We are a pretty regular family of 4, there’s Annie who is so very nearly 4 and a perfect mix of daredevil, princess and tomboy. Ezra is 1 1/2 and a dinosaur obsessed little guy who tries to copy everything his big sister does. Jon is my camera shy husband, often to be found cooking lovely dinners and being used as a human climbing frame while I am on hand to photograph the madness. And yes, we all love to rock a comedy moustache from time to time (except Ez who was poorly and wanted nothing to do with a family photo, ‘taches OR fun!!!)

This is the last summer before Annie starts school and so I want to make it an amazing one for her (and the rest of us too!). Also, as a Mum who suffers from anxiety, I find the best way to get out of the house and have fun, despite my illness, is through lots of forward planning and lists.

The magic of the summer bucket list challenge is that the kiddos get excited about the things we have planned, which in turn, energises me and makes it easier for me to leave the house. Having the list up on the wall maintains a high level of excitement and makes sure we don’t forget to do any of the activities.

We took part in the summer bucket list 2012 and it was so much fun. We ended up going out more, visited new places and created some awesome memories to tide us through the winter. We did a big garden treasure hunt for Annie, picked fruit, flew a kite, baked and cooked and spent lots of time outside playing. Annie loved having the bucket list on the wall, it sponsored so many conversations at mealtimes, discussing the things she was excited about doing and remembering the things we’d already done.

This year our list is made up of the following activities…

• Turn the garden into a water park
• Have a lounge, blanket fort camp-out
• Visit the beach
• Visit a forest
• Bubbles
• Make and play with pavement paint
• Make and play with cloud dough
• Giant ice-cube excavation
• Fruit picking
• Pirate water table
• Sparklers
• Eat watermelon
• Put on wellies & play in the summer rain
• Got to the library
• PJ day
• Visit Stratford-upon-Avon
• Bake ‘angry birds’ pizza
• Have a picnic
• Spend a day splashing around at Welly Boot Land
• Visit a stone circle

We’re not starting our challenges until the end of May but the kids are so excited about the list and the good wether that we’ve started ‘practising’ ready for the summer.

One of the best things about having the list up on the wall is how it’s helping with Annie’s reading, she’s recognising words from her sight words and picking up new ones as we have to read the entire list at least once a day!

My main aim with the summer bucket list is to get the kiddos outdoors, both in our garden, and outside of the house, so I have my fingers crossed for lovely weather and long, hot days. I have, however, remembered that we live in England and planned things that can be brought indoors should the weather be as bad as last year.

Roll on the summer.

What is on your summer bucket list?

I am not a very spontaneous person, honestly I’m about as far away from spontaneous as you can get without being a statue! So when I got a text from a friend on midway through Monday morning, asking if I fancied meeting up at the park in 4 hours time I had a mini panic attack.

I have an innate need to have my life planned out, sometimes weeks in advance, if I’m driving somewhere I’ve not been before I’ll ‘walk it through’ on Google Maps street view and, if possible, do a drive by in the car. I’ve always lived like this, making decisions on the day makes me very uncomfortable BUT I know how limiting it is to those around me. I don’t want the kids growing up like me, unable to do something unless they’ve planned it out in minute detail beforehand because it means we miss out on so many opportunities.

It’s a problem I’m working to overcome, so when I got that text, I ummed and ahhhed, weighed out the pros and cons (no cons, just a long list of pros!) and asked Em, whose house I was at for her opinion (she said go). I even considered phoning Jon for his opinion but didn’t because I knew what he’d say. He’d tell me to stop being so daft, that Annie and Ez would have a super time playing with Harry, that I’d have a great time meeting up with Helen, that the fresh air and sunshine would improve my mood 100 fold and mostly, that I’d regret it if I didn’t go.

All of these things were true, I had a great time, I felt so much better for spending time outdoors, it was great to catch up with my friend and her cute son and I felt really proud of myself for being spontaneous and meeting 2 friends and their kiddos in a single day, a feat that’s practically unheard of for me unless it’s planned out that way for weeks ahead.

Things like a surprise trip out shouldn’t affect me so much, but they do and I recognise it’s a problem, one that I’m trying to work around / through. I’m hoping that by doing this kind of thing more often I’ll get past it, and realise that the earth won’t fall out of space if I do something spur of the moment. I would love to be a carefree, spontaneous kinda lady, and hopefully I’m on my way to becoming just that!

Are you a manic planner or a spontaneous free spirit?

We’re reaching the end of summer, the mornings and nights are drawing in, the temperature is dropping and the rain (which has been here all summer) is still here. This weekend we had a lazy Saturday and a trip out on Sunday to make the most of the suprise lovely weather. Monday it absolutely bucketed down so we stayed safely indoors and drank hot chocolate with marshmallows to practice for Autumn and Winter!

Annie told me Ez wanted to sit in the wagon and get pushed around the house, which it turns out he approved of. The two of them were so cute, he loves doing this and he appears to be a bit of a speed demon, the faster she pushes, them more he giggles.

Annie dressed up as a fairy princess, then decided that Woody would also like to dress up, I think he really pulls off the green and purple floaty dress look.

Our tiny Padawan was ‘allowed’ to play with his sister’s lightsaber, he loved it but as soon as she saw him trying to teeth on it she took it back!

Sunday we drove over to Bourton-on-the-Water. We had a lovely time, didn’t go in any shops or tourist traps, just a lovely mix of sitting by the River Windrush (the quaintest named river ever!) in the sun, strolling around, feeding ducks, watching crazy children splash around in the freezing water and supplementing our picnic with hot chip shop chips, mmm. Annie lay down on the bank of the river and dangled her hand in which she thought was super.

Ezra spent all of lunch time trying to wrestle his socks off and taunting me with them before shoving them in his mouth :)

Bank Holiday Monday we ticked off one of the last Bucket List items by making home made lemonade. I love eating lemons, turns out Annie does not take after me in that respect!

Have you noticed the end of Summer, does the approaching Autumn make you feel sad or happy?