Time for Backyard Summer Fun!
May 15, 2018
We break out the bathing suits in a few weeks to take advantage of the beach and the boats at the Aurora Reservoir and all there is to do near our lakeside community, but you can also entertain your kids and each other at home with a few of these backyard ideas for summer fun!
Kids Will Love…
You can go hula crazy with a couple of hoops and shower curtains and create little hideouts for the kids. Mom Blogger Carrie at Making Lemonade created this no-sew refuge for her kids – and pulled it off in an couple of hours. Pick up hula hoops and shower curtains at the Southlands Walmart Super Store on Aurora Parkway (five minutes from Southshore) and watch your kids fall for these impromptu tents. This budget-friendly idea comes together for about $25 total.
For a little more time and effort, Rubyellen, blogging for A Beautiful Mess, shared instructions for a simple A-frame tent, with some moulding strips, skinny dowels, a drill and spade bit, plus fabric. You can score everything but the fabric at the Home Depot on South Gun Club Road in Aurora. The result is easy to set up, take down, move indoors for a kid-friendly favorite.
These are buys not DIYs, but when the temperatures rise and kids need to cool off, consider this inflatable sprinkler park from Walmart. And just because it’s designed for the under-18 set, doesn’t mean you wouldn’t have a blast with it, too! For a more artistic pursuit, try walkie chalk. This brilliant invention lets kids create works of art outside, minus the mess, with a long-handled adjustable chalk holder.
For a dozen more ideas for active, engaged summer fun, visit Care.com’s list of 101 things to do and spark your imagination!
Backyard Movie Theater!
Sadly, most drive-in movie theaters have been bulldozed to make way for shopping malls. But YOU can create an awesome outdoor cinema experience in your own backyard – all you need is the right gear! A white wall will do the trick for a screen, or a sheet, or an inflatable screen available from Target on Gartrell Road. Then get yourself a home theater projector at Target, Walmart, or like this one from Amazon. Then pull out the pillows and start popping the corn!
DIY Retreats
Check out these relax-and-play structures on HGTV, in particular a multi-purpose arbor ready for climbing vines and plants with a matching bench, plus separate seesaws with built-in blackboard art spaces. There’s something for everyone in that combo creation – hours of fun for the kids, and a space to read and relax for adults. Going Yard stars Chris and Peyton Lambton have made the tutorial for DIYers.
Or fashion your own pergola with a little help from Created Home. With lights, curtains and a chandelier, the dining area that blogger Sarah convinced her handy husband to create is a cozy sanctuary that ultimately cost about $200.
Permanently Scrabbled
Okay, definitely more than a weekend went into this backyard scrabble game. Sunset showcases the life-size diversion that required a wooden frame and poured concrete, scored into squares then stained. The Scrabble pieces were no easy feat, either, but just look at the giant mind-bending fun you can have for backyard parties!
Backyard Entertainment in Southshore
The backyards are built for fun and games and entertaining in the master-planned community of Southshore! If you don’t live here yet, come on over and experience life at the lake while you explore stunning model homes from Toll Brothers, Century Communities and Richmond American Homes. These beautiful new designs — both ranch and two-story models — are priced from the upper $300s to the $700s.