Oh, hello bandwagon. Again.

Everyone's doing it.  

Oh, you know what I'm talking about.  The "summer bucket list".  And it seems the most popular method is popsicle sticks.  It's funny, I saw one or two posts like this last summer, so a few weeks ago I sat the kids down so we could make ours together.  And then suddenly, everyone and their monkey's uncle is posting popsicle stick bucket lists.  Great minds think alike.

If you haven't seen them, and you want to make them you'll need:

popsicle sticks

sharpies

washi tape

containers to hold them

Get your popsicle sticks.

Write down things you want to do or places you want to go with sharpies.  Write on one end of the stick.

Let your "big kid" help because he can write now.  And read.  Weird.

Take a little washi tape and wrap it around the opposite end of the stick.

Place them in your containers. 

So our popsicle sticks are a little different in that they're our daily "to-do's" and not a bucket list, per se.  I didn't want to give us so many activities and things to do that we didn't accomplish any of them, but I wanted to give us some motivation to do more than run through the sprinkler, which is the majority of our summer time outside.  I thought if I had it written down, in a way that was fun for the kids, we'd be more likely to actually DO some things.  So this is low key.  It's not a "things we must do before summer dies" and rather a "good ideas for things we should do sometime."  There are three categories: 

field trips

activities/crafts

extra chores

 Each category has it's own washi tape design - blue chevron for chores, bikes for field trips and funky triangles for crafts and such.  The idea is that if they want to pick out of field trips or crafts, they first have to pick something from chores.  If they do the extra chores without complaining, they earn allowance for each one. The chores are all extra things - things they aren't EXPECTED to do everyday.  They don't get paid for those.  I know, we're so mean.
They also have to pick a chore if they are mean or rude or disrespectful to other family members.  We'll see how that goes.

I used the Ombre Yarn-Wrapped Vases from yesterday for the containers.  Very cheery.

 And put them in plain site on our little kitchen command station thingy that isn't very commanding.  It's more like a kitchen request station.  Or a kitchen soft-spoken station.

Whatever.  We'll put that on the "Things I say I need to do but will likely never get to" list.

You've likely seen a bunch of round-ups of summer activities and things, so I will refrain from adding mine.  But if you want to see what's on our list and get more ideas, go check out my pinterest board: "kid"-ing around (crafts etc.)

*Be sure to check below for all the fun parties I link to!*