There’s something wonderful about warm summer nights. Playing around outside until the sun goes does reminds me of childhood. When I was younger, my neighbors and I loved playing games like ghost in the graveyard, kick the can and capture the flag.
Every night Ryan and I try to get outside with Sadie.
We’ll go for a walk or play Frisbee in the backyard. Watching her have a ball makes me forget about the stressful things in my life.
She’s so full of joy!
Sadie keeps us active and is a serious source of stress relief! She always reminds me to enjoy the little things in life (I mean, how cool are sticks!?) and watching her lose her mind over something as small as a lizard makes me smile about things that I might otherwise overlook. (Sadie actually stops to smell flowers. For real.)
I’ve actually talked with some of our friends about planning a Summer Nights themed party this summer where we grill out and take time to play classic outdoor games like capture the flag. Wouldn’t that be awesome!?
Workout + Breakfast
This morning’s workout was less that stellar. I couldn’t get in the zone and felt like I spent more time resting in between sets than actually working out. They can’t all be winners, I suppose!
Once we got home from the gym, I made a batch of scrambled eggs with spinach and shredded cheese.
I topped my eggs with avocado and served them with a toasted whole wheat English muffin.
And now it’s off to work! See ya after lunch!
Question of the Morning
- What was your favorite outdoor game to play when you were younger?
My favorite game was definitely kick the can! If you have kids and they’re looking for a fun outdoor game to play this summer, I highly recommend it. Just in case you’ve never heard of it before, you can read all of the rules here.
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I loved kick the can! We used to get all the neighborhood kids out and play a massive game. It was so much fun! We also played a lot of four square. Our streets were made of giant cement blocks that formed the perfect four square set up. We played for hours!!
I love Summer nights! Tan skin, cold drinks, and a little breeze. Perfection.
capture the flag!! i believe my 9th birthday party was a capture the flag themed party, love that game! and i love the concept of throwing a summer nights party- that would be SO fun!!
My favorite game when I was younger was Manhunt. I loved living so close to all my friends since I could just walk right on over.
manhunt is so much fun!
Lolled at “how cool are sticks”! Our pup is the same way–she always stops to sniff everything. It’s adorable, and we usually don’t get very far in a reasonable amount of time, but it really is a good reminder to just stop and enjoy life and the world around you every once in a while. 🙂
I’ve actually never heard of kick the can…my favorite game to play as a child was the “sitting on the curb, eating popsicles, gossiping, and occasionally catching fireflies.” That’s a game, right? 😉 In the summers, all of the teenagers on the street would be out and just enjoying life–it was fantastic.
Just good ol’ hide and seek!
Your Summer nights party idea sounds awesome! I think that my favorite games as a kid were always hide and seek and kick ball.
My favorite childhood game (that I was never good at) was kickball. I can neither catch, kick, or throw. So I basically liked standing outside and having company.
I think a good super soaker water fight would be a close 2nd.
totally forgot about super soakers!!!!!!! <3
When we were young, it was tag, hide and seek, whatever.
What time do you eat your meals typically? (certain evening time)? and late night snack time? I’m a huge late night eater , o boy..
it depends (especially now that my work schedule is all over the place), but I usually eat breakfast at 6:30 a.m., snack at 10 a.m., lunch around 12:30 p.m., snack at 3 p.m., dinner at 6 p.m. & another snack at 8 p.m. if i’m still hungry.
When I read the title to this post, I immediately starting singing “Summer Nights” from “Grease”. Anything that will get me through the day I suppose 🙂
I love the idea of a summer nights party! We used to play cops and robbers a lot. freeze tag was also in high demand when I was even younger!
My brother and I used to play army men. I was a tom boy and we lived in the country. The most run we had was putting the slip n slide on a hill and turning on the sprinkler… then pretending we were in the army and crawling up the hill while it was “raining.” Once you almost got to the top… you accidentally slid back down.
That OR my cousin and I used to take shaving cream and pour it our all over our trampoline. NOW that’s a blast! Trampoline filled with shaving cream.
I loved all those games. No cell phone e’s you just ran around the neighborhood until your mom started yelling for you.
A summer nights party would be awesome until you started running around your neighbors yards hiding around their house and in their bushes. They might not think it’s as charming as little kids doing it lol.
We lived in a cul-de-sac growing up with a bunch of kids our age. Night games of capture the flag were a regular, but our all-time favorite game was SPUD. We would play it in the middle of the cul-de-sac. Looking back on it, I bet it would be even more fun with adults. Its not the most well known game, but a total blast!
I loved to play kickball, dodge ball and of couse hide and seek was always a hit. As I got older, in highschool, we then did the super soaker thing and water balloon fights. I feel like as adults, we just don’t have those silly, no rhyme or reason kind of fun days anymore and it makes me kind of sad.
We always played ‘jail break’ at night when I was a kid. It was so fun!
I used to always play outside with my brother playing basketball or riding our bikes when we were younger – there is nothing better than summer nights!
I used to love playing outside till dark in the summer as a kid! I think we played lots of hide and seek. I rarely see kids out much any more though!
