It's too hot - summer bucket list

At the start of every summer since I became a mom, I have this yearning to do all things summer-y, the kind of things that summertime lends itself to: drinking lots of lemonade, running on the beach, watching an outdoor concert, etc.  For some reason, with the kids I feel like summertime is a "more fun" time, though there's nothing that makes summer different from the other three seasons.

Maybe it's because everyone's mind goes slightly on vacation this time of year, or maybe it really is the hot weather.

I always try to come up with a list of fun things we'll do each summer, and this year I found out there's a real name to such a list!  A summer bucket list!  Now, usually this list is done before the season begins so that you're prepared...but it's never too late, and since I have a hard time coming up with ideas myself, here's someone else's summer bucket list.

With August here and school around the corner, the pressure is on to accomplish as many as possible...

1.Go to the beach - done!  We did it in Israel

2.Make Popsicles - Done!  We made them Tuesday night and the kids enjoyed yesterday afternoon.

3.Go to the movies

4.Paint using our feet

5.Tie dye shirts

6.Take a picture everyday

7.Roast marshmallows

8.Go for a boat ride

9.Go to an outdoor concert

10.Make homemade soap

11.Play with water balloons

12.Play with squirt bottles outside

13.Whip up some edible sand

14.Play with colored bubbles

15.Pick vegetables from our garden - I think we can take a pass on this this yea'rs since we're in a drought...

16.Make and play with homemade face paint

17.Have an ice cream sundae party

18.Try lots of different sunglasses on and take pictures

19.Build a sandcastle

20.Make frozen bananas - I have frozen bananas in the freezer to avoid throwing them away, does that count?

21.See fireworks

22.Celebrate the fourth of July

23.Go to a parade

24.Visit a farmer's market - DONE!  Went to the Airline Farmer's Market - like a shuk in Houston, but more subdued...

25.Visit new playground - well, we visited playgrounds in Israel, so I think that counts...

26.Play at a splash park

27.Go swimming at Grandma's house - the kids go swimming with their grandparents on the weekends, so that totally counts...

28.Have a late night movie night

29.Go berry picking - we tried to go blackberry picking again this year, but the drought damaged the crop, so not our fault...

30.Visit a fair

31.Make fizzing sidewalk chalk

32.Make smores

33.Visit a sunflower field

34.Make moon sand

35.Plant sunflowers

36.Go blueberry picking - see #29

37.Walk around by the water

38.Make our own strawberry freezer jam - DONE!  We take it up a notch and make our own jam on the stove...

39.Go to an outdoor movie

40.Fly a kite

41.Make our own bouncy balls

42.Make our own gak - tonight I made play-dough for the kids, does that count?

We're not doing too bad! We can make some modifications to fit the attention spans of a 3.5 year old and a 2 year old for the rest, plus we do have to take into account the weather. And then there are special considerations for certain things like an outdoor concert - they tend to start late here, so it doesn't make sense for me to bring the kids out, as much as I'd like to.

But this gives me a good list to work on! Do you have a summer bucket list?

Jam I am

Yes, what you are looking at right now are the fruits of our labors to date (see, I'm not counting children here). Let me explain this image to you:

The top jar with the RED STUFF is homemade strawberry jam.

The bottom 3 jars with the BLACK STUFF is homemade blackberry jam.

Let me repeat for you: HOME. MADE. JAM.

And to answer your question - no, it doesn't get much better than this.

We went strawberry picking back in May and made jam, and we thought that it was good. But then we went blackberry picking last Sunday, and we made jam, and man oh man, that stuff is good. Not to mention our jam-making technique improved so we think the quality of the jam improved. We consider the blackberry jam to be liquid g-o-l-d. Yes, it's that good.

Sometimes we share it with the kids.

Next up is blueberry picking, and I'm sure we'll make jam again.

Oh my gosh, don't you wish you lived near me now so you could try some of it...