Our summer has been filled to the brim with focused family time and fun activities with our loved ones! This season happens to be our busiest work-wise as well, so we chose a very intentional method to make plenty of time for ourselves to enjoy these sunny months: we created a summer fun list and displayed it as a tree on Isla’s door! We have found the act of writing goals significantly increases our chances of achieving them, and having them displayed in a place we see them regularly keeps them in the forefront of our minds.
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We’re excited to share more below about how we develop our list items, the simple steps for making a Summer Fun List Tree, and what’s on our list this year!
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To make the tree I bought a roll of brown kraft paper from the Dollar Store. I sketched a tree with pencil, outlined in brown marker, cut it out, and used rolls of tape to attach it to Isla’s door.
To make the leaves Isla painted a green watercolor wash on watercolor paper (this is our favorite!). Once dry, I used my Silhouette Machine to cut out the leaf shapes. You could easily hand cut the leaves if you don’t have access to a Silhouette.
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Isaac did all of the beautiful hand lettering and designs on the leaves, and we LOVE looking at them! In addition to being beautiful little pieces of art, we have found the drawings helps Isla (who cannot yet read) understand the meaning of each leaf on her own. You certainly don’t have to take your own leaves to this level, but if you also enjoy the process it can be a really fun way to exercise your creativity and design skills. Simply writing the words, a basic drawing, or having your kids write and decorate the leaves are great options as well.
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When creating our list at the end of spring, we all work together. We included Cole in the process this year, even though he is not yet able to contribute, because we want him to experience involvement at whatever level he is able to understand. He had fun listening to us excitedly share ideas and chimed in on words he understood– “popsicle” being one of them!
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We work to make our list well-rounded, but I’ll be real honest with you and admit that the summer treats portion is usually the first area of inspiration for our family! Ha! In addition to listing favorite food items we hope to make and enjoy, we make a list of places we want to visit, events we would like to attend, things we would like to create, and ways to get outside and enjoy this season of beautiful weather. We also try and think of how we can include our family and friends in these activities, and often assign individual activities to specific people (for example, we get fresh fruit milkshakes with Nana and Papa and we pick berries with Piper’s family).
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Our 2019 Summer Fun List:
- Go swimming at the pool
- Make popsicles
- Make ice cream
- Fruit milkshakes with Nana and Papa
- Go berry picking with Piper
- Go to Conestoga Park Area
- Go hiking
- Go to a fair
- Make summer collections
- Build a playhouse
- Make a campfire dinner
- Have a picnic
- Make strawberry jam
- Beach forest hike and pick blackberries- make blackberry peach skillet cake
- Go peach picking with Nana
- Go for a kayak ride
- Do summer art projects
- Visit a new beach
- Ride the train to Rockaway
- Play in tide pools
- Go to a fly in
- Invent a new kind of s’more
- Eat Hawaiian food and shave ice
This has been our second year with a Summer Fun List Tree (see our 2018 list here) and we have enjoyed how this creative project has allowed us opportunities to collaborate and spend time together! We have a super cute way to “check off” the items we’ve completed on our list and will share it with you soon!
