Reasons Why Spring Is the Best Season

butterfly-meadow

Reasons Why Spring Is the Best Season

Between the short, frigid days of winter and the long, late, hot summer nights, stretches spring. Spring can more easily be described by what it is not: it’s not too cold or too hot; it isn’t being stuck in the house for a snow day or going camping for the weekend. Being most easily defined by its role as a liminal space between summer and winter, we just don’t think spring gets as much attention as its more extreme season-siblings.

It’s time to put away the winter coats, and it’s not quite time for swimsuits, but rather than not having any redeeming qualities of its own, spring is about moving on and moving forward with the year.

Get ready to deep clean your less than glowing assumptions about spring because this season has a lot to offer, and we’ll be coving all of it in this in-depth guide about everything we love about this often-overlooked quarter of the year. This is the official Cornhole Worldwide guide to why spring might be the best season—right behind summer, obviously, because we love backyard barbeque more than anything!

Why Spring Is Great: 11 Great Things About Spring

1. More Sunny Hours in Each Day

The spring equinox marks the date when days start getting longer and nights get shorter. Aside from changing the clocks for Daylight Savings Time, this means there’s more sunlight in the day leading up to those endless summer nights!

After a long dark winter, the extra sunlight is a real mood-booster. Expect to start feeling generally happier during the springtime as the days get longer.

2. Ideal Temperatures

Spring is the perfect window between the frigid chill of winter and the scorching humidity of summer. Temperatures are usually mild, typically falling into the 60s and 70s, which is ideal for most activities.

It’s cooler than you might expect inside a building, but there’s no need for a thick coat to make it through your day. Spring temps are consistently within the Goldilocks range!

birds-sitting-on-a-bird-feeder3. Spring Is for the Birds… Literally!

Spring is when the birds come back! Sure, there are winter birds, birds that stick around all year, building a nest somewhere warm and cozy up with tiny bird-sized mugs of hot bird-chocolate during the cold months, but who cares about those birds?

We’re talking about the birds that migrate south during the winter (living the dream!) and then come back north when temperatures go back up. Spring is when you’ll notice them coming back home. They’ll be all settled into their warm-weather nests by summer.

4. And the Baby Animals

Little baby bunnies, piglets, chicks, ducklings, baby squirrels. It’s also an excellent time to adopt a new kitten or puppy if you want a brand new one. Spring is when all of these adorable little creatures come outside to greet the world for the first time.

We honestly thought about making our entire list of reasons why spring is the best just a list of cute baby animal photos. We could probably still do that. We’re not going to… but we could.

5. Plants and Grass and Flowers, Oh My!

All that sunlight (and the rain, let’s be real) has a huge effect on all the plant life. The lawns, which looked very dead after the snow first melted, are now starting to look like their summer selves—not as rich and lush as they will be in a few months, but spring laws and May flowers are a delightful and colorful addition to your life after the monochrome of winter.

6. Delicious Fresh Produce

Plants mean that local, fresh, farm-raised fruits and vegetables can be added to your diet again. Lots of delicious things like asparagus, greens, peas, rhubarb, apricots, and pineapples are harvested in the spring, and many of them can be found at a local farmer’s market.

There are also ways to buy into a local produce delivery in most locations if you want fresh produce, but you don’t want to go to market.

woman-taking-deep-breath7. Increased Oxygen Levels

Plants feed on carbon dioxide and create oxygen! This means there’s more oxygen in the spring and summer than in the winter. The increased oxygen has some serious benefits, including increased creativity, clearer thinking, faster problem-solving, and overall better general health. If you’re starting to feel more emotionally uplifted and alive, it’s not just Spring Fever, it’s the increased oxygen levels you need to thank!

8. Going Outside

Getting out of the house and into nature will make you feel more energized, revitalized, and connected to the larger world around you. Fresh air and sunshine aren’t just for kids who’ve been playing too many video games.

Adults can also benefit—and that goes double for adults who’ve been playing too many video games! Go outside and look at the world rendered around you in real-time and at better than 4k resolution, in surround sound. How can real life look this good? Because it’s spring, and the sun shining in the sky is burning off the grey winter doldrums, and it’s time to go outside and live your life!

9. Exercise Better

Speaking of going outside, all that fresh air with increased oxygen is great for improving your workout! Whether you focus on cardio or you even lift bro, an outdoor workout is a great way to vary your routine and add all the health benefits of going outside.

Plus, if you’ve gotten a little lax on the exercise regimen during winter (and really, who among us hasn’t?), spring is a great time to start back up. It’s sunny, and the weather’s great. Get on out there!

