1. Make homemade ice cream in a bag. Here’s a great recipe! WE DID IT!!! So yummy, so fun. I thought I took pictures, but I can't find them anywhere! This is the first thing we did, so maybe I spaced the photo. Oh well. It was good. I suggest adding fruit or candy. Use the really good ziplock bags with a double zipper. Little kids hands get cold fast (okay, mine did too). Use a towel or oven mits to hold and shake. Ours took a little longer than what we saw on the website.
2. Make your own Bleach T-Shirts. Here is the tutorial (this is fun and easy for all ages!).
3. Make a bike obstacle course using chalk and other “obstacles”. Here are some great ideas to get you started!
4. Go to all the parks within a 10 mile radius and choose which one is your favorite. Make a “Park Passport” and check each park off as you visit it. We went with our friends the McKay's and Lindy had the idea to make this. She is so cool. You can see how awesome she is here or here.
6. Have a camp out in the backyard and sleep outside in a tent. The boys got to sleep over in the McKay's backyard. They had a blast.
9. Make your own Super Giant Bubbles and homemade Bubble Wands.
10. Make simple Indoor S’mores and your own campfire (there are even rainy days in the summer- this is perfect for inside or outside).
14. Make homemade edible play-doh. Here are 10 recipes to try out (and you can decide which one tastes the best!).
15. Have a “Movie Picnic”! See # 11 Liam is in the white shirt near the middle of the room. Look at his head. I tried to do a panoramic view, but Liam was moving.
18. Visit the pet store. Liam's favorite part was checking out the baby Beardies. (bearded dragons)
19. Become a Pen-Pal with a missionary or Soldier
20. Volunteer at a nursing home or skilled nursing facility. We sang "Come, Come Ye Saints" for a special Relief Society lesson, and then we went for a walk around the temple.
22. Play Outdoor Twister. It’s not hard to make your own!
23. Have a cupcake decorating contest. Bake some cupcakes and then set out all different colors of frosting, sprinkles, and other toppings. Pick a couple of people to be the judges and have fun!
25. Run through the sprinklers. We set ours up on the Trampoline!
27. Write a summer journal. Go here for this cute free printable full of prompts to get you started! I think this blog is becoming our summer journal! We are taking lots of pictures too. At the end of summer I will show the boys this post and ask them what their favorite parts were, and write them down.
28. Come up with a family summer exercise program and do it! Check out our 8-Week Challenge.
29. Make a “Dirt City”. My husband used to do this for hours when he was little. They would find a patch or dirt or sand in their yard and build mountains and rivers and streets and then use their matchbox cars, dinosaur toys, and other plastic toys to play for hours. Or just dig in the dirt. That’s fun too.
31. Go on Daddy-Daughter/ Mother-Son date! Let the daughter or son make the plans for the date.
32. Go on a hike. Look online for hiking trails close to you and in your level. We climbed Bears Hump! Daddy stayed with Rosena and Hyrum at the bottom.
35. Have a watermelon speed spitting contest.
36. Spend a day at a National Park. Here is a link to help you find a park near you! We went Geo-Caching in Waterton! They let you use their GPS for free, and then you get a prize when you are done. We also did the Bison Loop and found a baby snake!
38. Write someone a thank you note and deliver it (or mail it).
39. Have a Family Game Night and play board games or charades.
40. Have a sock puppet show (and make some of these cute puppets!)
41. Do a secret act of service for someone in your family.
42. Visit the fire department (and take them some cookies! These ones require no baking!)
43. Make your own outdoor obstacle course. Here are some great ideas!
44. Make a rain-gutter race track for Matchbox cars. Have races with different cars and award trophies.
45. Make a bird feeder with a pinecone rolled in peanut butter and bird seed. Hang in a tree and watch for the birds.
46. Do some Potato Stamping.
47. Go bowling!
48. Make your own Photo Booth, complete with props! Check out this fun post for tons of ideas.
49. Make your own telescope and look at the stars. Here is a great DIY tutorial that is easy enough for kids to follow.
50. Go fishing... oops. Same as 128!
52. Visit a local splash park. Our closest one is in Waterton.... so we went again! We also went over to the beach and saw a deer. We played with our new friends, Adrienne and her kiddos.
54. Have your own “Drive-In Movie”. Give each child a large cardboard box and let them make their own car to sit in and watch the show.
55. Play croquet. You can purchase a set for fairly cheap and it’s a fun game to play as a family!
56. Decorate your bikes and have a bike parade, or enter your decked out bikes in a parade! Instead we made our own float and entered it in the parade. Why ride your bike when you can ride a float?
58. Make S’mores Marshmallow Pops- perfect for even the smallest kids to make!
59. Make a lemonade stand. Here are some cute printables for your stand!
60. Make a movie. Have someone record it and then watch it all together while you eat popcorn.
61. Play post office. Make your own mailboxes and write letters to each other. It’s fun for mom and dad to get involved with this too!
62. Bring Angry Birds to life with this life-sized Angry Birds backyard game! There are actually other things on this site that I would rather do.
63. Make your own pizzas. We like to use English Muffins and let the kids put on their own sauce and toppings. Pop them in the oven at 350 degrees for a few minutes and you have quick and delicious dinner!
