Written by contributor Josh Solar of The Happy Family Movement

We talk a lot about adventurin’ in our house. Big, grand adventures— like our 5-month trek to Europe happening in late 2014/early 2015. But, sometimes, we get so caught up in trying to adventure HUGE that we miss out on the tiny adventures found wherever/whenever we choose to create one. It’s no secret raising a happy, loving family takes a lot of work.

One of the keys we’ve found is to make sure we’re happy, as a couple. If we’re not happy, we can’t possibly put in the intentional effort it takes to keep the kids happy. So we make it a point to adventure together, without the kids every now and then.

A story. Last September, Jenny + I found ourselves in Southern California without the kids for a few days. I was in town for a conference, and was in charge of picking up some of the equipment. 3 stops, all over from Anaheim, to downtown LA, to Santa Monica, meetups spread out over a whole day. Jenny was a bit bummed at first, it was the only free day we had to spend together, the last thing she wanted to do was spend it running all over town. So, we decided to make it an adventure. In one day we…

• Ran through the J. Paul Getty Museum in under an hour (it costs $15 to park (!) but the first hour is free…and we’re super cheap!). I should also mention the building I really wanted to see was the Walt Disney Concert Hall, but alas, I got the 2 mixed up. We had a blast anyway…it’s a beautiful building!
• We parked on the PCH in Santa Monica and raced through the warm sand to splash each other in the waves (it’s no secret the ocean is one of my happy places)…
• I’d always wanted to carve our name in a tree, so I found one right by the true start (or end, depending on your perspective) of Route 66 and crossed that item off the bucket list. The Route 66 connection was key for this, because a few years ago, we drove the entire Route 66 with our kiddos…
• We laid in the grass for a bit, staring up into the blue sky, dreaming of what life holds for us…
• We ate at the best pizza joint ever. I had the BBQ chicken with pineapple

Here’s where the lesson comes in. We could’ve chosen to be grumpy about the circumstances. Running all over LA, fighting traffic for a day, or we could choose to make the most of it. We were intentionally looking for adventure.

When you make your decisions intentional, magic happens. We shifted our perspective and had one of the best days in recent memory. It’s important to have days like we shared in California, days to refresh, relax, recharge a bit, so you can give your kids the love/attention they deserve.

Check out our Intentional Parenting course if you’re interested in learning more about being intentional about raising a happy, loving family.

Growing up, I never lived close enough to school to walk or even ride our bikes. I feel like I missed out on a part of childhood because of that. Maybe Hollywood has glamorized bike riding childhoods (Sandlot and Now and Then) but I have fallen for it and want my kids to experience the adventure too. So this last week, our 4-year old started preschool and we rode the 1.1 miles there on our bikes. It was everything I had hoped it would be— family bonding, adventure (we saw a snake!), saved some gas, and got some exercise.

If you live within a few miles of your school, why not try leaving your car at home and jumping on your bikes. If you don’t have bikes, check Craigslist or the Salvation Army for some (we just got both kids practically new bikes for $4.99 each!).

5 Reasons you should be biking to school

1. It’s fun! Riding bikes is an instant endorphin booster. It’s freeing to feel the wind on your face and smell the fresh-cut grass as you pedal past homes. It makes you thankful that your legs are strong enough to ride a bike — because some days we forget that others can’t. Yesterday, our 3-year old (who rides in the bike trailer) yelled at me to stop because she could see a deer.  So we stopped for a few minutes as a deer drank from the pond and cars blazed past us. Time stopped for us and it was awesome.

2. It’s good for the environment. Trading your gas-guzzling vehicle for your own little legs is a simple way to help the environment. Start with once a week. Pick a day and make it bike riding day and explain to your kids why you are choosing to do this. If we want our kids to change the world one day, we have to plant the seeds.

3. It’s exercise. 1 in 3 American children are overweight.  Screen-time has replaced playing outdoors and we need to get these kids moving! By bike riding to school, the whole family gets exercise (except the little ones who can’t ride that far yet).

