Tag: summer bucket list

What’s on our Summer Bucket List for 2018?

I am more happy than you can imagine that the summer holidays are here. Sure, it means more work for me, juggling my job and child care, but it’s so nice to be able to just hang out with my boy for the summer and just do nice things. I’ve been thinking about some things we can do together and as a family over the summer. This blog post will serve as an informal plan for us and a summer bucket list of suggestions we can pick and choose from. Having a list of options is always a useful thing, especially when you’re stuck for inspiration or ideas.

What's on our Summer Bucket List for 2018?

We’ve got some day trips planned; a holiday to Devon and our annual jaunt to Just So Festival to look forward to, so here is our summer bucket list for 2018.

summer bucket list for 2018

⇒ Visit Manchester Museum and look at the frogs
⇒ Visit and explore Ordsall Hall in Salford
⇒ Go crabbing and have fish and chips in Appledore in Devon
⇒ Visit Tintagel Castle and find out more about King Arthur
⇒ Fill the paddling pool with gelli baff and have a paddling pool party
⇒ Visit Launceston Castle in Cornwall
⇒ Visit Tamar Otter and Wildlife Centre in Devon
⇒ Go back to Wild Discovery at Ribby Hall in Lancashire
⇒ Go glamping in a yurt in the Lake District
⇒ Take part in the dog show at the Woolsery Agricultural Show
⇒ Go to the playground in the park and have a picnic
⇒ Visit Westward Ho! and see if the shipwrecks are still visible
⇒ Sing around the Just So Campfire
⇒ Visit the Gweek Seal Sanctury in Cornwall
⇒ Go on some treasure hunts using a Treasure Trail maps
⇒ Visit the castle fort in the park in Bideford in Devon
⇒ Count the stars at night, when camping at The Just So Festival
⇒ Rest, read and reconnect
⇒ Visit Elizabeth Gaskell’s House in Manchester for family fun
⇒ Bake and decorate cakes for our nice neighbours
⇒ Join the Tribal Tournament at The Just So Festival (we are buzzing!)

What are you going to get up to this summer? What’s on your summer bucket list?

What's on our Summer Bucket List for 2018?

Goodbye summer, hello again relentless routine

When I wake up tomorrow morning two things will happen. It’s my birthday so I’ll get smothered by my menfolk and the dog of questionable pedigree and loved to bits, which is nice. The other thing tomorrow brings is the return to school and the start of Year 2 for my precious little baby (now a big, tall and strong nearly 7 year old). It’s time to say goodbye summer!

As I tucked him up in bed tonight I shed a quiet tear to myself. We have had the most incredible summer. Seven weeks of fantastic memories, quality time together and just really fun stuff, much of which I’ve not yet had time to blog about, so do watch this space!

We’d sat down this afternoon with a pen and paper and listed all the really fun, memorable stuff we’d done together and it was quite a list. Reading the list back and remembering everything just made my heart burst a bit. We’ve been very lucky, there’s been a budget of sorts we’ve stuck to and the cost of expensive days out has been tempered by packing a picnic and using vouchers or deals where we could. We did well and I am very sad it’s over.

 

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At the start of the summer we wrote a bucket list. But how did we get on? This is what we managed to tick off…

⇒ Build sandcastles on the beach in Devon
⇒ Sleep lots (Ben’s suggestion)
⇒ Visit Ben’s cousins in Devon
⇒ Go to the playground in the park
⇒ Visit the Sealife Centre at Weymouth
⇒ Go on a treasure hunt in Bude using Treasure Trails maps
⇒ Visit the castle fort in the park in Bideford
⇒ Count the stars at night, when camping at The Just So Festival
⇒ Sing around the Just So Campfire
⇒ Feed the animals at Wild Discovery at Ribby Hall 
⇒ Have a Cornish pasty picnic on the beach
⇒ Join the Tribal Tournament at The Just So Festival (we were bees!)

 

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But we also managed to do this…

⇒ Rockpooling in Woolacombe (and found an octopus)
⇒ Joined in the dog show at the Woolsery Show (and won!)
⇒ Went foraging at Just So Festival and ate dried mealworms & crickets
⇒ Built a den in the woods at Just So Festival
⇒ Joined in the massive Just So pillow fight!
⇒ Went out for lunch and ended up splashing in the water-features in Cathedral Gardens in Manchester 
⇒ Went to Chester Zoo with Daddy (loved the gibbons the best)
⇒ Found a Rhea egg at Wild Discovery at Ribby Hall
⇒ Went up the Jurassic Skyline attraction in Weymouth
⇒ Adopted Geoff & Ollie the otters at Wild Discovery at Ribby Hall
⇒ Massively grew in confidence with his swimming, loved the pool at Ribby Hall!
⇒ Met and touched the armadillos, a gecko, a cockroach, tortoise, rabbits, sheep, calves, pigs and reindeer at Wild Discovery at Ribby Hall

We’ve done lots, we’ve hardly fallen out with each other and every night we’ve gone to bed smiling with our heads and hearts full of adventure. I’ve loved it and so has he. It really has been the best summer ever.