10. Open Windows

If you don’t want to go outside, we get it. You can still benefit from the fresh air and sunshine by throwing open your windows and letting some air and light in.

Opening windows increases ventilation and decreases any indoor pollutants that could be hanging around in the air in your home. Being able to open the windows in spring and let the smell of rain and sunshine in is one of the best things about spring.

woman-cleaning-house11. Spring Cleaning

Whether or not spring cleaning is a thing in your household, you can’t deny the satisfaction of walking into a clean house. Set aside some time this season to deep clean all the spaces in your home that don’t usually get much attention—the oven, the bathroom, the basement, etc.—and take the time to do a thorough job. This really is the perfect time to do so.

Looking for a way to pare down some of your possessions? Try out the Marie Kondo method to get started (only keep things that spark joy or are frequently useful to you), or if Marie isn’t metal enough for you, consider Swedish death cleaning (a process to reduce clutter and make sure your things are in order).

Games to Play Outside During Spring

We love outdoor games, and if you’re here reading this, we assume you do too! (Seriously, if you don’t love outdoor games, how did you even get here?) These are five of our favorites to help you get started taking advantage of that downright gorgeous spring weather, which looks especially promising after the long cold days of winter have begun to thaw out!

Frisbee Tag

Frisbee tag is a fun game to play outdoors for two or more teams of two or more people each. You can play this in your backyard, but find a larger space for maximum fun—like a public park, or your friend who has the really big backyard that’s the best for summer gatherings (every friend group has this friend).

If you don’t already have a frisbee, pick a few up online (you’ll want back-ups!). Frisbee tag is played like a game of “keep away,” with the first team throwing the frisbee to others on their team and trying to keep it from being caught by members of the opposing team(s). Each catch gets one point, interceptions get two points, and the first team to 10 points wins!

family-playing-frisbeeFrisbee Golf

Another great frisbee game if you have a large space to work with is frisbee golf. Any number of people can play this one—you can even play it solo if you just need an excuse to get out of the house and get some of that early spring sunshine!

Start by designating the “golf course” (public parks are great for this because they have a lot of trees and some tall structures that can be used as “golf holes,” or you can mark the “holes” with a simple decoration like a balloon).

Your city might even have designated disc frisbee courses, depending on where you live. Throw the frisbee to the first “hole,” counting how many times it takes to get there, then move on to the next “hole” until you complete the course. Like traditional golf, the total number of tries it takes you to clear all the “holes” is your score—and also, like traditional golf, lower scores are better.

Horseshoes

If you know how to play cornhole, you know how to play horseshoes! Instead of the cornhole boards, use stakes; instead of the Cornhole bags, use horseshoes; instead of twenty-one points to win, winners need 40. This one is a little more of an investment than the other games on our list, and if you are playing with younger kids, we recommend getting a set of plastic shoes that are easier for little hands to throw!

500

This is a super fun game to play outside for at least three players, and the only equipment needed is a ball, a frisbee, a cornhole bag, or anything else that can be thrown into the air. The first person throws a ball or object of choice in the air and calls out a number between 1 and 500, whoever catches the ball gets the number of points that was called out, and the first player to reach 500 wins. This is a great game that doesn’t require any complex setup, and it can help younger kids practice addition!

Cornhole

Our favorite game for two teams of one or two players, cornhole is obviously the best game to play outdoors (this is the one thing that everyone on this planet can surely agree on despite all of our differences). Click here to get a refresh on the official rules of cornhole (and the unofficial rules of cornhole!), and click here to contact us about designing your own custom cornhole game.

Set Spring Goals: Ours is Play More Cornhole!

Studies show you’re more likely to accomplish your New Year’s resolutions if you start with smaller, more manageable steps and work towards something bigger over a longer period of time. This year, use Spring as a jumping-off point to set some small goals that will help add up to a bigger accomplishment by year’s end; just set some goals, then reevaluate them at the end of the season and set new goals for the next season.

For example, if your New Year’s resolution is to eat fewer carbs, a small step towards that goal would be skipping dessert two or three times a week. If your New Year’s resolution is to get better sleep, a small step towards that goal would be going to bed and turning off your phone by a set time every night. All these little actions can add up to big results over time!

Here at Cornhole Worldwide, we’ve mostly set our New Year’s resolutions around spending more time outside (because who hasn’t turned into a shut-in over the past couple of years?) and improving our fitness by getting regular exercise (because it’s hard to run a 5k in our living rooms!)—and an excellent way to do both those things is by playing more cornhole.

We’d love it if you could join all of us at the beginning of our health journey this Spring and start building up the stamina to tackle larger goals by the end of the year. We’ll be starting by playing more Cornhole, and here are four reasons why you should too!