 4. It helps the community. The less cars that are on the road and backing up the drop off/pick up line at school helps everyone. Not to mention the inspiration that it brings to other families— we have 2 other families in our community who ride their bikes now because they saw us doing it. Not to mention how we have gotten to know so many neighbors and parents at Jackson’s preschool all based on the conversation of us being the “bike riding family.”

5. It saves money. Every time you opt out of driving your car, you save money. It’s estimated that is costs between 20-30 cents per mile to operate a car, so for us we save $3 a week biking just to preschool (which is almost equivalent to a coffee date at Starbucks). If we rode bikes to school for an entire year, we would save $160, just to get you thinking. I know it’s not a ton of money, but it is something!

The photos placed throughout this article were from Jackson’s first day of preschool. I wanted you to see how it can be done and how much fun it was (seriously!). This was Jackson’s first time being in any sort of preschool, so it was a pretty big day for our family. Yet it was a great day— and a big part of it had to do with the ride there and back.

Did you bike to school?

How did you get to school when you were kid? Did you walk, bike or drive? Comment below.

Jadah shared her summer bucket list last week and it really inspired me. I have been “thinking about” a bucket list since I fell in love with The Happy Family Movement. ”Making” one has been a whole different story.

This week, I finally sat down with my family and brainstormed what we would love to do this summer. I wrote the ideas on giant popsicle sticks and threw them in a mason jar. It sits on our kitchen counter and is a constant reminder of the adventures awaiting us this summer.

Here are my summer bucket list ideas

1. Make paper mache hot air balloons
2. Stay in our pajamas all day
3. Look for alligators (at a state park)
4. Organize a softball game with friends
5. Launch a baking soda rocket
6. Play dress up with the kids (and go somewhere in the outfits)
7. Bake pretty cupcakes (mine are normally pretty ugly)
8. Have a lemonade stand and donate proceeds to a charity
9. Geocache bananza
10. Have a tie dye party
11. Make homemade ice cream and have a toppings party
12. Ride a rollercoaster
13. Go to a Tampa Bay Rays baseball game
14. Build an awesome sandcastle
15. Cook a hotdog with a magnifying glass
16. Slip n Slide
17. Camp in our living room (tent, sleeping bags and the works)
18. See a movie at a drive-in
19. Pick blackberries
20. Go bowling
21. Make a movie starring our family
22. Build a massive fort
23. Play in the rain
24. Go down a water slide
25. Decorate our street with sidewalk chalk

You can join The Happy Family Movement’s Summer Bucket List Challenge here.

Have any Summer Bucket List ideas? Share them below!

Summer is here! I am inspired by The Happy Family Movement to create and display our summer bucket list in our home. This way our summer fun ideas are staring us right in the face all summer long. My list was a lot longer, but I decided to trim it down to make sure we have to time to slow down, be still and just unplug from being busy.

I used a dry erase marker and wrote on our stand alone repurposed mirror in our living room. My daughter loves looking at it and adding her own ideas: Disneyland, Beach, Zoo, Surprise Party, Camping.

30 Summer Bucket List Ideas

1. Get ice cream
2. Fly a kite
3. Geocache
4. Water balloon fun
5. Attend a local library event
6. Breakfast for dinner
7. Picnic dinner at the park
8. Family bike ride
9. Morning snuggles and story time
10. Night walk with flashlights and star gazing
11. Build a sand castle at the beach
12. Beach bonfire and s’mores
13. Build a fort for Family Movie Night
14. Go to an outdoor concert in the park
15. Make a cake from scratch and celebrate an un-birthday
16. Have a pajama dance party before bed
17. Go on a hike and picnic
18. Attend a local library event
19. Hunt for bugs on a nature walk
20. Road trip to a new town
21. Wash the cars
22. Visit a local CSA farm
23. Have a living room sleepover
24. Make playdough
25. Blow bubbles on the Golden Gate Bridge
26. Outdoor messy art play (sidewalk chalk, shaving cream, finger paint)
27. Host a tea party
28. Visit local Farmer’s Market
29. Visit a new playground
30. Paint a cardboard box

You can join The Happy Family Movement’s Summer Bucket List Challenge here.

