Ultimate Backyard on a Budget

   Over the past year, we've been working on making our backyard a really fun play space for Grady, who is now a fast-paced, exploring, havoc-wreaking toddler. He loves to be outside and what better place to create the ultimate fun time for your kid(s) than your own backyard? Here's how we did it without breaking the bank:

   My mother-in-law is an avid thrift store gem finder. She brought us this crab sandbox which we chose to fill with water as a kiddie pool instead of sand. It also doubles as a dog pool :) $10. (Spare me the nudity outrage comments. Sometimes a little naked pool time is okay and our yard is fenced. Thanks.)

 
She also gave us this awesome fort slide that she snagged for another grandchild a few years ago. I recall her saying it was under $25. Grady LOVES it.

   Then came the homemade splash pad idea. I saw this while browsing ideas for the manchild's first birthday party last year - water/splash themed. I showed it to my handy dad and he knocked it out of the park.

All you need is an 8x8 tarp, 2 - 10 ft., 1 inch pieces of PVC pipe (cut in half), 4 corner pieces, 1 tee piece and a threaded piece for the hose to connect. Total cost for PVC - $15. Another $10 for a tarp if you don't already have one.

   Here comes the crazy fun. Add the fort to the splash pad and get this...

   We adding a digging component to the water fun by building a sandbox with a folding lid and bench seats. Find the tutorial here.  

   We don't really have a way to bring in a truck load of sand into the backyard with our fence the way it is so we did bags of play sand. It took about 18 bags to fill the box. The wood and sand collectively was under $100.  Grady could not wait to get in it.

 

   We had a 3 ft deep inflatable pool Ian found last summer on clearance but it bit the dust after baking in the sun for a year. It was hard to keep clean anyway and we were glad to see it go. We replaced it with this smaller one for $10 that's MUCH easier to manage.
   Until Grady is an exceptional swimmer, the smaller pool leaves me with significantly less anxiety about downing. We do have a doggy door from the house to the backyard that he has learned to escape from and the fear of that scenario I could not overcome.
  And there you have it. A backyard kid's oasis, another mother likened to "Disney World", for around $150. Parenting win!