There is something about this time of year that makes me want to slow everything down and recreate the summers I grew up having. The ones where you were outside all day, dripping popsicles on your shirt, running through sprinklers, and nobody was staring at a phone. I’ve been thinking a lot about what it would look like to give my boys that kind of summer, and I’ve landed on a handful of things we are doing or plan to do. 

1. Highlights Magazine for Rafe (and Harper’s Bazaar for me)

Who remembers Highlights Kids magazines? My mom subscribed us to those when I was little and I loved getting them. There is something so special about a kid getting excited to anticipate mail that is just for them. So, a few weeks ago I subscribed Rafe to get Highlights magazines. It was $48 for a year, and every month he will get a 48-page magazine with coloring pages, stories, craft ideas, and simple recipes you can try with your kid. Rafe loves books so much, so I know this is going to be a hit. It takes 4-6 weeks for the first one to arrive, but I’m already so excited for him.

And for myself, growing up I was obsessed with magazines. First it was Seventeen, then Teen People, CosmoGirl, and YM. Then in high school it was People, Cosmopolitan, Glamour, and Marie Claire. When it came to fashion specifically, the two I remember most were Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar. I could sit and flip through those forever. So I subscribed myself to Harper’s Bazaar!! I’m envisioning sitting on the back patio flipping through it while the boys play, or clocking out at the pool for a few minutes while my husband takes over.

In motherhood I’ve gone through seasons where my default setting is frumpy house troll mode, and I don’t want that to be my default. I’m hoping that getting back into a fashion magazine will help me reignite that desire for style again. 

2. The 1,000 Hours Outside Challenge

Our default setting is already outside. After breakfast, before lunch, after nap time. We are doing the 1,000 Hours Outside Challenge, and it has dramatically increased how much time we spend outdoors. Before this challenge, I didn’t realize how much time we spent inside. We will absolutely hit 1,000 hours before the year is up. If you’re interested in doing this with your kids, they have free printouts at 1000hoursoutside.com.

3. A Polaroid Camera for Rafe

This started as just wanting to get a disposable camera, until I looked up the price and was shocked. In the 90s they cost about $3-5 each. Now they run $15-25, and once you factor in developing the film, you’re looking at $30-40 or more for the whole experience. So I expanded the idea to a kids’ Polaroid camera with instant film. The one I ordered was $38 on Amazon, and it comes with film included, and restocking is cheap. My friend Carly Douglas posted on her stories a while back about getting her son a disposable camera and how he adds the pictures to his own little album. I’ve been meaning to do this for Rafe ever since – I cannot wait to see what he decides to photograph.

4. More Walks

We already walk 6-7 days a week, but I want to add a short evening walk as a family some nights. Just a quick 15-minute loop around our street and the one parallel to ours. On these walks, Rafe can walk beside us instead of being in the stroller, which makes it feel like something special for just him.

5. The Library

We have had library cards for two years. We live in a walkable community with sidewalks that lead us straight to the library, and we were really great about going there the first summer we moved here. Then I got into the ACOTAR series, the library didn’t have the newer books, and we fell off. Then, before our Cabo trip, I bought a whole stack of books on Amazon and spent about $80 on books I’ll likely never read again. Walking into a library takes me straight back to the 90s. Something about the smell. It also just feels like a small, wholesome way to support our community.

6. Sprinklers and Popsicles in the Backyard

This one sounds simple, but here’s how I’m envisioning it: me outside with the kids, reading my magazine or a book, Rafe running around with his Polaroid camera, Vance in the sprinklers, and then everyone at the little picnic table with popsicles. Not a smartphone in sight. That’s the part that takes it back to the 90s for me. I already take Sundays and Thursday morning through Friday morning off social media, so I see this becoming a regular thing on those days especially.

7. Picnics (the Fenced-In Backyard Kind)

When I say picnic, I do not mean a blanket in a park with a wicker basket. With my kids’ ages, that sounds like a lot. I need a fence and room for them to roam. So, really I just mean more meals outside in the backyard. It makes me think of being in Ranburne, Alabama at my MawMaw and PawPaw’s house, swimming all day with my cousins and then sitting outside under their shaded tree eating watermelon. My mom is the youngest of eight kids, and all of them had multiple kids, so there were always a million cousins there. All of my summers from when I was born until I was nine (when we moved to Georgia) looked exactly like that.

8. Going to the Creek

This is another flashback to Ranburne. My MawMaw and PawPaw owned a ton of land. On it was a big creek my cousins and I would swim in, and My PawPaw would take all of us grandkids down there by himself like it was nothing. Where Erik and I live now, we have the Cahaba River running through our town, with parts that are slow-moving and shallow, and it is less than a quarter mile from our front door. Erik took Rafe to wade in it a few times last summer, and this year I want us to do it with both kids.

It will always feel like a lot of work to do things like this with little kids. Most of my favorite childhood memories exist because my parents and grandparents did it anyway. There will be meltdowns. There will be days where you think, “Well, that was a disaster.” Don’t let that stop you – it will always feel inconvenient. When we look back on being in the thick of parenting, it will be the moments where we made memories with them that come to mind. So this summer I am going to embrace the inconvenience.

9. Community Pool Membership

This is our first summer getting the city pool membership and I am already kicking myself for not doing it sooner. Rafe is in absolute heaven there. He cannot control his excitement to the point where I have to tell him to calm down and stop screaming multiple times. We’ve gone three days in a row at the time I’m writing this, and will probably make it six days in a row if the weather holds up. It is a lot of work managing both boys around water by myself since Rafe can’t swim independently yet and Vance hates his puddle jumper and life vest. I end up holding him the entire time he’s in the water and chasing him when he’s not. It’s worth it though, and I know it will get easier. Going to the pool every day was just what we did growing up, and I hope when my boys are older they say the same thing about their summers.

That’s all for today – feel free to hijack this list of ideas and message me on Instagram if you have some good ideas of your own. I feel like we are all living the same lives in some way or another. Even if you don’t have little kids like me, I still see the trend towards missing the 90’s everywhere I look.

Until next time, keep adding another penny in the jar.