For other bucket list ideas, check out Jen’s fun list here.

What’s on your Summer Bucket List? Share your ideas in the comments.

Three months after The Hays family captured my attention with a look inside their bike-riding life, we have become a bike-riding family. Immediately after reading the article Wendie wrote, I wanted to buy a bike and trailer for the kids and hit the road. Well, it would have costed us $1400 to get the bike and trailer that I wanted, so we decided to wait and try Craigslist.

After three months of searching, I finally scored on a bike and a trailer (separate listing about a month apart). Saved $950 and have a really sweet ride. Well, actually Ryan and the kids have a really sweet ride (Electra Townie and a Burley bike trailer= smooth sailing).

My bike is called Brooksville— Jackson (our 4-year old) found her by a dumpster when we lived in small town called Brooksville. She is definitely a classic.

On Mother’s Day we took our maiden voyage to the park where we played for an hour and a half.

Then we rode over to Starbucks to refuel and have a coffee date, my favorite kind of date really.

Then we decided to grab a $5 pizza for lunch at Hungry Howies and call it the perfect day. Yes, we are eating lunch in the greasy, dirty parking lot— embrace the adventure people! All in all, we rode about 12 miles that morning and had a great time.

What I learned from the first bike ride with our kids:
That bike riding with kids is actually a lot of fun.
That cars are jerks.
That change starts with us.
That pizza tastes so good after you pedal a couple miles to get it.
Ryan and I made a pact afterwards to use our bikes when running errands within 3 miles of our home. So now we go grocery shopping, to the pool, to the mall, to the bank, and even Sam’s Club on our bikes. Even in the 95 degree Florida humidity+heat, it’s not too bad! You catch a breeze while riding and it really cools us down. It’s been over a month now of being a bike riding family and my only regret is that we didn’t do it sooner.

Seriously.

Summer time and slip n slides go so well together. We found this one at a garage sale a few months back and I snagged it up, knowing that it would come in handy once the weather warmed up. The kids had some friends join us for an afternoon of fun. They all had such a great time cooling off and showing off.

I am also interested in making my own giant sensory bag, which would help the kids stay cool and entertained for hours on those very hot days. My 2-year old would love this water play accessories board and I know my 4-year old would have died and gone to heaven with a backyard water park or a water wall. For more summer fun ideas that I have gathered, check out my Pinterest SummerFun board here.

I would love to here if slip and slides were a part of your summers too. Share your favorite summer childhood memories in the comments below!

Summer. Swimming, exploring, star gazing, watermelon, sunscreen, barefoot, bicycles, lemonade stands, rolly pollies, popsicles, tree climbing, bbqs. This is summer to me. This is how I spent June, July and August as a kid; and look forward to reliving it through my own kids.

Joy over at Joy Beyond Fifty snapped some shots of her son and his friends at Hanalei Bay. These pics just brought me right back to my childhood and make me look forward to summer fun.

Join the conversation!

How about you? Do you have great memories of your summers when you were little? Maybe we can start a list of summer fun ideas to inspire us all.

Written by contributor Marieke Beeler of M for Mommy.

With Earth Day on April 22 and spring weather arriving in many parts of the world; it’s time to get outside.  And what better way to be outside than to have a picnic?  A local park, the zoo, local gardens, or simply your back yard are great spots.

Kai’s friend Taylor was coming over for a play date.  Ahah!  The perfect opportunity to have a picnic!  In my romantic mind I had it all figured out: we would have our picnic on blankets in the back yard.  Taylor’s mom and I would have a chance to kick back and relax, soak up some sun while catching up.  Perfect, right?

Not.

That was the sky.  The picnic wasn’t gonna happen outside.  Not willing to give up quite yet, I decided it would be an indoor picnic.  After all, the food would taste the same.

Picnics don’t need to be fancy.  As a matter of fact, they should be simple, yet scrumptious.  And often we get stuck in our peanut butter & jelly sandwich-routine.  In my mind, the classic picnic consists of some sort of sandwich or wrap, fruit, a drink and something to satisfy the my sweet tooth.