Easy to Learn, Easy to Play

From youngsters to oldsters, cornhole is truly a game for everyone! The rules are simple, and anyone who can toss a beanbag is equipped to play. Whether you’re hosting a birthday party for your kindergartener or want to bring a game to the wedding that Grandma and Grandpa will be able to participate in, cornhole is the right choice. It’s even fun for spectators—you don’t have to be on a team to cheer for your favorite team, and it’s always handy to have a non-player present to serve as referee, especially when it comes to the unofficial rules.

Great Icebreaker

If you’re coordinating a family reunion or any other event where a lot of people might not know each other very well, you’re probably familiar with a whole list of genuinely terrible icebreaker games. Good news: Cornhole is not a genuinely terrible icebreaker—in fact, we think cornhole is the best icebreaker because it unites people in a common goal and encourages good sportsmanship and friendly competition. There’s no pressure to give clever answers to weird questions; it’s just a lively, easy-to-learn game!

Springtime Tournament

For a big event with a lot of people, the best way to make sure everyone will have a chance to play cornhole is by organizing a tournament! You can divide people into teams any way you want to start—bride’s side vs. groom’s side, by family name, ladies vs. gents, generational showdown, whatever makes the most sense for the gathering—and then build your bracket.

If there will be a lot of little kiddos present, now is a great time to introduce them to a sport that will help build skills they’ll use for the rest of their lives! What better way to teach comradery, waiting your turn, sharing with others, and the importance of being a gracious winner and how to take a loss? If your family is a cornhole family, have everyone bring their boards and set up multiple games at once to spread the fun and reduce the wait times!

Play into the Night with Lights

You need to plan ahead when you’re planning a party that you know will keep going long after the sun has set. Outdoor lighting is key for keeping your block party barbeque bumping, and a set of cornhole lights will keep the focus where it should be; on your personalized Cornhole board, all ready for Spring (or any time)!

Keep Kids Occupied During Spring Break

All the parents know Spring Break is on the way! Some people go on epic family trips and make memories that will last a lifetime. Some kids spend the entire week inside playing video games and watching YouTube—but what’s the best compromise between these two extremes? Read on for our best ideas to help you make Spring Break fun for everyone and give the kids something interesting to write about for their “How I Spent My Spring Break” essay!

indoor-campingIndoor Camping

If you have a nice backyard, a tent and some sleeping bags, set up a backyard camping trip! If you don’t have all that stuff, try camping indoors for some Spring Break fun. All it takes is some blankets (to build a tent/pillow fort), s’mores fixings (you can microwave marshmallows, just keep an eye on them because they expand fast!), some candles (to be the “campfire”) or a fireplace video to play on the TV. Then, turn out the lights and tell some campfire stories!

Neighborhood Olympics

If your kids love getting outside and moving around, organize a neighborhood Olympics! Mix and match classics like a sack race, egg-on-spoon race, an obstacle course, and Cornhole with silly ideas like blindfolded jump rope and backwards races. Don’t forget the closing ceremonies! If you want to read up on Cornhole rules or other outdoor games, we have got you covered!

Spring Break Book or Toy Exchange

If your kids love to read, have them collect all the books they’ve read and take them to a designated location to share with others who haven’t read them yet (having one friend’s parents volunteer to be the drop-off and pick-up point works well).

Another way to go with this is to have the group of kids get together to exchange their favorite books (with promises to have them returned after reading, of course!)—then they can get together again at the end of Spring Break and talk with each other about what they liked about the new stories they’ve read.

If your kids aren’t super-excited about books, try a toy exchange—you can even make it inclusive to all kinds of entertainment by also encouraging DVDs and/or video games. Like the book exchange, this can be for keeps, or you can make arrangements to exchange back after Spring Break or some other future date.

Neighborhood Art Fair

If your kid—and other kids in their friend group—is a budding artist, consider organizing a neighborhood art fair! You can go all-out with prize ribbons or go low-key by setting up the art and letting people walk around to admire what everyone’s kids can do. Another fun activity would be setting up a face painting station, caricature drawing, or even a bake sale to raise funds for future neighborhood gatherings.

This year, we hope everyone can appreciate Spring just as much as we do! Whether your Spring will be spent admiring nature and celebrating the end of winter or using this precious practice month to get back into the swing of your favorite games in time for summer barbeque season, we here at Cornhole Worldwide wish all of our readers a very happy Spring!

Please tell us about your Spring plans in the comments below, and if you’re ready to order your very own personalized Cornhole board—to bring back every year for more Spring fun—contact us today to get started designing your board!

Share this post