On a few random nights throughout the summer, my parents would announce at the time when we normally would be going to bed, that we would be going out to play a family game of kickball instead.
My dad was the music director for our church which was just one block away from our home in New Jersey. We liked to play our “midnight” family kickball games in the church parking lot where there was plenty of space to run as well as some pretty decent lighting, so we would hop in the car and be at our play destination in less than a minute.
My brothers and I would be giddy in the backseat – poking each other and laughing about how my dad would probably wake up the people who lived around the church with his All-Star kicking abilities (once we had to call off our game early because my dad had kicked the ball so far and so high that it had sailed right over some old lady’s fence and landed in her backyard where it was un-retrievable. I always wonder what that lady must have thought when she woke up and found a giant fire engine red ball in her yard in the morning. :-)).
We set up three bases using random things we could find in the car – old magazines, a dirty T-Shirt, etc. We’d divide into teams, usually it’d be my dad and me against my mom and two brothers, since my dad was as good as 5 kickball players in one and I was probably not even worth 1/2 a kickball player. I was never very good at athletics… But I supplied plenty of enthusiasm!
We’d play for a long time, enjoying the quietness of the hour. It was so thrilling to know that most of our little town was sleeping while my family and I were laughing and running around with the fireflies. In the end we never really knew what the score was and we never really cared either.
We had fun together.
And that’s all that really mattered.
Take your family on a “Midnight” Family Kickball Game! Pick a summer evening to surprise your kids with this magical outing. Find a local parking lot with good lighting and no cars around :-). Grab a couple of things to use as your bases, make sure you have a ball, review what good sportsmanship behavior looks like, and then head out under the stars. Feeling extra adventurous? Play in your pajamas! If your family is small, call up another family and schedule to meet somewhere so that you can play each other. Winning family treats everyone to ice cream!
Happy Midnight Kickball-ing! 🙂
*Find Kickball rules and ideas HERE.*
That sounds like fun!! I think I am going to plan a summer kickball night! Thank you for the idea!