I’ll have very mixed feelings in the morning, seeing him skip off to school again and hearing the house fall silent once more. It will be nice to catch up with some jobs and to tackle my to do list, but not as nice as doing what I love best, spending time with my boy.

PS. Happy birthday me x

 

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What’s on our Summer Bucket List for 2017?

I was speaking to a teacher this morning who excitedly told me there were “seven more sleeps” until the school holidays begin, this is a number which fills me with terror and excitement in equal measure. It may seem like a long time to fill with activities, but I think those six weeks will go in the blink of an eye. I asked him last night what he wanted to do over the holidays and together we came up with a summer bucket list of sorts.

We have some sketchy plans for the six weeks our six year old son will be off school and out of routine. I want him to relax, have fun and enjoy being six. We also want to really work hard on getting him ready for the big leap into Year 2, so lots of reading, some work books and lots of counting in twos, fives and tens.

During the school holidays we are going on holiday in North Devon (right on the Cornish border) and there’s lots to do there. We will be going to the Just So Festival in August and Ben and I will be leaving Daddy and the dog at home and going to Ribby Hall for five days. In between we have trips out and fun things planned, plus plenty of rest days at home so we can chill out and get bored.

What’s on our Summer Bucket List for 2017?

⇒ Build sandcastles on the beach in Devon
⇒ Sleep lots (Ben’s suggestion)
⇒ Visit Ben’s cousins in Devon
⇒ Go to the playground in the park
⇒ Visit Westward Ho! and see if the shipwrecks are still visible
⇒ Go crabbing and have fish and chips in Appledore
⇒ Visit the Sealife Centre at Weymouth
⇒ Have lunch at the River Cottage Canteen in Axminster
⇒ Go on some treasure hunts using Treasure Trails maps
⇒ Visit the castle fort in the park in Bideford
⇒ Go fossil hunting in Lyme Regis
⇒ Count the stars at night, when camping at The Just So Festival
⇒ Go for a dip in the Bude Pool
⇒ Sing around the Just So Campfire
⇒ Visit Elizabeth Gaskell’s House in Manchester
⇒ Feed the animals at Wild Discovery at Ribby Hall
⇒ Bake and decorate cakes for our nice neighbours
⇒ Build a bug hotel for our garden
⇒ Have a Cornish pasty picnic on the beach
⇒ Join the Tribal Tournament at The Just So Festival (we are buzzing!)

What's on our Summer Bucket List for 2017?

Check back at the end of the summer to see how we got on!

What’s on your summer bucket list?

Our Summer Bucket List 2016

With the summer holidays just one week away it’s definitely time for me to turn my attention to how I’m going to keep my lively and lovely 5 year old entertained during the summer holidays. We need a summer bucket list!

I say summer, it’s mid-July and we’ve seen precious little sign of the sun, or indeed the ‘not rain’ we tend to associate with the summer months. I am not at all hopeful that the next couple of months will be wall to wall sunshine. I’d like some sun and some warmth at least. I’m not a sun worshipper, but I do like a lazy evening in a warm beer garden. Plus it’s great to see the boy and his friends splashing about in a paddling pool to cool off. 

Summer, where art thou?

After school today I sat down with the boy for a serious chat about our summer holiday plans. He didn’t take it especially seriously and came up with this plan for the summer holidays…

  1. Go swimming
  2. Play
  3. Go to the park
  4. Go to the ice cream van

I put a little more thought into it, based on what we had planned already and what I think we would like to do during our time off together and came up with this…

OUR Summer bucket list:

  1. Go on holiday and find somewhere new to explore
  2. Camp at the Just So Festival
  3. Visit the Lake District and show the boy some of the sights and places I explored as a child
  4. Have a spa day
  5. Put the tent up in the garden and have a camping day
  6. Be by the sea
  7. Explore down by the river with the boy
  8. Have a picnic with some of his friends in the park
  9. Indulge in a spot of beer gardening
  10. Make jam
  11. Go on a bear hunt
  12. Find some happy.

There. It’s as simple or as complicated as that. It’s a loose plan but most of it is achievable. It doesn’t all require sunshine, but it would be nice if it could be arranged. I’ll let you know how we get on.

Summer Bucket List