I shouldn’t be surprised at the simple things, the easy things, the everyday things, that make their way onto the summer bucket list when it’s created by the kids. They don’t need full-on weekend trips with adventure to-do lists and hikes up mountains, they want afternoons at the playgrounds, water fights with their parents, endless water balloons, backyard pool parties and pool floats in the river. This year, we took a cue from the kids, and chose simple things for our summer to do list – here’s what we’ve finished so far!Â
Drip Drip Drop | This one’s easy, but the kids were obsessed with learning this game and playing it. It’s kind of like duck duck goose, but the person walking around the circle chooses a color but doesn’t announce it. The people sitting in the circle try to guess the color that the person choose, if they are wrong they get a tiny drip of the water, and if they guess it right, they get the full cup dumped on their head. It’s easy, simple and a favourite for a hot day.
Oreo Challenge | The kids have been wanting to do an Oreo challenge for ages, so we added it to our summer bucket list. It’s easy to find ten different kinds of Oreos, right? No, it’s not as easy it sounds. It took ten stores, and one of those stores was a specialty local candy kind of treat store that sells things you can get in the US – so, we’re well stocked on those ridiculous Oreo flavours, like Jelly Doughnuts.
Tube at Discovery Canyon | We crossed this one off of the list, on opening day. I’m glad we did because the crowds on the weekends look like they’ve been atrocious and we spent the day with barely any crowds at the popular summer hot spot.
Spend the day at the River | We spent a day at Constable Chelsey Robinson Park, wading in the river. It’s a fantastic place to cool off, float in the river and make castles with the mud and stones.
Tubing at Pembina | It was a long afternoon spent tubing on the river, and though the kids kind of had a good time they ranked it as a six out of ten on the summer fun scale – the water was slow, so I think it may have been a bit too long for them.
Spend the day at K-Days | We spent an evening and an afternoon the next day riding rides, eating fair food and drinking watermelon juice out of a watermelon, and we were tired as an understatement, that night. I went to sleep at eight, and got twelve hours of uninterrupted sleep.
Explore 10 New Playgrounds | We nailed this one and discovered a few new favourite playgrounds in the city. Find playground inspiration (we did!) by following Raising Edmonton on Youtube, where there are videos of the different cool playgrounds around the city, with new ones being added all the time.
Scoops of Raw, Edible cookie Dough
Whether you want the real things from one of the local food trucks (Yumm, or Cookie Dough from Family Freeze’d) or even a version made from Chickpeas that we’ve yet to try, there are plenty of ways to get delicious scoops of cookie dough into your belly.Â
Binge Watched all Harry Potter Movies
We’ve done this one more than once, as it’s our movie night, movie of choice through the summer months. We’ve spent many an evening watching the movies and getting to know our favourite characters even better.Â
Ohana Doughnuts
Ohana means family and family means no one gets left behind – ha! Remember Lilo and stitch? Ohana also means delicious doughnuts from a local food truck in town that’s camped out at 104th St and 80th Ave right now. Find that, and many more food truck locations in Edmonton using the street food app.Â
Glow sticks in the fountain, after bedtime
Grab your glow sticks and head to the fountains at the Legislature, well, above it – pictured above. Let the kids stay up late and head down there when the fountains are lit up with your favourite colors, and have a fun dance party. Bring snacks, bring friends, bring glow sticks – it’s an easy (and relatively cheap) way that we made memories this year.Â
Kayak to the Island on Lac Des Arcs
This year has been light on the adventure, in favour of day trips and days spent at the beach. We’ve got a busy schedule this summer, so we’re just trying to fit it all in – and on the last weekend we finally got to load the kayaks into Lac Des Arcs and head over to the tiny island with the picnic table!Â
Cotton Candy Milkshakes
REGRUB is open now in Edmonton and we took an evening to check it out, get those cotton candy milkshakes (tip: get it to go if you don’t finish it all in the restaurant) and run off the energy at Mill Creek Ravine on the way home for an evening adventure.Â
What are some of the things that you’ve crossed off of your summer bucket list in Edmonton this year?