My Birmingham Summer Bucket List

0

So, there’s this hot new trend … the “summer bucket list”. Perhaps you’ve heard of it? Moms today are under soooo much pressure to make sure our kids have THE BEST SUMMER EVER!!! It is ridiculous. According to Facebook, if my kids aren’t spending all their days high-fiving Mickey Mouse in front of the Disney World castle while eating ice cream in perfectly smocked outfits, well they just didn’t have a summer.

That’s stressful, y’all, especially if you work all week and fit your summer fun into Saturdays and Sundays. So some advice I’ve seen online is to make a summer bucket list. Write down the most important meaningful activities you would like to accomplish this summer and focus on knocking those out. This sounds like it might bring some much needed sanity to the situation, so I made one for my family. It’s Birmingham specific. Please adapt for your crew and enjoy!

  • Have a splash pad day! There’s one at the Birmingham Zoo and at Celebration Park in Gardendale, but I am particularly interested in checking out the new splash pad at the Sicard Hollow Athletic Complex in Vestavia.
  • Go to the Gulf (if you can). I did use some vacation time from work to spend a week at Orange Beach with the family this summer, and I’m so glad! It was magical. And now I can check riding waves and hunting sand crabs off my list.

  • Spend an afternoon at the beach. No, I don’t mean drive 4-5 hours. Visit our local Oak Mountain State Park beach. Bring camping chairs and a picnic or buy lunch at the concession stand. Let the kids swim and play in the sand. Heaven.

  • Float in the river. Head to the Cahaba River. There’s an entry on Grants Mill Road. Walk down the path and find a trail through the woods towards the river that speaks to you. Let those kids splash around and float around in tubes! Teach ’em how to rope swing.

  • Cool down with a sweet treat. My goal in life this summer is to obtain a milkshake from K & J’s Elegant pastries. I have yet to visit their location in Alabaster, but the pics online of these decadent treats haunt my dreams. Must.Make.It.Happen.
  • Catch a summer blockbuster. Did you see there’s another Cars movie out? And the new Despicable Me is coming soon. Take those kids to the theater, splurge on popcorn, and enjoy.
  • Buy and consume a watermelon. Doesn’t get more Southern than this. I want to purchase an entire watermelon, take it to the back yard, carve it up, and destroy it. Like animals.

  • Surprise my kids with pool-side pizza picnics. A couple times per month, I aspire to pick my kids up from daycare with a bag full of swimsuits and towels. We will grab some pizzas and head straight to the neighborhood pool, where we will play until the sun goes down.

  • Bust out the slip-and-slide. At least one afternoon this summer I will go old school and put the slip-and-slide out in the back yard. I desperately want to watch these clowns fall over themselves giggling while trying to make it all the way down the slide.
  • Ride bikes. I vow to let my kids use this extra daylight to ride bikes! I’ve got one who is down to one training wheel, and maybe this will be the summer he lets the other one go!

Those are my goals for the summer. We’re making progress! What’s on your list? Please share in the comments!