One of my favorite activities to do with my kids? Dreaming. At the ages of 3, 6, and 8, they are specialists in the fantastic, over-the-top story kind of ideas. They also know how to love the simplest activities into wonderment.

This time of year, as school winds down, and the sun stays out longer, we begin making up our summer hit list - all of the fun we want to experience together while we have some time away from the usual routine. I love hearing the activities that make the list every year (bubbles, fireworks, the beach), and I feel that momma twinge that these beauties are growing too fast when I hear about the bigger wishes of seeing the ocean and renting a kayak.

I'm sharing our list again this year, as well as last year's list, in the case that they might inspire some summertime unexpected experiences for you and yours. Also, check back to this post that has oodles of other amazing summer ideas for you to soak in.

Do you have some ideas you're adding to the list? Share them with us!!

xoxo, MJ

P.S. Check out my friend, Amy Allen Clark over at MomAdvice.com and her 100 Days of Summer series. I love having all of her go-to projects ready for those days when I need something to break up the "Mommy, I'm bored" incantations.

Hi friends! This is totally what I'm feeling right now (so I had to make a pinnable. That's normal, right?). I have this image of my daughter going over to our outdoor faucet and leaning down to take a drink to discover that the water is bursting out of the pipes full blast as she goes to take a drink.

And it's all good.

I have always loved the feeling of going to bed exhausted (let's pretend this is a feeling in past tense) from a well-lived, emotional, love-ful day. We're having a lot of those, and I feel blessed.

However, the organized list of activities for Mommy & Daddy School is not quite what I had expected. As you remember from last week, we base our summer learning together on what makes our children curious. For blogging purposes, I'd like this all to be content-rich, developmentally-appropriate, superior learning.

But, this is real life, and I'm the momma here, and that title trumps blogger in any old Scrabble match (even if it has fewer letters). So, here's what we've had cooking for Mommy & Daddy school. We'll work in our bonus point fun (more on that later) and responsibility songs (ditto on more later) as the weeks go on, with the hopes that these might be useful to you.

Three themes have emerged thus far from our learning: tie dye is unbelievably amazing, scavenger hunts make any kind of learning more fun, and this country we live in is pretty stupendous. (Can I tell you more about the second two in a bit?).

Okay, so let me lay out these fun times so that you can pin, bookmark, star this and do it with your kiddos (or friends).

Tie dying is easy, messy, and perfection for summer. You need:

White (I recommend) cotton apparel - 60% cotton or more
Dye - we used a packaged kit from Tulip that was great and ready to go with squirt bottles half-filled with dye (retail $15)
Rubber bands and gloves (already in our kit)
Wide open space and a willingness to get dye on any of your clothes

We wanted a spiral design in the middle so I grabbed the center point of the shirt and twisted. As the twist got bigger, I placed the ends of the shirt around in a wrapped fashion, and I rubber-banded the shirt, creating four sections. This made it super easy for each child to know where to put their colors.

Some wanted two colors, some wanted all colors, and sectioning it off like this helped them to understand color blocking and bleeding a bit better. We found that putting on way more dye than you think you need is best. Soak it in color!

Once saturated, I wrapped them in plastic wrap to intensify the color. We kept them out in the sun all for about six hours, and I then washed out the dye in cool water. Check out the rainbow sink!

After the water runs clear, which was about 4 minutes per shirt for us, wring out the water and pop it into your washer, with a high water, hot water setting. I kept reds separate from blues just to be sure there would be no bleeding.

 We let ours drip dry (be careful they do drip color), and I was so happy with the brilliance of color.

The kids from big to small loved this. My favorite part of the adventure: these rainbow, water raisin piggies.

Take some time to tie dye this summer. It's addictive.

Join me back here tomorrow to learn how we're going to L-O-V-E our job thanks to Gretchen Rubin and The Happiness Project in our Summer of Happiness bookclub.

Thanks for hanging out, friend. I can't wait to show you more of what's going on over here. Have you started your own version of Mommy & Daddy school? Tell us all about it!

