It’s summer. It’s time to relax and enjoy a day by the pool. When everybody gets hungry, you can just fire up the grill and serve up some hotdogs and hamburgers. The kids love splashing in the pool. The adults love dipping their toes in and lounging around, soaking up some rays.

As great as all of these things are, when you’re throwing a party for a special occasion, like a birthday, bachelorette party, or the 4th of July, you’ll want to spruce things up a bit and make it just a little bit more fun and exciting.

Sending the Bride Off Right

If you’re throwing a bachelorette party this July, it’s a no-brainer to do it by the pool, but you don’t want to just sit around, do you? Instead, add some fun games. Write a quiz for the bride to take, and see how well she really knows her future husband. Throw a roast, where you all go around and tell funny and embarrassing things about your friendships with her.

You could also take things up a notch and play a more involved social game. Have you ever been to a murder mystery dinner theater? Well, you can play the same kind of sleuthing game at home, with your friends. We really like the Murder at the Spa game by Shot in the Dark Mysteries. It’s an all-ladies game, so it’s perfect for a bachelorette party. It’s also perfect because your poolside can feel a lot like a spa, if you pay just a little bit of attention to the décor.

4th of July Poolside Contests and Games

If you’re throwing a 4th of July party, you could inform your guests that there will be a prize for whoever is the most patriotic that day. You might be surprised how many American flags one person can wear.

You could also write a series of American history questions for your guests to answer. Whoever knows the most about our great country will get a prize at the end of the night. If you don’t feel like doing history homework for your party, you could just make a list of patriotic items you might find at a 4th of July party and send your guests on a poolside scavenger hunt.

Good Old Fashioned Summer Fun

You don’t need a reason to throw a party this summer. It’s hot outside, and the pool is calling, and that’s reason enough in our book. If you’re throwing a party just for fun, though, you might want to make it a themed party. A poolside pirate party is always a lot of fun, especially when you add fun pirate-themed games.

If you liked the idea of the murder mystery game we mentioned for a bachelorette party, you’ll love that you can choose a pirate murder mystery game. Shot in the Dark Mysteries’ Pirates Revenge game is one of our favorites for this kind of party. You can play detective and pirate at the same time!

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