Summer Cup of Fun

Summer vacation starts for us in about a week and I am really looking forward to it!  Last summer I planned ahead by thinking up ideas and writing them in my journal.  It worked great as it served as a reminder to do the things that I thought the kids would enjoy but most likely would have forgotten if I didn't write it down.

This year I am trying something different.  For our bigger outings I am going to use a calendar template and write in those outings and simply cross them out as we finish them.  Since I'm pretty sure I'll be hearing, "I'm bored" from my kids I made a list of ideas that we could do on a whim. Things that we could do in our backyard or something easy and close to home like bowling or visiting the library/book store. For these things I wanted the kids to be able to pick/choose an idea in a more hands on way for those ho-hum days. I had purchased a few things for our beach sensory table and thought I could use what was left over.  Here's what I had:

Summer Cup (purchased from dollar store)
Styrofoam (left over from Christmas)
Cocktail Umbrellas (from dollar store)
Blue Paint

Plain ol' cup before sprucing it up!

I could have written our summer ideas onto pieces of paper and tossed them into the cup and that would have worked great except I wanted something different. First, I cut out a piece of the styrofoam and inserted it into the top part of the cup and then painted it blue to give the appearance of water.

For the finishing touch  I used up the rest of our cocktail umbrellas by writing our ideas on the underside of the umbrella and then poking them into the styrofoam.

The Umbrellas had little rubber band type things around them and after writing an idea I decided to put the rubber band back around them just because I liked the idea of having the kids take it off and pop open the umbrella themselves.  Once the umbrella is opened and we do the activity that umbrella will stay open.

I was thrilled to be able to use up other things I already purchased for a different activity and if the kids enjoy it then it's icing on the cake!!

What are your summer bucket list ideas?  I would love for you to share in the comments below or on our facebook page!