With the end of school behind us, families have an incredible opportunity to spend a “quantity of quality” time together. I want to suggest a few of fun activities that we do as a family to encourage you to invest in your children this summer:

1. Play in the fountains downtown in front of the courthouse and afterwards eat at Sam’s Hot Dog right across the street. Or, walk a few more blocks and eat one of the best Cheeseburgers in the city at Sawyer’s!
2. Go on a camping trip. Head to Red River Gorge or one of the many incredible State Parks here in Kentucky and enjoy some time away from the noise of modern convenience. If you’re afraid of sleeping in the woods, pitch your tent in the back yard and make smores in the microwave!
3. Go to a drive in theatre and experience the fun of watching a movie outdoors. You can find one in nearby towns like Paris, Winchester, Mount Sterling, Stanford, and Somerset.
4. Our Life Group hosted a kickball tournament last week and invited 5 other families to join us. We cooked out, made our own ice cream sundaes, played the game, and gave away prizes to the best teams! The next night, we followed it up with a Wiffle Ball game that was just as fun.
5. Make it a point to swim in as many different swimming pools as possible this summer. Take your kids to a different pool in the city each week and rate them from best to worst. Invite friends to join you.
6. Do the same with the ice cream vendors in the city. Try Baskin Robbins, Cold Stone Creamery, Graeters, Dairy Queen, Sonic, and all the others. Try to find the local dives that few people know about because their shakes are usually the best in town.
7. Catch the High School Baseball Tournament next week at Applebee’s park. Buy a stadium “dog” and some popcorn and enjoy the game the way it was meant to be played. Or, catch a Legend’s game or drive to Cincy to see the Reds play. Baseball provides a great outdoor environment with which to create a lasting memory.
8. If you haven’t taken your family to Friday Night Flicks, then you’re missing out on a great Lexington tradition. Take some food and a blanket and a bunch of friends to Jacobson Park.
9. Run/Walk the Bluegrass 10,000. You’ve still got time to get in shape! And once you finish the race, plan on staying for the rest of the day to enjoy the festivities and fireworks right in the heart of the downtown.
10. Go fishing. There are a hundred “honey holes” in the area just waiting to have a line dropped in. Take a camera and a cooler and enjoy being outdoors together.
11. Take a picnic basket to Gratz Park or the Henry Clay Estate or the Horse Park or any of the hundreds of beautiful locations Lexington has to offer.
12. Create a scavenger hunt and invite several friends to join you as you scour the city for clues. And then go to Joe B’s or Gatti Town or Sir Pizza and enjoy a slice of Americana together.
13. Come to ‘Heroes in the House’! June 23 & 24 at 7:00 PM in Building E. It is fun family experience designed to create a spiritual conversation for families of all ages. The creativity and production value is the best you’ll find in the city and it is a great way to get friends and family members interested in church.
14. Plant a garden and give the food to our Backpack initiative. If you don’t have the land, then jump in and join the rest of us preparing a garden on the back part of the church property. For more information, contact Karen Bowman (kbowman@southlandchristian.org)
15. Serve a neighbor. Do something for someone else this summer, as a family. Parents, the summer is a great time to instill the value of giving to others without expecting anything in return. Your kids will have so much fun, especially if you do something really fun to surprise your neighbors! We have all kinds of people and places to serve, from widows, to nursing homes and hospitals and our very own Handi-camp which meets the needs of physically and mentally challenged kids in our community.
16. Build a free lemonade stand and invite people to give to a local charity or mission project.

There are all kinds of ways to spend the summer together as a family. I hope you will take one or more of the ideas above and invest in each other before school starts again. I love you and I’m so glad to be serving with you in this city!