Remember when you
were a kid and you would start planning all of the things you were going to do
during the summer even before the bell signaling the end of the school year had
rung? Now, as an adult, you have even more options! Here are 50 ideas for your
summer bucket list, or your list of things to do this summer:
1. Put on your
bathing suit and run through the sprinklers. Also, have a water balloon fight;
cheat and pull out a water gun.
2. Load up on
beach and sand toys:
- Boats
- Dump trucks
- Shovels
- Rakes
- Buckets
- Sand molds in animal shapes
- An inflatable 6-color beach ball
- A beach tennis set
3. Build a sand
castle. Get yourself some cheap castle making pieces, pick a spot where the
sand is moist but not too wet, and get to work on your master piece. When it’s
done, take a photo from a worm’s eye view.
4. Play beach
volleyball.
5. Plant
pint-sized cherry tomatoes in hanging baskets.
6. Make lemonade.
Here’s an interesting, healthy recipe:
4 apples
1/4 lemon
First. Run the apples and lemon through your
electric vegetable juicer.
Second. Add nothing, no water, no sugar!
Third. Sit back and enjoy your lemonade.
You can also try
watermelon lemonade, which is a Gooseberry Patch recipe:
4 c. watermelon,
chopped
1 c. sugar
1-1/2 c. lemon juice
6 c. cold water
Place watermelon
in a blender; process until smooth and set aside. In a large pitcher, combine
sugar and lemon juice; stir until sugar is dissolved. Stir in water. Add
watermelon; mix well. Serve very cold; stir well before serving. Makes 8-10
servings.
7. Make Hawaiian
Punch: that includes orange juice, guava juice, pineapple juice, grenadines,
and Ginger Ale (you can add rum, I won’t tell).
8. Make iced
coffee.
9. Make root beer
floats. Just scoop some vanilla ice cream into a tall glass and pour your root
beer over the vanilla ice cream, filling the glass as much as you can. Serve
with a straw and a spoon.
10. Make homemade
ice cream.
11. Go on a road
trip.
12. Drink coconut
water and eat coconut popsicles.
13. Decorate for
the 4th of July with red, white, and blue decor: you can use pinwheels,
balloons sprinkled with glitter, twinkle lights, star shaped confetti,
sparklers, little flags, and so on.
14. Have a 4th of
July barbecue.
15. Watch the
fireworks on the 4th of July.
16. Pick an official “2011 Summer Song”; play it until you’re sick
of it (or until your neighbors threaten to call the police).
17. Do something
fun and whimsical in your backyard, such as: adding a bird bath or bird feeder,
including a garden statute or a sundial, or creating a fairy village.
18. Stop by the
Farmer’s Market and your local U-Pick berry farm.
19. Start a wish
tree. Here are the instructions:
- Choose a tree.
- Make a wish.
- Write it down on a piece of
paper.
- Fold the piece of paper and tie
it to the branch of the wish tree.
- Ask your friends to do the same.
- Continue writing down wishes
until the branches are filled with wishes.
Wish Trees have
been a part of many of Yoko Ono’s exhibitions. Here’s what she says about Wish
Trees:
“As a child in
Japan, I used to go to a temple and write out a wish on a piece of thin paper
and tie it around the branch of a tree. Trees in temple courtyards were always
filled with people’s wish knots, which looked like white flowers blossoming
from afar.”
20. Catch
fireflies late at night.
21. Go on a
scavenger hunt. Better yet, go Geocaching.
22. Make a
complete meal over a fire: include hot dogs, potatoes, and S’Mores.
23. Go to the
beach and collect seashells. Use the seashells to decorate glass bottles.
24. Draw with
sidewalk chalk.
25. Go fishing;
eat what you catch.
26. Ride on a
carousel or a Ferris wheel.
27. Go to a
baseball game. Or, better yet, organize a baseball game with your friends.
28. Play
flashlight tag.
29. Get a
butterfly kit and catch butterflies, or watch caterpillars turn into
butterflies. Go ahead and do both!
30. Go on a boat
ride. This includes canoes, rowboats and paddle boats.
31. Create a
terrarium.
32. Give your
brain a break: sit in the shade under a tree and read something by Philippa
Gregory, the Harry Potter series, the Twilight Saga, or the Lord of the Rings.
33. Make wind
chimes.
34. Play
miniature golf.
35. Go to at
least one outdoor concert or theater performance.
36. Spend one
whole day barefoot.
“Summer afternoon
– summer afternoon; to me those have always been the two most beautiful words
in the English language.” ~ Henry James
37. Choose a
summer cocktail to help you escape the summer heat.
38. Make tie-dye
shirts.
39. Take a nap on
a hammock.
40. Lie on the
grass watching the clouds float across the sky, without a care in the world.
41. Go on a
picnic. If you can find a music festival and have your picnic there, that’s
even better. Pack your fried chicken, pasta salad, fruit, bottled water, and
whatever else you’re going to have for your picnic and get going. Don’t forget
your frisbee and something to play music with.
42. Fly a kite.
43. Visit a
lighthouse.
44. Run a 10K for
a good cause.
45. Set up a tent
in the backyard and spend the night. Tell ghost stories.
46. Come up with a list of delicious summer recipes you’re going
to put together this summer. Here
are two options:
47. Get a puzzle
with 1000 pieces and put it together throughout the summer. It can depict the
image of a summer table, birds, summer in the country, or a lake dotted with
sailboats.
48. Surround
yourself with the smells of summer: you can get the Yankee Candle Midsummer’s
Night 
, or make a potpourri of summer
herbs and flowers
49. Go on a
nature hike.
50. Spend the day
exploring an arboretum, Japanese Garden, botanical garden, or a nearby park.
Bonus: Have a pool party or a Luau!
