3 DIY PROJECTS TO KEEP KIDS HAPPY ALL SUMMER LONG

It's June and we're on the cusp of summer. The warm days and extra hours of sunshine mean summer days drift slowly and easily into summer nights on the patio or in the backyard. The kids are staying up later and us parents are settling into keeping everyone happy a little longer each day. One of the things I love most is creating places or opportunities for the kids to spend hours happily playing without needing constant attention. These three DIY summer projects for kids are sure to do just that.

We've done over these DIYs over the past few years and they have bought us hours and hours of endless fun and memories. The kids are already asking to do another lemonade / street stand this year!

If you're thinking of doing any of these projects in time for the holidays, NOW is the perfect time to start!

PLAYHOUSE DIY

A couple of summers ago, we took a standard playhouse and gave it a little all over update. Nothing prepared me for how popular this little playhouse would become, both online and at home in our backyard! It has been the centre of our playdates for the past couple of years and more cookies, milkshakes and ice cream scoops have been served up in the playhouse than in our real kitchen!

I detailed the entire playhouse project when we first completed it and I can't recommend this project enough. It's been SO worth the many cans of paint and hours it took as I know our children will have memories of this little house long after it's gone.

IKEA HACK LEMONADE STAND

Last summer our kids decided that they HAD to have a lemonade stand before the end of summer. On the last weekend of the holidays, we built this little lemonade stand using two IKEA Latt tables, a few extra pieces of wood and we made the lemonade sign using card stock and stickers. This one was a big win for quick and easy and turned into a full afternoon impromptu neighbourhood party. It was pure fun and the kids have ideas of a flower sale or veggie sale from our garden this summer. Wish me luck ;)

KIDS ART SPACE

Wanting a way to whittle away the hours when the sun is too hot or a baby is napping? Creating a kids art space is the perfect thing! While the room may not stay as tidy and styled as it looks here, the fun and creativity that stems from having a place solely dedicated to art is worth every drop of paint and sticky mess you'll be cleaning up. Free-for-all paint may not work for every parent and every family home but I love the adventure it brings when kids get to decide exactly what they want to make with the supplies provided. 

These are my favourite three home projects we've done so far that will create lasting childhood memories while keeping the kids entertained for endless hours. What other ways do you keep your kids busy in creative and imaginative ways over the summer? I'd love to hear in the comments below!

Happy Friday everyone!

SEE THE FULL PROJECT POSTS...

PLAYHOUSE

KIDS ART STUDIO

LEMONADE STAND

GET THE LOOK (BACKYARD CAMPING)

Earlier in the week, I shared a little backyard day 'camping' that we did with the kids and I they loved it. If you are looking for summer ideas to keep the kids entertained and playing all day right from home, I've rounded up some fun finds for backyard camping and a few of these items would be great to take along on a real camping trip too.

Happy Friday friends!

01. // Felt campfire set; 02. // Play tent; 03. // Simple hammock; 04. // Child-size adirondack chair; 05. // Pop up tent; 06. // Camp play set; 07. // Spot it game; 08. // Kids picnic table.

SUMMER CAMPING WITH LITTLE PASSPORTS

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As we are quickly approaching the end of the school year (our first with the girls), we are shifting to think about fun things to do with the kids over the summer. While I grew up on over an acre in the country, anyone who has toddlers will know that kids really don’t need a massive yard to have a great time. Raising kids in the city means that we make a much more concerted effort to get the kids back into nature and Vancouver is a city that makes it very easy to do that.

This summer, while we will escape for adventures around and out of the city a few times, I wanted to think of ways to entertain the kids close to home and that’s where Little Passports comes in. If you have been reading the blog for a while, you may remember I shared the Early Explorers kit from last summer.

Little Passports provides kits for kids to help educate them about the world around us.  Each month you will be sent a kit about a different country. They include photos of the countries, games, toys, information and activities for the kids to do whilst using characters to tell a story. While I fell in love with the easy to explain and ready to go activities in the kits, the kids fell in love with characters Mia and Max from the Early Explorers kit and Sam and Sofia from the World Edition kit.  Xavier was so excited to open and see stuffed animal Toby the dog and has been carting him to preschool, on car rides and tucking him into bed at night ever since (so cute!).

We are very spoiled to have a backyard, while still living so close to the city and for this stage of life, it really is perfect. You can turn your backyard into anything and this time we decided to do a summer day camp with the kids and pretend we were camping. We (ok, the hubby) DIY’d the tent and the adorable campfire kit was found on Etsy. Little Passports has these delightful free printables to help make the camping experience come to life. The kids especially loved the scavenger hunt and although we didn’t spot a squirrel, we do get them running along the fence every so often. Finding an insect was Xavier’s favourite with potato bugs hidden under every plant pot!

With our twins turning 6 earlier this year, they were ready for the World Edition kit, catered to 6-8 year olds, which includes more detailed information about the countries and more difficult activities. While we were outside ‘camping’, we opened the Egypt kit and talked about where Egypt is on the map, key landmarks that were included in the Early Explorers kit and the girls started working on this pyramid dig which has so far kept them entertained and focused for over an hour!

Thanks to Little Passports for making me feel like an organized Mom who can pull off an outdoor camping shoot with my kids. The kids loved it and I feel like we could do this every week all summer, exploring different countries and talking about where they are, whether Mom and Dad have travelled there and various fun facts to enlighten them. We love the kits and the imaginative play that ensues from the kids is a lifesaver for those summer days at home. Get the summer camp activities and printables to create your own backyard campout here!

*This post has been created with Little Passports, a product that I genuinely love. All photos, words and experiences are my own.