• Tug-O-War by the pool can be a great way to get cool and get even.tug-of-war image by Pavel Losevsky from Fotolia.com
  
  Keeping kids occupied during summer vacation can be costly. But not necessarily so. Summer days are best spent outdoors, enjoying the summer and warm weather with friends. You can entertain kids, teens or adults without forking-out loads of cash on movies, board games, or parties. When the warm weather rolls in, get back to basics and engage in some of that free fun we all loved as kids. Whether it’s tag or hide-and-seek, the days of summer can hold plenty of fun if you just use your imagination.
  
  

Scavenger Hunts

• Scavenger hunts are always fun and usually free. The only thing you need is a little creativity when dreaming up the items to put on your lists. Give your scavenger hunts themes, like pirate treasure hunts and list things like an eye patch, a bottle of sand, or if you are playing with adults, why not add a picture with Captain Morgan to the list? Nostalgic scavenger hunts can be great too. List items like a comic strip from a piece of Double Bubble, a pitcher shaped like the Kool-Aid man, a skip-it, a 1990s baseball card, a Hot Wheels car and a Barbie doll.
  
  Divide up into teams, and let the hunt begin.
  
  

Ghost in the Graveyard

• Summer days can be hot, and so can summer nights. When it is too hot to sleep or if you just want to enjoy those extra-long summer evenings, hosting a game of Ghost in the Graveyard is a way to play in the dark.
  
  Choose someone to be It. The It closes his eyes and counts, in his most spooky voice, “One o’clock, two o’clock, three o’clock ROCK, four o’clock, five o’clock, six o’clock ROCK, seven o’clock, eight o’clock, nine o’clock ROCK, 10 o’clock, 11 o’clock, 12 o’clock, MIDNIGHT!”
  
  The It starts to search for everyone hiding, while the hidden people try to jump out and scare the It.
  
  

Dribble, Dribble, Drench

• If you liked playing Duck, Duck, Goose as a kid, you will love Dribble, Dribble, Drench. Everyone sits in a circle and the person who is It has a bucket of water. He/she walks around the circle dribbling little drops of water on people’s heads, until they splash the entire bucket on one person, yelling, “Drench.”
  
  The drenched person gets up and races around the circle trying to tag the It, before they sit down. The drenched person then gets to be It. It's a game to play with kids or adults, especially during a heat wave.
  
  

Pool Tug-O-War

• For anyone with a pool, Tug-O-War is a must. If you don’t have access to a pool, a lake with two docks can work fine too.
  
  Divide players into two teams and lineup on opposite sides of the deep-end, outside of the pool. Each team will have an end of the rope. When the game begins it’s a battle of strength as the two teams pull and struggle to heave their opponents into the pool. The team that "loses" gets to cool off when they are tugged into the pool.