Summertime Memories

I was a kid in love with summer vacation. We were always doing something fun. When I was in 5th grade we moved into a big ol' house across town that was surrounded by pine and lilac trees. It sat on 2 acres and even had a barn although we weren't allowed to have any animals in it. But what a fun place to play. We had apple trees and raspberries and a huge garden that we all hated to weed. My mom loved flowers and we had all kinds of peonys, iris and roses around the house and yard. We even had a special place with rock tables and benches and a huge lava rock fireplace. It was a fun place for kids and there was 6 of us and about 20 others from around the neighborhood. Everyone liked to play at our house. Our next door neighbor had a huge lawn and most nights we would be out there playing football, hide and seek or redrover untill the parents would be yelling at us to go to bed. Having large pine trees around the house also gave us bats! One of our favorite games was to throw a hat up high and the bats would swarm around it and once in awhile we would catch one. Most of the time we would just scream and dive to the ground so they wouldn't get us.
Most of the summer we slept outside. We had this old army tent my dad would put up sometimes but usually we just slept out on the grass or in bad weather on our huge front porch. Of course along with sleeping out came pajama parades and raiding peoples gardens for snacks. It was a carefree time. My parents didn't know where we were half of the time although one time a member of our ward mentioned to my dad that we had been by for carrots one night! There always seemed to be something to do. You could go to the swimming pool, ride bikes, walk places, read good books, and most importantly play with our friends!
Yes, I loved summer. We hardly ever watched tv and if you were in the house you would probably be given a job so it was better to be outside. (Not bugging mom) Sometimes I miss being a kid but I still get excited for summer vacation!