our summer bucket list // 2013

i am so ready for summer, you guys!  and i know you are too.  it is one of my favorite times of the year, and is always chock-full of new and exciting ways to have fun.  last summer we made a little bucket list to help us come up with things to do throughout those warm summer months.  it was a good guide for us and helpful reminder to get out and enjoy those long, beautiful days when our minds were cluttered with the scent of coconut sun-tan lotion and sugary lemonade.  last summer we did not get through everything on our list, nor do i expect us to this time around, but it's good to have a place to start and a point of reference.  i encourage you to make your own bucket list for your family.  you can include things to do with little ones, for the whole family, for rainy or too hot days, and importantly, for date nights with your one and only.  i organized mine below in categories to help me out on days when the infamous "i'm bored" scenario starts to creep in and i cannot think of a single thing to do.  you know that tends to happen more than you'd like to admit...  

so check em' out and go make your own! 

to do with littles:
1. powell garden butterfly festival  

2. see animals at deanna rose farm

3. picnic in the loose park rose gardens
4. spend the afternoon on the nelson atkins museum lawn

5. pick wild flowers

6. walk on the trail 
7. cover our sidewalk with chalk

8. go on a park play date

9. feed the ducks

10. go to a library read-along

11. make some art

12. pick fruit at local farm

13. meet nana and papa in des moines

14. visit the splash pad

15. press flowers

16. visit daddy at work
17. eat watermelon

18. have a root-beer float

19. go to the pool

20. visit animals at the kansas city zoo

21. see fish at the aquarium 

to do with the whole family:
22. go to a free movie at crown center friday night flicks
23. visit the cave spring historic site
24. walk around a new part of the city 

25. go to a drive-in movie

26. go to a sporting kc soccer match

27. see how milk is made at shatto farms (august 10th)

28. get some sun at oceans of fun

29. see shakespeare in the park
30. take a road trip to the omaha zoo

31. visit a new farmer's market

32. vacation to a new city (nashville)

date day/night:

33. try a new restaurant and sit on their patio (we did brunch at axios...holy amazingness batman.  it's our new place).

34. go to an outdoor concert

35. host a dinner party 

36. walk through a vineyard 

37. play tennis

to do on a rainy or too hot day: 

38. plant a small balcony garden
39. craft bows 

40. clean out storage unit
41. see a movie for the first time with stell  (we saw the smurfs!)
42. write to a pen-pal

43. spend some time at the kemper modern art museum indoors

to create in the kitchen: 
44. make fancy popsicles
45. can something devine
46. make play-dough 
47. make and bake a pie
48. make a fun drink  
49. make granita 
50. can pickles

"the summer day" by mary oliver

who made the world?

who made the swan, and the black bear?

who made the grasshopper?

this grasshopper, i mean-

the one who has flung herself out of the grass,

the one who is eating sugar out of my hand,

who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down-

who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes.

now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face.

now she snaps her wings open, and floats away.

i don't know exactly what a prayer is.

i do know how to pay attention, how to fall down

into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass,

how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,

which is what I have been doing all day.

tell me, what else should I have done?

doesn't everything die at last, and too soon?

tell me, what is it you plan to do

with your one wild and precious life?