Today marks the end of the preschool year, so for us (despite the calendar), summer is beginning! All the signs are here- a looser schedule, high 80 degree temperatures and swim team is in full force. I’m really giddy about this summer. I think it is going to be a really wonderful one with the girls at ages 2 and 4. I foresee a lot of adventure and fun. In fact, I brought this up to Hailey the other day and we started chatting about all the fun things we wanted to do. Then she asked me to help her spell words as she dictated to start our summer bucket list.
I swear the “no whining” at the end was all her doing, though I heartily agree and realize I must say that fairly often. Insert crying laughing emoji here, since that is my advanced literary way to convey emotion.
As we kept chatting over afternoon arts and crafts, our list got longer.
We all were really excited about all the possibilities, even Kaitlyn who squealed yeah yeah YEAH! to all our suggestions regardless of whether she understood them or not. Her enthusiasm was still highly appreciated by her older sister.
As we were stringing alphabeads, an idea started forming in my mind. Maybe we could make a summer memory necklace to keep track of all our adventures. The girls are really into beads and necklaces right now, so it totally made sense. A blue bead for swimming, a yellow one for lemonade, so soon we took a trip to Hobby Lobby to check out our options and that’s when the girls saw these.
CHARMS!
What a fun idea. We spent the next 45 minutes searching through charms and matching them with our summer list.
We searched for simple charm chains and though Hobby Lobby had some options, I think this one and this one make the best choices.
They each picked out their initial for their necklace and we have a special spot to hang them in. Despite the pictures, they are currently charmless, as the charms are tucked away in my closet. As we complete each summer adventure, they girls can add their charm to their necklace. If we don’t have one that goes with the experience, I’ll just search on Etsy which is a gold mind of charm options- from these bowling charms to these reading charms for hitting a specific number of books read goal.
The possibilities are endless.
The girls are so excited and so am I. Not only are we armed with plenty of fun things to do to fill our summer days, we also have a fun momento ready to create. I hope that once the summer ends, our necklaces will be full of wonderful summer tales to tell, perhaps at the school year’s first show and tell?
Either way, now we are ready to officially say, BRING. ON. SUMM-AH!
If you are looking for more kid-ish and colorful charms, I found this site which has really cute options as well!
Now please share with me…
What is one fun thing on your summer bucket list?!
Karen says
Great idea…this should be really fun for your girls.
And I must say, I was thrilled to see camping on this list. I recall your last camping trip that you wrote about and have not seen anymore since. Your girls are older now and I believe you will enjoy it more this time around.
I can’t wait to read about this when it happens:)
Brittany Dixon says
Yes, I don’t know how wild we will be- backyard or head to the mountains, but I’m definitely excited about the idea of camping with the fam!
Kelli says
What an awesome idea Brittany! I’m also going to try less structure and routine this summer with my four and two year old and more fun. Our big plans this summer is our first family of four vacation to the Texas hill country. Four people, one room has always stressed me out BUT back to the fun part…fingers crossed!
Brittany Dixon says
Sounds like a fun adventure! I will say that the one room with four people worked out WAY better than I was anticipating on our last family vacay- good luck!
Kate says
What a fun idea! Ah, being a girls mom does have it’s perks… 😉
At 17 months my little guy is still oblivious about summer bucket lists, so we will play by ear. One thing I definitely want to do is go on a few hikes in the Alps.
Love the idea of the aquarium – that’s on our list for Japan in fall. I can’t wait to see his eyes when we get there… 🙂
Have a great weekend
John J. says
Beach, with family!
Stephanie says
This is such a fun idea! I might try this with my 2 year old, she’d love a charm necklace filled with reminders of our adventures!
Katie says
Cute idea for summer! Here’s another version of the idea I saw this week that is also adorable: http://kellehampton.com/2016/05/summer-bucket-list-charm-necklace.html
Brittany Dixon says
Oh gosh, haha, this is the link mentioned above! SO cute! I love the idea of drawing your own. I didn’t even know that was an option!
Brittany Dixon says
Oh my gosh and hers is a charm necklace too! Ha!
Caitlin says
Do you read Kelle Hamptons blog? She wrote a post about this recently and actually had a way to make charms (special paper baked in the oven, I think) for their summer adventures. Hailey would probably love that!
Brittany Dixon says
I don’t, what is her blog? I’d love to check it out- sounds cute!!
Parita says
LOVE this idea and I don’t even have children! I think y’all are going to have an amazing summer 🙂
Jen Baldassarre says
I love that! What a great way to create a memento together and remember fun stories to share!
Natasha says
This is such a great idea!! Love it. Have bucket loads of fun with your girls xx
Laura says
I love this! Trying to think of a way to make it boy friendly 😊 I also thought it would be fun to keep them and add to them every summer. Maybe separate the charms by year with plain silver ones or something?!
Alyssa @ renaissancerunnergirl says
I LOVE this idea and want to do it someday if I have a daughter. In fact I want to do it for myself right now!
Heather says
I am seriously impressed with Hailey’s writing skills. Any tips on how you encourage her and help her? My 4 year old son is in pre-school/day care full time, but has little interest in settling down to do the learning portion of things and I’d like to find a way to make it something fun to do at home on the weekend and evenings.
The charm necklaces are a really cute idea! Our summer bucket list always includes camping, and I also want to get our kiddos in the water more this year in order to prep them for swimming lessons!
mary says
Mom game – strong!
Super sweet idea.
Tanya says
Such a fun idea!!! Let me know if we can help you check off some of those items. We’ve been wanting to go to the zoo for weeks!
Luisa says
So funny that you and Kelle Hampton from Enjoying the Small Things had the same idea!
Julie says
I saw this on Kelle Hampton’s blog, too. 🙂 Such a sweet idea! Not only will they have a great time doing all of these fun activities together this summer, but they will be thrilled to get their charms & at the end of the summer will have a nice keepsake to remember what a wonderful summer they had. Truly such a wonderful idea!
Julia @ Drops of Jules says
You are the CUTEST mom. My summer bucket list is held captive by my study abroad program in Spain!
Heather says
What a great idea!