I’ve never heard of kick the can! My favorite was definitely capture the flag. My uber competitive side came out hard with that game. I wish I had a yard to play games in…and a dog. Sadie is the cutest!
I have to say I love your blog. You always make me smile and your enthusiasm is just infectious. Best wishes to your sister on her engagement. It really looks like you and your whole family take the time to enjoy the moments and that is inspiring me to do the same! Have a lovely day and please keep including us in your happy life!
It is freezing cold and the middle of winter here in Australia so I am very jealous of your warm weather and warm nights!
I’ve never heard of kick the can before.
I used to love playing Shuffle board! It’s been YEARS since I played but that was always a part of our family Labor Day picnic!
Agree, summer always brings back the memories! I grew up around many of my cousins so we always had big group for games. We loved to play hide-and-seek! We would play for hours! Kids today have too many toys, haha! 🙂
My favorite game to play as a kid was Spud! Gosh I miss that game! My aunt always brings over ‘can jam’ and corn hole to play in the summer. I love it!
I loved manhunt when I was younger – fun fact…I met my first boyfriend during a game of manhunt with my neighbors!!
My cousins and I used to play an Indian version of hide n’ go seek. And just to make things interesting, we’d play outside, at night, in complete darkness. I was always the first one to be found because I was too scared to venture out! 🙂
Summer nights remind me of childhood. 🙂 So fun!
Flashlight tag for sure. As we got older it became a huge game of Truth or Dare. I got my first kiss playing this! So awkward!
I loved summer games… I think my favorite was hide and seek in the dark. So much fun, because a little part of it was the fear factor as well.
I had a really bad workout this morning where I felt like I rested more than I worked out, so I’m glad to hear that you also have bad workout days 🙂
LOVED Ghost in the graveyard!
I work for a national non-profit, KaBOOM! that is all about bringing play back into the lives of kids and we have a book out all about those classic outdoor games! Thought it might interest you 🙂 http://kaboom.org/category/blog_tags/go_out_and_play
I loved playing dodgeball in gym as a kid… until someone broke their arm, their parents got mad, and we werent allowed to play anymore! My little siblings dont know what theyre missing!
I am loving cornhole right now-a bunch of weddings I’ve attended recently have it out during the cocktail hour and it is so fun!
Breakfast looks scrumptious! I remember playing hours of tag and kickball. Does playing like a tornado is coming through count as a game? 😉
My top 2 favorites were German Spotlight.and Capture the Flag! 🙂
Oh gosh, kick the can was a huge hit for us too. We lived in a cul-de-sac which made for the perfect kick the can location! I also loved capture the flag and sardines. I love the Summer Nights Party idea!
That’s such a good idea!! Nothing better than bringing childhood back, I mean seriously, it was the best time 🙂 I think mine would have to be Capture the Flag, by far my favorite and I defiantly miss playing!
Dogs are the best reminder to appreciate the small things! Life wouldn’t be the same without them. I always liked red light, green light! You definitely get your exercise!
I’m dying, I love the summer nights themed party! I miss the days when everyone would get together, dress up in black, and play manhunt/hide and go seek around our neighborhood. Capture the flag was definitely another favorite game of mine! Ahhh, now I’m reminiscing on the good ol’ days 😉
Are you able to let Sadie outside without a leash or does she run off? If she cooperates off leash, how did you train her to do that?
Oh my that egg scramble looks amazing!!
First off, I must say that running across your blog the other day made my day! Yesterday I was reading some of your older posts & there were so many mentions of froyo that I got a maddddd craving for it & had to go to our local yogurtini to grab some! : ) Looking forward to reading your future posts. Oh & by the way, I love all your posts with Sadie! My boyfriend & I have blue nosed pitbull named Nala and she is definitely our furry family member!!
I used to love being outside until dark.. capture the flag, ghost of the graveyard, tag, hide & seek, playing basketball… you name it! that time of the day while being outside sure does bring back memories 🙂
I remember playing capture the flag at summer camp. We used the entire camp and everyone played (100+ kids) – it was so much fun!
I love the summer night party idea!! Now I want to plan one 🙂 I loved a game I used to play with my best friend and her brother, we called it TV Tag. It is like Freeze Tag but if you can think of the name of a TV show right when you get tagged you are ‘unfrozen’. They lived across the street from me growing up and we would play outside for hours on their front lawn.
Summer nights really are the best…We grew up out in the middle of nowhere so whenever we had friends over, we would play hide and seek, mainly because there were SO many places we could hide. It was so much fun! That and basically anything in the water 🙂
Red Rover, Kick Ball and Hide and Seek were my favorite outdoor games. That made me think of 7 Up though, which was my FAVORITE game to play inside especially during class!
I loved playing Sardines. It’s where one person hides, and everyone else tries to find them. Once you find them, you hide along with them till the last person finds the group. Then the last person has to hide. It’s tons of fun, and a great night game.
I used to love playing Red Rover — we’d seriously play it for hours!
I lived in an apartment so we never really played outside. Inside, we would play hide-and-seek. I remember once my cousin got stuck inside a washing machine!