As a reward for their newfound bike skills, the Easter bunny was nice enough to include some water bottle attachments in the kids Easter baskets. These might be one of our best quarantine purchases yet.
I mean, as much as I loved following behind them with a fifty pound backpack of water on each ride, my old lady back is super thankful. They were super quick and easy to attach too.
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| | Adjustable bike water bottle holder we used for smaller bikes | |
We've also had so much fun playing games outside as a family. With out any professional or collegiate sports playing on T.V., a lack of weekend sideline cheering in our lives, and the absence of any park being open, we've had to resort to using our own driveway and yards to satisfy our competitive natures.
Some games and toys are old favorites, but we've found a few new ones that we have loved too. Yard Dice has seemed to be the crowd favorite. And easy enough even for the four year old to participate in.
Another huge hit has been this obstacle course we created with some outdoor toys. It was super easy to come up with, and the kids have had a blast rotating the toys around to come up with different courses for each other to do.
Here are just a few other outdoor toys and games that our families have loved, or are on our list to get to entertain us the remaining amount of time. A few have been such a huge hit, and we can't wait to play them during the nine million parties we are going to host once the corona chaos is done!
2. Rocket Copters - A toy that is so simple, and inexpensive, but our kids love. We found out that Dick's Sporting Goods had curb side pick up within an hour and we were so excited we picked up a few outdoor toys and games. It also came in handy when we realized our kids needed new sneakers. The kids love shooting these into the air, shooting each others down, and shooting them with friends (it's easy to social distance with these - everyone lines up down the street and just shoots). They even light up, so at night that has been a fun bonus game.
3. Yard Dice - This was another game I picked up from Dicks (but there are tons of options available on Amazon too!) As I mentioned earlier the kids love this game. It's been a favorite of the whole family actually. It is essentially a larger version of Yahtzee.
3. Oversized Connect Four - We've played this at friends' homes and our kids are obsessed. We have this one on order and it should be arriving any day now. It's a little more expensive, but liked that it came with the storage bag.
4. Spike Ball - Okay so we might not be at a beach, but this is the quarantine and all rules have gone out the window. We realized we can play this game in the yard or the driveway just as easily as we can at the beach, and all of us have a blast playing it!
5. Yard Dice - This was another game I picked up from Dicks (but there are tons of options available on Amazon too!) As I mentioned earlier the kids love this game. It's been a favorite of the whole family actually. It is essentially a larger version of Yahtzee.
6. Ninja Warrior Course - Our kids love watching Ninja Kids, Ultimate Ninja Warrior, and now on Netflix Ultimate Beastmaster. We got a few of these as birthday gifts, and Carrie Beth's son has a whole course and zip line set up in their yard. They've had a blast creating their own Ninja obstacles with the jumping stones, zip lines, and other accessories.
7. Walkie Talkies - We remember thinking walkie talkies were fun as kids, so we figured ours would love it too. They've been playing hide and seek style games with these (and talking to guide the person to find them), or battle games with their Nerf guns. We like this set because it's rechargeable through USB - so no need for batteries!
8. Yard Pong - Think beer pong, but oversized. We don't have this one...yet, but it just looks fun and you can modify it to be family friendly.
9. Giant Dominos - In the spirit of all the oversized yard games, there is also giant dominos. It's such a fun game, and we hadn't pulled it out for awhile, but the kids have loved it.
10. Flarts - Aside from the name that makes everyone giggle, this is a fun kid-friendly yard darts game. It's easy enough for toddlers to play and it was super easy to set up.
We hope this helps in case you've hit an entertainment lull in the quarantine. Another fun suggestion we've had from a friend was doing a game exchange. One of our friends has the over sized Connect Four game, and we plan to do a swap with the Yard Dice one day for a change of pace. If you have a game you've loved - please share! It looks like home will be the main source of entertainment for awhile still.
