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I love having my kids home for the summer! This year I was counting down days until school was over so we could just play! Towards the end of the school year, I asked my kids what they wanted to do this summer. Expecting that they would say something like going to an amusement park, or the aquarium or something, the only request they could come up with was to swim in the pool out back! Done!
I was shocked at such a simple request! But happy to follow through. We spend a lot of time in our backyard in the summer, and here are our must-have summer toys!
Swimming Pool
My kids LIVE in our cheap swimming pool out back. They love it! We usually leave it up for a couple of days and clean it out with a butterfly net in the morning! It warms up a few degrees overnight and then the kids REALLY love to play in it because they aren’t as cold!
They make up and play all sorts of games in the freezing cold water. Including who is brave enough to dunk their head in the water! Their favorite game currently is to sit at opposite ends of the pool and kick their legs and splash each other! Go figure? But they love it!
I know these have been a little difficult to find this year, so if you do find one in stock don’t wait to buy it!
We love using this pool to fill water balloons, and water guns! And the kids have a little slide that they put in it to slide into the pool and have a waterslide! I would say of everything they play with, this is number 1! It gets filled up multiple times a week, and they absolutely love it!
Water Balloons
Along with our pool my kids absolutely love water balloons! If you’re looking to save on money, definitely opt to go for the regular water balloons that you fill up one at a time.
Or if you’re looking to save some time, try out these Bunch of Balloons. If you’ve ever spent hours tying water balloons you will totally appreciate how wonderful these are! You seriously hook up a piece to the hose, they pump up, you shake them off and you’re done! I’m definitely a fan! We usually buy them in bulk and use them all summer long!
If you haven’t tried the bunch of balloons, I know they’re a little more expensive, but the time you save is worth every penny! I love how fast they fill with water, and that my fingers are saved from hours of tying! (Only to be broken in 2 seconds!)
Water Shooters
These water shooters have been the summer favorite! My son in particular has loved them. He uses them every time the kids are outside, and is especially notorious for spraying his sisters!
We take them to the splash pad, and the kids love spraying each other there. They have had wars with them, and competitions to see who sprays them the furthest! (They all spray the same distance, but it keeps them entertained!)
This was a new addition to our regular summer toys but has not disappointed in the least!
Sidewalk Chalk
I love when my kids want to play with sidewalk chalk. It’s one of the activities I gladly join in with them on! But I’m pretty pick with my chalk! The Crayola Sidewalk Chalk is by far the best!! It’s smooth, comes in lots of colors and doesn’t make a horrible noise on the cement! Plus it’s square not round so rather than rolling all the way down the driveway, it only rolls a little ways!
We love to trace the kids bodies and let them color them. Letter their names in every way possible. And color mermaids, dragons and everything we can imagine!
Bubble Maker
We had this bubble maker show up on our door one day, sent by a family member out of town! It was the best surprise!
The kids love that it has a handle for them to carry it (which sometimes spills bubbles everywhere!) But it puts out a ton of bubbles and is always a big hit!
I typically pick up a few big bottles of bubbles cause they do go through bubbles pretty fast! Turn on some music and let them pop away!
Splash Pad
I was nervous having an almost toddler this summer and a pool! So I looked into some alternative options for her to still be able to play in the water.
I bought this Splash Pad for her, but the older kids have loved it as well. I like that the water pools in the middle, but doesn’t get too deep!
The outside fills with water and then sprays out of little holes. My only advice is to make sure the big kids don’t jump on the outside, or it gets holes along the seams.
Wiggle Bikes
Our neighbors got these Wiggle Bikes at the beginning of the summer, and my kids have been obsessed. They are easy to ride, and handle lots better than I thought they would!
They’ve been such a fun summer toys, that the kids fought over them for a while. Luckily they’ve learned how to share them!
Our kids like to ride down our slanted driveway and turn onto the sidewalk. They actually get going really fast, and they never seem to get sick of them!
Water Table
This Water Table was another alternative for my toddler to still be able to get wet, without a lot of worry from me! She loves to put the balls (and everything else) down the twisty slide in the middle!
We also have an assortment of these rubber ducks that she loves to play with. And the older kids use the water table to fill up their water shooters when we don’t have the pool out.
We have had ours going on 3 summers now and it has held up amazing with no problems!
Balls and more balls!
Seriously though, I’m constantly picking up balls all over the yard. But they never seem to tire of them! I’m pretty sure they go over the fence to the neighbors yard at least fifty times a day. But the kids really love them.
My kids put them on the trampoline and play the game where they can’t touch you. And if they do you are out. They also love to watch my husband throw them on the roof and bounce off!
Snow Cone Machine
No, this isn’t a toy. But it’s the next best thing! And a summer necessity! We live on snow cones in the summer and this Rival Snow Cone Machine doesn’t require special ice molds. Just throw in whatever you have and it chops it up into perfectly small pieces of ice for snow cones!
It took us a while to find a really good brand of flavoring but with this one I have yet to try a flavor that isn’t amazing! We found them at a local grocery store, but lucky for you, Amazon carries them as well!
Sometimes, we even buy the special snow cone cups and straws to make it extra exciting and fun!
We pack a lot of fun into everyday of the summer! And spend lots of time outside getting wet! I hope you found some fun summer toys and activities you can do with your kids. Comment below and let me know what you love to do with your kids in the summer time! And any awesome summer toys I missed so we can give them a try!
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