XOXO, MJ

Last week we sat down as a family to make our big summer list, and it was such fun to see the kids each get excited as their creative ideas were added. I, too, love roasting marshmallows and naming the animals I see in the clouds. Summer brings out the child in me...

And yet, I had this feeling that I should have my own list. I am a mom, and it's my most beloved and amazing vocation. I am also a wife, a friend, a professional, an artist, and a little bit of a grown-up. So as we march through the weeks of summer (which are marching by so fast, aren't they?), I'll be covering my own list of must haves for the season. It's my way of holding myself accountable, to make sure that these days of warmth include some time for me to feed and nurture what I want to give back to those I love so much.

#1 Fresh Markets

Living in an area surrounding by farms, I am blessed to have the ease to hop over to a fruit stand here and a larger farmer's market over there. I smile as I drive through back streets and see the handmade carts with fresh veggies, fruits, and flowers and the inevitable can left out to collect the suggested price from drive-by customers. These markets pop up all over the place, and to me they scream summertime, small town, and all that is good in humanity.

We took a roadtrip to a charming town on the shores of Lake Michigan this weekend, and we stopped at my favorite market aptly titled, "The Summertime Market." I always look forward to pulling into the small gravel lot to see what fresh, local goodness awaits.

The entire market is housed in an indoor/outdoor space no larger than a single-car garage, but everything is displayed so well in authentic wire baskets, with used wooden crates, chalkboard signs - every detail carefully attended. It's a little aged, and a little broken, in all the best places.

We purchased an amazing red raspberry pie that left me feeling like I should capitalize its name. Definitely memorable.

Here's the market through my eyes and the filters of Instagram.

 

How would you finish this equation? Summer equals ____________. I'd love to hear!! Maybe I can add it to my grown-up goodness this summer.

Thanks for the visit! So happy to have you here.

XOXO, MJ

P.S. If you want to experience this loveliness for yourself, visit the oh, so wonderful website.

P.P.S. Check out Stephanie's great trip to her farmer's market (and that pizza!!).

Have you seen these floating around the interwebs, friends? Great big, beautiful lists of simple, fun, wonderful summer activities that make you wish you were seven again.

Well, maybe this summer we will be. My fam has joined in the fun, too. In the past, we've made our lists over dinner conversations as the school year waned to a close. This year we again had such conversations and now we're writing them down and posting them pretty for all to see.

My job commitments grow more extensive in the summer so I have to be sure to keep these kinds of lists front and center so that I and the rest of the happy inhabitants in our home can have a carefree summer.

So cheers (imagine me and you holding up our virtual Slurpees right now, only I really am holding my medium watermelon kiwi right now) to a great 10 weeks. Here are some easy, breezy summer lists you should check out:

100 Things to Do this Summer and
100 More Things to Do This Summer from Honest to Nod

101 Things to Do this Summer from Toy to the World

10 Things Every Child Should Experience in the Summer from 52 Brand New

40 Free (or nearly free) Things to Do this Summer from The Centsible Life

Let's Play from Lasso the Moon

30 Summer Activities for Kids from Lil' Luna

Join Camp Classic Play over at classic-play.com

441 Things to Do This Summer from We are that Family

(This one keeps growing) The 100 Days of Summer and The 100 Days of Summer ('12) from Mom Advice

And you just have to read this inspired post over at Hands Free Mama.

Here's our list. Please feel welcome to pin or download and make it your own great summer list.

 I have my own summer list that I'll share with you next week as we move into the Summer Edition of Pars Caeli.

Ah, we're summer lovin'.

Have a great weekend, friends. We'll be kicking it at home, knocking off some of these moments like hanging out by the pool and tie dying summer shirts.

See you back here on Monday! Thanks for a great week...it's so lovely to have you over.

XOXO, MJ

PS. If you enjoy a good photo party, follow me and many others by using the hashtag #instacamp (Chookooloonks offers a new prompt each Monday) and #100summerdays (run through MomAdvice.com). It's super fun to see all the great summertimes captured on Instagram and shared through Twitter.

PPS. I made the above image (with the Slurpee) in Phonto. It's a quirky photo app with tons of great fonts that you can add to your images. Check it out.

Okay, I'm done now. :)