Now, when I think of spring sandwiches, I always remember the sandwiches my mom used to make around Easter (but really, all through spring).  They always had alfalfa sprouts on them; the taste of these sprouts is fresh, clean and crisp and is (for me) one of the symbols of spring.

For this picnic, I came up with two sandwiches.  One more geared towards adults and one more geared for the children’s taste buds.  Unfortunately, the cheese that my mom used to use does not exist here in the US, but I found a replacement that will surprise you AND that works great.

Picnic Menu:

• Adult sandwiches: Cheese, sour cream spread, radishes and alfalfa sprouts
• Children sandwiches: Cheese, sour cream spread and cucumber
• Fresh fruit
• Apple muffins
• Raspberry spinach smoothie

Sour Cream Spread

For both these sandwiches you will need the Sour Cream Spread.  It’s easy to put together, can even be done the evening before.

Ingredients
3 tbsp. sour cream
3 tbsp. crème fraîche
2 tsp. chopped alfalfa sprouts
pinch of salt
dash of freshly ground pepper

Directions:
Mix all the ingredients together in a small bowl, cover and refrigerate until ready to use.

Cheese, Sour Cream Spread, Radishes and Alfalfa Sprouts Sandwich

I call this one the “adult” version of the sandwiches, simply because the majority of child-taste-buds doesn’t groove too much on radishes.

Ingredients
4 slices good whole wheat bread
unsalted Butter (or other butter spread)
2 triangles Laughing Cow (Original) Cheese
sour Cream Spread (Recipe Follows)
4 radishes, thinly sliced.

Directions:
Thinly spread a thin layer of butter on each slice of bread.  Cover 2 slices of the bread with the cheese and top with the radish slices and a handful of alfalfa sprouts.  Spread some of the Sour Cream spread out over the other 2 slices of bread and put these on top of the cheese, radish & sprout containing half.  Cut diagonally. Serves: 2

Cheese, Sour Cream Spread & Cucumber Sandwich

This is the “child” version of the same sandwich.  Instead of the radishes and alfalfa sprouts, top the cheese with cucumber slices before closing the sandwich up. Serves: 2

Apple Muffins

Recipe originally by Ellie Krieger

These muffins are delicious!!  They are moist, rich and not too sweet.

Ingredients
cooking spray
3/4 cup plus 2 tbsp. packed brown sugar
1/4 cup chopped pecans
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup whole-wheat pastry flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 cup canola oil
2 large eggs
1 cup natural applesauce
1 tsp. vanilla extract
3/4 cup lowfat buttermilk
1 golden delicious apple, peeled, cored and cut into 1/4-inch pieces

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.  Coat a 12-capacity muffin pan with cooking spray. In a small bowl, mix together 2 tbsp. of the brown sugar, the pecans and cinnamon.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the all-purpose and whole-wheat flour, baking soda and salt. In a large bowl, whisk together the remaining 3/4 cup sugar and oil until combined.  Add the eggs, 1 at a time, whisking well after each addition.  Whisk in the applesauce and vanilla.

Whisk in the flour mixture in 2 batches, alternating with the buttermilk.  Whisk just until combined.  Gently stir in the apple chunks. Pour the batter into the prepared muffin pan and sprinkle with the pecan mixture.  Tap the pan on the counter a few times to remove any air bubbles.  Bake for 20 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in the center of 1 of the muffins comes out clean.

Let cool on a wire rack for 15 minutes.  Run a knife around the muffins to loosen them and unmold.  Cool completely on the rack. Makes 12 muffins.

For the Rasperry Spinach Smoothie recipe, head on over to my blog at Marieke Beeler, aka HRH Mommy

Join the discussion!

What’s your favorite place to have a picnic?  We would love to hear and hopefully your ideas will inspire someone else this spring.

Are you ready to take your family on a geocaching adventure? With spring around the corner, now is the perfect time to explore the outdoors and hunt for some treasure. Geocaching with kids is awesome! We have been geocaching since 2006 and absolutely love it. It’s practically free, gets you outdoors and makes you feel like a real pirate. Before kids, Ryan and I would spend the weekends geocaching and exploring parts of town we didn’t even know existed. Now, with two little kids, geocaching has become a monthly adventure.

