Fun Ways to Beat the Heat this Summer

When you think of summer, do you think more of June or July? The beginning of summer when the excitement of school letting out and the pool opening is fresh in your mind?
True, summer officially starts June 21, but for many, that isn’t the hottest time of summer. In my neck of the woods, the most unbearable time of summer is August.
The sweltering temperature often keeps the kids indoors for fear of heat exhaustion or sunburn. My kids, though, absolutely adore being out in the yard playing and getting away from the boring four walls of the house.
Math Man and I have gathered our ideas with the help of our kiddos for how we can beat the heat with fun activities. Special shout out to Kristin of Little Mama Jama, Melissa, and Heather for additional thoughts!

For the kids:

Water guns! You can get them at the dollar store for – a dollar! Super fun to run around and squirt each other!
Water balloons! There’s a fancy mechanism being advertised on TV that can create a ton of water balloons at one time. Or, you can go to the dollar store and get some water balloons to fill up and chuck at one another. Our 4 year old would love to create an Angry Birds-esque game with this!
Sprinkler! This old stand-by doesn’t have to be fancy. We’ve spent dollar after dollar trying to find special ones for the kids, but you know which one works the best and gets the most “I want that one” votes? This old thing:
Water slide! You can make your own easily with a tarp, shampoo and water. How fun is this!?

For the adults:

Sweet tea – I live in the South, so sweet tea is a staple. One of my students actually taught me how to make good sweet tea myself (He doesn’t even know he taught me. He wrote a how-to paper for my class, and I learned! Sometimes, teaching has side benefits. 😉 ) You probably are wondering what the recipe is:

• Bring about 2 cups of water to a boil, take off burner, add bags (for 2 quarts, use 4 family sized bags).
• Let steep for about 5 minutes.
• Put a cup of sugar (more if you like it super sweet) in the pitcher, pour the hot steeped tea water over, and stir so the sugar dissolves.
• Then, fill the pitcher until full and chill.

Beer and margaritas – This one really doesn’t need an explanation, but I know Math Man likes a good cold one after mowing the lawn. When I can imbibe again (Baby Diva needs me right now), I’ll be enjoying a margarita with Heather every chance I get!

For the family:

Local pool – We discovered a local pool in our area. I feel sort of dumb admitting it since someone tried to convince us to join over four years ago. We’ll be joining this next year as we’ve had a chance to visit during some Girl Scout activities. What a great way to let our kids cool off, learn good water responsibility, and have some family time.

Waterpark – Growing up in Texas, I lived close enough to Wet-n-Wild to get to go on a fairly regular basis. I loved that place. I did get burned a few times too many, but what a blast! I can imagine that when our littles are old enough to really participate, we’ll be going!
Check out my friends’ suggestions for beating the heat this summer.
Baking in a Tornado is giving us a Lemon Lime Poke Cake. I love Poke Cake! I never knew about it until my mother in law made it one hot summer day. You’re going to love this.
The Liebers is showing us an awesome craft that will help you carry your water bottle. Who doesn’t need an extra hand and some ice cold water in the hot summer?
The Momisodes offers up ways to beat the heat with a school edition. See how she made the money work for her!
Eileen’s Perpetually Busy has created a sweat absorbing bandana. I know Math Man could use something like this when he’s out working in the yard!
Sparkly Poetic Weirdo is giving us ideas about beating the heat with and for our pets. Our dogs just love being outside – even when it’s sweltering. Jenn’s ideas here will help us keep them calm and cool!
And Home on Deranged has just what we all need: cool drinks! I’ve started a Pinterest board just for awesome drinks. I’ll be adding these!