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Ok, I know it is only March, but our summer vacation starts in May so I'm thinking a bit ahead. The nearest metropolitan area is 3 hours away from us, so we are pretty isolated from anything where we are. I was wondering what some of you do with your kids in the summer to keep them occupied? DD6's mind is always going and if she is idle for 3 days we start to get on each other's nerves, by the end of a week of with no planned activities either she has holed herself up in her room with her books and refuses to come out or she is constantly at my side asking what can we do now. (Which I can only take so much of.) I'm looking for "different" interesting things we could do, be they crafts or whatever. I also have a 13month old who we need to think about with these activites too.
We go biking, have swim lessons, go to the park, go for walks, and go to library summer reading program, but that is about all of our options.
PS it is usually around 100 for most of the summer.

I think a long summer project would be a good idea. Plant a garden, build a playhouse(if you're up to that), make candles or soaps, do science experiments (you can probably find a book in the libary to help), make Christmas cards, try scrapbooking, or let her use a digital camera (an elementary school I read about gave cameras to kids to photograph the letters of the alphabet, not on signs but in nature and around town. For example, the letter A could be the A-frame on a swing set. They had all kinds of cool results, that included reflections in ponds and shadows, things that you wouldn't see just any time of day.

I love the idea about the photos, she already has her own camera and loves taking pictures. I've already told a friend about it and she's ready to have her kids do it with us:) Thanks a lot.

The picture idea does sound cool; I need to get ds8 a camera, he has taken a lot of good shots with mine and I think this would be another good outlet for such an arty guy.
Plus, even if he's at the sitter's I might get to 'see' more of what they've been up to.

Here are things I thought of:
Strawberry picking.
Rocket launching.
Going to a mall that has a climbing/play area (if your 6 year old is not too big yet)
make ice cream or ice pops
make sun tea or lemonade (lemonade stand)
we found a great book called 'totally irresponsible science', it mostly uses stuff you have around the house already.
wash the dog
make an oven out of a box+aluminum foil - cook an egg (check out online - your summer temps sound perfect for this)
playgrounds in the early morning, swing in a hammock in the afternoon
set up a tent in the backyard (under a tree if possible for double shade) - great for toddlers!

We did lots of these things when we were in tx with our then 4-year-old.

Every year we do a scavenger hunt. I hide small things around the property, draw a map and the kids have to follow the map to find the treasures. We also have a backyard campout every year complete with a fire and roasted marshmallows. Gardening is big here and we're raising baby chicks.

Last year my 5yo and I painted a fence, planted a beautiful flower garden and did a lot of baking and canning. He loves to measure stuff!
One fun thing to do that's super simple is to make homemade butter. Get a qt size mason jar, buy a qt of heavy cream. Pour the cream in the jar, leave a little space so that the liquid can move, drop 3 marbles in. Make sure the lid is tight. The kids can roll the jar, shake the jar, whatever as long as it keeps moving. My 2 yo rolls it around the floor like a truck. Make something special like pumpkin bread or muffins to use it on!

ooooh! baby chickens! you mentioned that - how is it going so far?? This is your ds heading up this project, is that right?

We always have an insect zoo. After gathering our specimens, my son then records observations/data in a journal about each one such as where he found it, what it eats, what eats it, life span, changes such as caterpillar to butterfly, etc. We actually have a crecopia moth in a cocoon in our garage. Apparently they "hibernate" thru winter.
I also love to go to rock quarrys and bring home a bunch of rocks. I then give them old tooth brushes to polish the gems. Clear nail polish adds a nice coat of finish to make them shiny. We then look the rocks up in a book. You can really take the lesson to different levels from there.

We have 3 cecropia moths and 3 polyphemus moths we raised last fall currently out on our porch in a giant jar. We also raised about 10 monarchs and released them last summer. That was all great fun. We got a lot of books from the library and read all about them on the internet.

I'm chuckling with this suggestion because the closest mall is 3 hours away! But thanks for all of the suggestions, after reading them I'm sitting here saying "duh, you should have thought of these." But that's ok, everyone has brain blanks.

I like to fish, so I take the boys fishing a lot in the summer time. We also hunt for snakes and salamanders.

Here's a dumb idea, but the kids love doing it. Grab a bucket of plain water and paint brushes. Let the kids paint the foundation of your home with water. The concrete will darken with water, and they can do it anytime they want, it won't harm anything.