How to Turn a Bummer Summer into an Epic Time to Remember

We turned our Bummer Summer into an Epic time to remember by pulling inspiration from our summer reading.  Our favorite book series “Judy Moody” inspired us to Think Outside the Box and participate in crazy activities that were outside of our comfort zone.  We kept track of our fun using a “Judy Moody” story inspired Thrill Chart (summer bucket list) and finished the summer with big celebratory Big Foot Party complete with Big Foot Food and Big Foot party games for kids.

 

How to have a Not Bummer Summer

I recently threw my daughters an End of Summer Big Foot festival in honor of their favorite summer book and movie, “Judy Moody and the Not Bummer Summer.”

Related:  How to Increase your Child’s Reading Stamina in 5 Tear-free Steps

 

We decided this was going to be our Not Bummer Summer!

 

We weren’t going to let a little World Wide Pandemic get us down!

 

No Sir!

 

We were determined to still have fun—safely and socially distant.

 

To kick-off summer, we watched our favorite summer movie “Judy Moody and the Not Bummer Summer.”  It’s adorable no matter when you watch it but it was especially fitting this year since we’re in the middle of a pandemic and all of our normal plans were cancelled.

 

(In summary, when Judy Moody’s summer plans suddenly change, she is determined to make sure it’s a “Not Bummer Summer.”  Kinda like most of us this year.)

 

No summer camp, no vacation, no visiting Grandma and our cousins.  No water parks, No theme parks.

Nothing.

 

Wow, it was really starting to look like we were going to have a Bummer Summer.

 

So, armed with our Judy Moody book, we set off to SAVE SUMMER.

 

We began by making a thrill chart to map out all of our ideas-just like Judy Moody does.

 

So, just like in the Judy Moody story, we put together a Thrill Chart.

 

How to make an easy Summer Thrill Chart

 

Just like Judy Moody—grab a piece of Poster board.

Section off 5 columns:

• Thrills
• Thrill Points
• Bonus Points
• Loser Points
• and Big Fat Total

I wasn’t sure how this would go.

We didn’t have too much planned…Ya know…Quarantine Summer.

So anytime we did something fun, we added it to the chart and tallied up points.

KEEP SCROLLING to see more ideas for your Thrill Chart!

Easy, Budget-friendly, Family fun Summer Activities to add to the Thrill Chart

Due to the pandemic, we decided to keep our activities pretty low-key this summer.

RELATED: Over 20 Ways to Beat the Boredom During #StayatHome Summer

Some of our favorite activities ended up being:

1. Floating down the creek
2. Swimming in the creek watering hole
3. Setting up a “water park” in the backyard-which was really just a sprinkler and cheep plastic kiddie pools from Walmart. (If you have a sloping yard, you can add a classic Slip and Slide)
4.  Making outdoor art with branches and yarn.
5. Climbing Trees
6. Going on bike rides to our downtown shopping area and grabbing ice cream.
7. Going on long walks and big hikes
8. Playing Croquet
9. Playing with Oobleck and experimenting with different colors. Check out our video for our important food coloring tip.
10. Doing some local day trips to state parks.

 

How the Thrill Chart Helps Capture Summer Memories

As our summer wore on, we started noticing some funny recurring themes—like the fact that my younger daughter kept losing her shoes every time we went to the creek!

So not only did the Thrill Chart keep things exciting, but it also helped us capture some fun memories.

By the end of the summer, we were able to look back and realize it wasn’t too bad after all.

It did turn out to be pretty Thrilladelic.

 

BUT THAT’S NOT ALL

In addition to creating a Thrill Chart, we also had a super fun Big Foot Party to close out our special Not Bummer Summer.

 

You may be asking—“Why Big  Foot?”

Well, in addition to the accomplishing thrills, Judy Moody also spends her summer tracking the elusive Big Foot!

So in honor of Judy Moody’s famous Big Foot escapades and end of story chase, we planned out a super fun Big Foot Festival to close out the summer.

 

This also served as a reward to my younger daughter for finishing the book.

How to plan a Big Foot Party for Kids

I’m not going to lie—this ended up being a lot of work!

My biggest advice to you, moms, is to Ask for Help.

Look over this list of activities and see what you can prepare ahead of time or have others help you with.

But having said that—it was super fun and my girls had a great time. It warmed my heart to see them smiling and laughing with friends (from our Quarantine Pod) again at the end of what could’ve been a really “Bummer Summer.”

 

Run Down of Big Foot Party Activities/Food

• Big Foot Inspired Vanilla Brownie Marble Cake
• Big Foot Races
• Tangerine Fondue
• Big Foot Edible Chocolate Slime

You can click on each link and it will take you to a separate post.

 

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Hope you had a Not Bummer Summer Too!

 

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