You all know that I have a present bag, which was replenished yesterday with some brilliant bargains from the 75% off sale in Claires and the ‘5 cards for £1’ offer in the Card Factory, but I don’t think I’ve told you about my Summer bag yet.
My Summer bag is basically a bag filled with all sorts of outdoor toys and other things that mean we can have fun wherever we are and without having to plan things or spend time getting ready.
This is what’s in there at the moment, starting with the sensible stuff:
- Sun tan lotion.
- Hats – not their favourite hats just cheap ones just in case.
- £3 in change – actually this isn’t in there anymore as we bought ice-cream last week with it and I haven’t replaced it yet but it’s supposed to be for ice cream or parking or some other ‘fun’ essential.
- A towel.
- A little water bowl for the dog.
And now the fun things:
- 4 badminton rackets and a couple of spare shuttlecocks.
- A cheap lightweight football.
- Some bubbles – because you’re never too old for bubbles.
- A baseball bat and ball.
- 4 little beanbags.
- A kite – although thinking about it, I can’t remember seeing this recently so I wonder where that is?
- Wellies – because Summer rain is good rain to be out splashing in puddles in!
Most of the fun things were bought from the pound shop in town and we’ve had hours of fun out of them all. Keeping them all in one bag in the boot of the car means that if we’re out somewhere and we decide to stop at the park or the beach on the way home then we have everything we need already with us. Or if we have a spur of the moment trip somewhere, we know exactly where the things are that we want to take.
Like last week, one of my friends knocked on my door to tell me she was taking her dog to the beach and asked if we wanted to join her. She was ready to go so I didn’t want to take long to get ready but thanks to the Summer bag, I knew I already had some hats, a towel and the sun cream in the car so we literally just put our shoes on, locked up and went!
I also keep the scooters in the boot of the car at this time of year because I can’t stand them in the house, they’ll get ruined if I keep them in the garden and if I kept them in the garage, the kids are on and off them so often that they’d be in and out constantly (as would I because they struggle to close the garage. Keeping them in the boot means that they’re easy to get to and out of my way as well as being extremely handy because they’re with us if we’re out somewhere and decide to have a detour!