What is geocaching?

Geocaching is a modern day treasure hunt using handheld GPS units (and even your iPhone!). The treasures are containers of all sizes that may be camouflaged to blend into their surroundings. Some are in locations you pass every day, others take you off the beaten path into a whole new world. Inside the cache, there will be a at least a logbook to sign. The larger caches (usually Army ammo boxes) are filled with inexpensive trinkets for trade (like bouncy balls, stickers, Happy Meal toys, etc).

It is insane how many caches are hidden around the world— currently 1,676,355 to be exact! Every town I have lived in and visited have multiple caches— it will blow your mind. For example, right now I live in Wesley Chapel, FL (a town that really didn’t exist 10 years ago.) Within 3 miles of my house, there are 31 caches. So, yes you can do this anywhere!

What do I need to start geocaching?

If you have an iPhone, just buy the Geocaching app for $9.99— it will make geocaching a breeze. It’s all I use now! If you don’t have an iPhone, this is what you need:

1. A handheld GPS or an Android (they have apps for this as well).

2. Go to Geocaching.com and create an account. You can use the free account, or if you want more bells and whistle, buy the premium membership for $30 a year. From here, you can locate all the caches around you and begin the treasure hunt.

3. A backpack or treasure box to store your supplies. We found an old cassette tape holder at a thrift store and use it for geocaching. Inside, we keep our hand-held GPS (which the kids use now that I have the iPhone app), a pen, and some toys to exchange when we find the cache.

*The rule of geocaching is that if you take something from the cache, you must replace it with something of equal or greater value.

Some caches are really easy to find while others may require a long hike, so make sure to check the difficulty and terrain ratings on Geocaching.com before you go.

* FYI: A “1 star” difficulty and terrain rating are the easiest and best for your first time. Cache sizes are also given online, so if your children like exchanging treasures, make sure the cache us large enough (regular or larger size— stay away from the micro caches).

The geocache adventure!

Decide which geocache you want to find, then head towards that location in your car or on a bike. Usually there will be parking instructions as part of the cache information. From here, let your GPS guide you to the exact location of the cache. Could be anywhere from 10 feet away to a couple miles away. So pack accordingly— we usually bring some water bottles and snacks for the kids. Once you are within 20 feet, begin to look around (up, down, underground… everywhere!).

This is when it gets exciting— everyone wants to find it first. We have found caches hidden in old rotten logs, tied in trees, camouflaged under bushes and magnetized to benches and newspaper stands. You really never know what to expect when you are geocaching! (Last time we had to build a bridge to cross a creek!)

Once you find it:
Celebrate and make sure every one can see where it was hiding. Kids eat this up and remember it for the next outing. Next, open up the cache and examine its contents. If there are trinkets, feel free to exchange one for one of your own. Then sign the log book. It’s an incredible feeling to read the log book and see how many other people have been off the beaten path just like you.

If you are using your iPhone app, you can “log your visit” right on the phone. If not, go home and make sure to log your visit on the computer, letting others know you found it. If you couldn’t find it, you can alway say that and even contact the original hider for a clue. Sometimes the caches are vandalized or natural disasters wash them away.

Why I love geocaching

It’s funny, but I couldn’t image life without geocaching. It’s our go-to thing when we get stir crazy. Last summer, we drove across country with the kids and geocached along the way. It’s practically free — once you buy the app and GPS/smartphone, you are good to go for life.

My favorite thing about geocaching is that it reminds us all that there is more to life than what you can see and that adventure is everywhere.

I hope that you will be inspired to try geocaching. It really is a lot of fun and can be done practically anywhere. If nature is not your thing, stick to geocaching in city parks or around town (there are tons by stores and malls!). I love when there are ones at Starbucks because I can grab a drink and the kids can find a cache.

Speak your mind!

Do you geocache? Share some of your adventures or tips with other families! If this is your first time, feel free to post questions!