I don’t think there’s ever been a year where I’ve looked forward to summer more. If you’ve followed here long, you know that bucket lists are a big part of how we embrace new seasons. The promise of a fun summer easily dazzles us and summons visions of picnics and pool days, but often—as all seasons go—we get busy and forget to take time for the simple joys that summer’s all about.
When we started making bucket lists, not only was our intent to brainstorm ideas of things to do, but to hold ourselves accountable. We hang our bucket list in a main area of our home for a visual reminder to do those things we said we’d do. Make the s’mores. Run through a sprinkler. Get out in that hammock to read a book. Most of the things on our lists are simple joys that don’t take a lot of money or planning to accomplish—just a little thought and effort. That’s what summer magic’s really made of.
Last year, at the end summer when we were all recalling our favorite moments and memories, it wasn’t the big ticket items my kids wanted to remember. It was the night our family all walked out to the dock near midnight and sat huddled in blankets, watching the meteor shower. (Also, a little fun pre-pandemic throwback to when I shared Summer Bucket List joy on the Today Show.)
Let’s move to this year’s Summer Bucket List, shall we? It includes some repeated favorites as well as some fun new ones. As always, we love sharing it with you. You can download and print yours here. Or if you’d like to go bigger and better, you can do what we do and print yours as a 16 x 20 (we send ours to Walgreens) and hang it in your home for everyone to check off together. We even roll ours up and take it with us on our summer travels.
We have two weeks left of school but are so excited for the long weekend this week to officially kick off our summer fun. I’ll be sharing lots of road trip ideas, summer journals, and travel fun in the upcoming weeks.