12 Ways to Play Outside This Summer

1. Water Table Painting
 Check out this adorable way to explore fingerpainting with the kids this summer. I love how cleanup becomes part of the fun!

2. Blow Bubbles
 This is a family fun night coming up at the Hollingsworth house. Our kids love bubbles so much that we plan to make one of our summer family nights focus around this fun play time. We'll make our own bubble wands, play with no-pop bubbles, and stand inside a bubble of our own(our girls LOVE this one).  We plan on testing out this cool bubble snake, and these giant bubbles as well.

3. Sidewalk Chalk and Chalk Paint
Sidewalk chalk is excellent outdoor fun. We love mixing up chalk paint for outside play using cornstarch and food coloring. This year we're going to check out Squirt Painting to expand our play.

4. Stargazing
We love the Perseid meteor shower that shows up in early August but any night is a good night to stargaze. It's a perfect time to relax outdoors together with the fun bonus of getting to stay up past bedtime. Add a little late night ice cream to round out the evening if you feel daring.

5. Family Picnic
There are so many great playgrounds in Kansas City. Hitting the park for a family picnic is a simple way to get outdoors this summer. Give me a blanket, sunglasses, and a good book...I'm set!  Jessica over at Life As Mom has a great post called 3 things you need for a great family picnic.  I especially love her idea of having a picnic go bag, I did this a couple of years ago and it truly makes all the difference. Now whenever the mood strikes I have our picnic basket ready to go with all the essential tools already gathered. It makes it so much easier to get out the door.

 6. Glow Sticks
I can't go into much detail on here yet but  a Glow Family Night is in the works for my crew this summer. Grab some glow sticks and get in on this wonderful and inexpensive play activity. :)

7. Outdoor Games
Summer is a great time to enjoy classic children's games together. This year I want to spend plenty of time playing simple games with my children- sardines, flashlight tag, duck duck goose, tag...fun and easy. We plan to try bossy ball and frisbee tic tac toe as well.

 8. Fly Kites
 Let's go fly a kite... Can't beat it. Until your kite gets caught in a tree anyway. That's what Daddy is for.  He usually ends up having to help me more than our kids though.

9.  Get Up and Move Dice
 The fabulous Crystal over at Growing a Jeweled Rose came up with these great dice that encourage active play with the kiddos. This activity is great indoors and out.

10. Water War
My oldest child looks forward to a water war every year. Sometimes it's just our family (... eventually ALL of the neighborhood children) in the front yard. Sometimes we invite friends over to share in the fun, making it a big event...either way it's a total blast. This reminds me of my childhood. My Dad planned a water fight for the neighborhood kids every year. We all loved it. I'll never forget the time that the kid down the street saved up for months to purchase a water gun that had a backpack water tank providing him with a seemingly endless water supply. I ran for dear life at the sight of that lime green torture device. That year was the last time that I came armed with a dollar store water gun. We were shamefully outgunned...

Anyway, water wars have no rules. Bring your water guns, bust out the hose, make those little sponge bombs that you see all over Pinterest...whatever. Personally, I'm not a big fan of the sponge bombs. The untie too easily. Seriously, nobody wants to stop to retie a sponge in the middle of war. I recommend using the giant utility sponges found in the automotive section. Those babies can pack quite a punch so please DO NOT throw them at little kids in the full size, soaked with water they could hurt a small child. We cut them into fourths(sometimes smaller!) for our children to use. Sometimes we just give them normal kitchen sponges without wasting our time turning them into cute little balls. I've never heard a complaint. The large sponges make a fabulous assault weapon for waterbombing an unsuspecting husband though. You want to give that a try sometime, trust me. :)

11. Scavenger Hunt
My little girl can't get enough of seek and find activities. Scavenger hunts are a great way to put her curious nature to work and sneak in a little learning at the same time. A family favorite is this pirate treasure hunt that you can customize to fit your own space. Our girls flipped out when they found their pirate dress up outfits set out for them with a map leading the way to hidden treasure. Treasure hunts have become something of a summer tradition around here. It's extra fun to make the treasure a yummy snack - chocolate coins are always a big hit! In addition to our treasure hunt, we'll head to our favorite park on a color hunt, take this fun tally sheet scavenger hunt to our local nature center, and see what we can find in our own neighborhood with this fun scavenger hunt printable. I love how it includes textures, fantastic idea!

12. Water Blob
 I've wanted to do this activity for SO LONG! Unfortunately, our last house had a sloped yard and our attempt at enjoying this awesomeness was a complete disaster. We had it all ready to go and went inside for a quick drink only to come back and find that the entire blob had rolled down our yard and resulted in an awful tangled mess at the base of our swing set. BOO. Super disappointed Mom, er, kids. :(  I hope we have better luck this year, it looks so fun!

Summer Fun 2014

12 weeks of summer fun in Kansas City.  That's the plan.

This year our family decided to be commitment free during the summer.  After a busy school year it is time to unwind with some unstructured free-time. No summer camps, sports, productions or classes for our lot this year. Just food, family, friends and fun.

We still want to be intentional with our time though right? There is nothing worse than noticing that summer days slipped by before you got around to all of the fun things you had hoped to do back at Summer's beginning.  We've made a summer bucket list with the intent to do four things each week all summer long, one from each section. We'd like to get to these things each week but there is no demand on our time this way. If we decide that we want to nap, veg in jammies or read books at the park instead that's just great. I refuse to plan out our days this summer.

1. Get out and about- visit one of our 12 picks for summer fun in Kansas City
2.Be intentional about play- spend time together playing, crafting, or learning
3.Get outside- enjoy that beautiful backyard in a new way
4. Cook- make and enjoy a special treat together

 You've all seen those crazy busy summer plans floating around Blogland right? The tediously detailed summer-at-home camps that are designed to keep the day so very full that those precious little ones can't possibly have the time to irritate you with a declaration of "I'm bored!". What about the schedules that give all the days of the week cute little names and rules like "Make Something Monday" and "What's Cooking Wednesday"...It's cute, but it's unnecessary.  It's okay to be bored sometimes. It's okay to respond with "not a thing" when a Mommy friend asks what you have planned for the day.  You don't have to have every moment of the day planned to have an awesome summer.

 We're ditching the rules, leaving the Mommy Summer Camps and Summer Schedules for Kids of Pinterest behind, and trying something different with the hope of creating a restful atmosphere for EVERYONE during these wonderful lazy summer days. Won't you join us? Say goodbye to the drive to be constantly busy. Say hello to a peaceful summer enjoying your family AND having a blast together. By all means, make plans to do fun things with your crew this summer, just remember that summer is about the little moments that happen amid the plans. :)

I've had several people ask me to share the activities I have planned for our summer so be on the lookout for posts in the coming days that round up our favorite Kansas City summer attractions, outside play ideas, yummy food that we want to try, and how we plan to be intentional about time spent playing together this summer.