We all remember how exciting summer was as a kid: taking a break from the books and having complete freedom for a few months. But nowadays, kids are so caught up in how many likes they get on Instagram or who has the latest video game for the Xbox that they don't have summers like we did when we were kids. Here are 10 toys we played with and other activities we did during the summer.
1. Water balloon and squirt gun fights
Getting a group of your best friends together for a battle of who can soak who first.
2. Using bikes as our only source of transportation
Your first set of wheels before your actual set of wheels. Burning your feet on the pedals and being "that guy" who was notorious for knowing how to ride without using the handlebars.
3. Blow-up pools
You know you were the coolest kid on the block if you had the 120-inch Intex pool big enough to fit a family, along with going against your parent's rules and putting your swing-set slide into it creating your own homemade water slide.
4. Sprinklers
Does anyone else miss being able to be entertained for hours from just simply running through a regular lawn sprinkler?
5. Slip 'n Slides
Ten feet of colorful tarp decked out with extra sprinklers and soakers built in to help you slide down to a small baby pool at the end. Warning: burns from the tarp and scratches/bruises from the ground underneath the uncushioned tarp are impossible to avoid.
6. Sidewalk chalk
Covering the neighborhood sidewalks and driveways with your own graffiti of traced outlines of your friends or drawing out your name in all different kinds of fonts and colors.
7. Pick-up games of kickball or baseball
Getting your friends together for a nice game of kickball or baseball in the biggest cul-de-sac of the neighborhood, and of course always fighting over who gets to kick first or who gets to be pitcher.
8. Catching lightning bugs
When the sun came down, the only lights you had were on the street and the short flickers of the fireflies fluttering around yards. Always remember to make sure there are air holes in your jars!
9. Having lemonade stands
Who wouldn't buy a 25-cent cup of lemonade from an adorable kid? It also gave you extra money for when the ice cream truck made a trip through your neighborhood.
10. Enjoying the outdoors
Summer was a time meant for walking around barefoot with dozens of mosquito bites on your legs. We would leave the house in the morning and not go back inside until dinner time, or of course, when the street lights came on. We simply lived outside during our childhood summers.
