Hot Fun In The Summertime

I have such warm wonderful memories of my summers as a child: Pool parties, BBQ’s, long lazy days and nights, sleeping late, sleepovers in the middle of the week, no homework, my birthdays.

As a kid I wished it were summer all year round. Sometimes I still do, so it’s important to me that my kids have a happy and relaxed summer too.

Here’s how we like to have fun:

Long lazy days – Some of the best days when my kids were little were when they spent hours running around the house or backyard without a plan or care in the world. Finding things to play with (anything not nailed down), dressing up (usually capes), being creative (sidewalk chalk), and of course, getting wet. We’re a family of fish and love to play in the water. Any water. Be it the pool, the sea, sprinklers, water balloons or the hose. Wet is good. Now that my kids are older they still love to have friends come over for impromptu pool parties.

Long lazy nights – Oh the joy of being able to stay up late and sleep in if we want to because there isn’t school the next day. Movie nights, sleepovers (during the week, woohoo!), after dinner ice cream runs, night swimming, no homework…it doesn’t get better than this.

Golden oldies that ooze “summer fun” – Music can bring the sweetest memories. When one of these songs come on the radio, we (I) crank it up and sing with it: School’s Out For Summer, Hot Fun In The Summer Time, Saturdays In The Park, and anything by the Beach Boys. I can almost smell the Coppertone.

Going barefoot and sometimes naked – Ahh…no better feeling than walking barefoot in the grass. And when the kids were very little, sometimes they wore nothing but their smiles and sunscreen.

Eating al fresco – If it were up to me, every meal would be outside. So if we’re not eating at home, which is often because no one likes my cooking,  we choose restaurants with a beautiful patio.

Ditch the car – Even though sometimes it can get hot and sticky, we love to take advantage of our beautiful days and balmy nights and unhurried schedule, so we try as often as possible to walk into town for lunch or dinner. The city feels so different on foot.

Traveling – Having alone time with my family, without distractions from work, school or friends is heavenly and creates the most wonderful bonding time. Sometimes the only way to achieve this is to leave town. We’ve had plenty of adventures and even some vacations that resembled a National Lampoon Vacation, but they were always fun. Which reminds me of one summer when my parents thought it would be “fun” to drive across country in a motor home (you heard me right), with three kids and our dog. The only one who had fun, and by fun I mean slept comfortably or ate well, was the dog.

What do you do to have fun in the summertime?