night. Oh well. We’ll try again next year.

 

10. Make homemade ice cream

Joel’s sister gave us an ice cream machine for a wedding gift 23 years ago! After 23 summers of cranking out bowls and bowls of delicious ice cream like a champ, it finally conked out in the middle of churning. So, I poured the unfinished mixture into glasses and we had vanilla milkshakes! (I didn’t mean to do this, but later noticed in the picture that the flower bowl bedside the milkshake says “happiness”. I know milkshakes can’t bring true joy, but they do bring moments of happiness!)

 

11. Bake S’mores cookies 

The girls had a recipe they couldn’t wait to try. Unfortunately, the dough kind of ran all over the pan, BUT…they were still delicious! We just pealed the gooey blobs off the pan, folded them over, and stuffed them in our mouths. Perfection! (None of us thought to snap a photo.)

 

12. Make SLIME 

In our schooling we’ve made slime a few times, and it was back by popular demand. As my oldest daughter said, “We were making slime before slime was cool!” Haha!

 

13. Lemonade stand 

If you missed my post about the lemonade stand my son and his friend set up for a great cause, you can read it here!

 

14. Christmas in July

We have a tradition of “Christmas in July” with some friends of ours. We hosted this year, so I got out just a few decorations from the very top box of decorations in the attic. Everyone brought their favorite Christmas finger foods so we ate very well!

 

This concludes our 2019 summer bucket list, although there were many other activities that we did that weren’t on the list, like days at the barn and pool, play dates with friends, and rainy day movies at home.

It’s always a little sad to see summer activity come to an end, but I’m totally done with the heat and humidity!

In my next post, I’ll share photos from my summer project list. It might take me a while to catch up; our school days are busy busy, and it’s time to start thinking about a fall bucket list! Yay!!