64. Make a necklace out of an old T-shirt and beads!
65. Go on an “Alphabet tour”. Bring a camera(s) and a notebook. Head into town and walk around. Beginning with the letter a, find something that starts with that letter (i.e. Adams Street). Take a picture of that item and write it down in your notebook. Continue with each letter and when you are done, each child has a personal and creative alphabet memory book.
66. On rainy days, my kids love using these Window Markers to decorate the windows. They draw pictures, practice writing letters, and play games. They have been a lifesaver for us!
68. Make your own glow-in-the-dark slime!
69. Feed the gophers in Waterton. We went with Arlene, Neil and Mattea, and also with our friend Jared and his daughters Chrissy and Aubrey. It was awesome both times.
71. Go garage sale shopping. You can find great games, toys, movies, and so much more for great prices!
72. Put on a magic show. Here are some fun and easy tricks to learn!
73. Make a time capsule as a family. Put things in it that are happening right now and then open it next summer and see how things have changed.
74. Set up a “color corner” in your house and let the kids work on it all week (or maybe all summer?!).
75. Go to a Farmer’s Market. The boys bought Hotweels, a tutu fro Rosena, a pot scrubber for Mommy, and a yummy baked treat to share with Daddy.
77. Have a Hula-Hoop contest (I loved when we did this as a family growing up- my dad was the funniest to watch!)
78. Make your own Bathtime Puffy Paints.
79. Plan a picnic/tea party for all your dolls and stuffed animals.
80. Bury little plastic army men (you can get them at the dollar store) and little plastic animals in the dirt or sand, then let the kids dig to find them.
81. Put together your own joke book. Here are some fun jokes to get you started!
82. Make these Sponge Balls and then play Sponge Ball tag (great alternative to a water fight!).
83. Make a collage using pictures from magazines.
84. Have a backwards day- breakfast for dinner, dinner for breakfast, dessert before your meal, wear your clothes backwards, etc.
85. Go collect rocks and then come back and paint them; make them into Rock People! Add googly eyes and yarn hair.
86. Play hopscotch. Here is the way to draw the perfect hopscotch!
87. Make your own melted crayons.
88. Paint bag writing.
89. Make these popsicles
91. Make this ball maze.
92. Visit the library. Most local libraries have summer reading programs, special craft project times, puppet shows, teen clubs, and other fun things organized specially for the summer. Check the schedule at a library near you.
93. Build with Lego. Kids can build free-form projects, or modern art pieces. If they run out of ideas, challenge them to build a spaceship, a plant, or a robot. We've all been building with Lego since we could hold up a 2×4 brick. Give them a tub of Lego and let them go.
94. Experiment with cooking. Even very young children can try their hand at cooking or baking. They can help to measure ingredients, stir, and arrange the final result. Older kids can cook on the stove, or use the oven. Contributing to the family meal is a very rewarding experience for kids of all ages. And the more that they learn how to do, the more they can help out on a regular basis.
96. Take late-night walks. Kids enjoy this even more when they are in charge of the flashlights. The boys walked with Grandma around the temple. It was very dark when they got back.
98. Make a squishy, water-filled play mat for cool sensory fun.
99. Make tin can lanterns
100. Write postcards to your friends/family and mail them
101. Make soap with the boys, for the boys.
102. Send kids a handmade card in the mail with a coupon to go get ice cream with you.
103. Gather all the home movies that feature them as the “star” and have a movie night complete with popcorn and treats.
104. Write them a poem using the initials of their name.
105. Make tye dyed t-shirts
107. Go mini golfing
110. Huge painting canvas
111. Water balloon fight. We found out that our new faucet isn't water balloon friendly, and the water balloons broke when we tried to fill them with the hose, but we got wet anyways!
114. Make little boy busy board
115. Bath tub paints – Fill a muffin tin with shaving cream. Put food coloring in each cup, mix it up. Use paint brushes or your fingers. These were fun and did not stain the tub. They did make the boys skin turn a little red, but it was gone within a day.
118. Edible finger paint – Fill a muffin tin with whipped cream. Put food coloring in each cup, mix it up. Use paint brushes or your fingers outside on butcher paper.
119. Snail mail – write /draw letters and pictures and send them to cousins far away.
120. Spray bottle water fight
122. Faries in a jar. Put water, a broken glowstick and sparkles in a jar. Shake and play in the dark. We didn't break the stick, we just threw it in the jar. Still cool.
124. Camping
125. Jump off Beazer Creek Bridge - we went to Beazer creek but we haven't jumped off the bridge yet. The water was to cold!
126. Go to Wally's Beach. We went with our friends The McKays, Amy and her adorable baby Elora (here with Liam), and Stuart (he's holding Elora).
"Oh hello, I love you!"
Obi and I went on another night.
130. Fathers and Son's camp.
132. Heritage Day Parade and Fireworks! Can't Wait! We like to watch from our front lawn! Or, we can just be in it!
133. Heritage Day Pancake Breakfast! Rosena finally met Doctor Clark!
We witnessed an accident right in front of us on the way home and had to give our testimony to the Police.
139. Play at Henderson Park.
