I have been trying to think up a good outside play area for Annabelle. In CA the money was very limited, as was what my Mom would let me do. Here in MN the yard is not made for kids but for flower gardens. The one area in the back yard is poopulated by the dogs. Bad joke, huh ; )

I really like Waldorf outdoor areas. I love the idea of making a creek bed and lining it with rocks and putting a board over it for play. I *really* want to build a sand box for Annabelle. The paddling pool is a must too. I'm also thinking of doing some container gardening with Annabelle.

What do you all have?

We have the large, wooden play structure from Costco with a sandbox underneath.

Not thrify, but awesome for the boys to play on.

my youngest to go up on and over (he loves it!)

There is also a path around a shed which he calls a 'tunnel' and lots of little fun things for him to do (little shovels to dig with and garden decorations like butterflies on sticks and so on he can move around)

He has a little movable slide he sometimes plays with (freestanding and sturdy)

I have bubble containers and wands around too.

We are using an old wood waterbed frame for our sandbox. All we have to do is screw the 4 sides together, throw some newspaper or plastic on the bottom of it to keep the weekds down and then throw some sand in. We also plan on putting a used patio umbrella that was given to us in the middle of it to keep the sun from burning the kiddos.Very cheap, easy, and it seems that old waterbed frames are easy to find if you ask around. We also have a small swingest, club house, and several items like nature observatories for bugs, bubble wands, etc...

I'm very proud of our yard. Here are some "before" pics but they include our salvaged swingset:

http://www.dancing-bears.com/images/yard1.jpg
This one shows our hammock and beyond that is where we'll put our raised bed garden. Working on that this week.

http://www.dancing-bears.com/images/yard2.jpg
We hung this pretty rope and wood swing (dh made) from a high branch. It has great travel!

http://www.dancing-bears.com/images/yard6.jpg
The swingset. The main "fort" part with slide was our neighbors'. Their kids are older and they put in a pool, so we rolled it over to our yard on big logs (took down some fence). We added a long beam and bought swings and a glider and hung them on there. We got rid of the monkey bars as they were rotted.

We'd like to add an old junkyard steering wheel, a cargo net to climb, and eventually monkey bars. It also needs to be pressure washed and stained as it's rotting a bit, but not too badly.

I would like to add sand pits, rope and wood bridges, more foliage and paths between the beds. Oh, and a treehouse in the big stand of trees near the swing....then you could jump onto the swing from the treehouse and really have a great time.

Right now we have a wading pool in the middle of the yard and the kids love to play with the hose. But they end up making mud and just playing naked in the mud!! Silly kids. ;)

Enjoy creating your space! It didn't cost us much to make ours. We got heavy duty swing brackets because we wanted the (big) neighbor kids to be able to come swing on their old swingset, so the wood and swings and hardware we added cost about $150. Then we spent about $50 for mulch to go under it. The wood swing cost $5.

We got a wooden swingset....worth the money as it has lasted for a long time and the kids all love it. We also had a playhouse, but kids grew too tall for it. But they loved it when younger. Pools....we alwaya make sure we have a swimming pool for them to play in over the summer. This year we bought them a big one, with a ladder.....15 feet around and 42 inches tall......they are older now so a kiddie pool just won't work. (o; Ummm, bikes for the front. Sidewalk chalk and bubbles always. I am a strong believer that kids need things to do and play with, and since we have a smaller yard with no "nature" areas, like cool older trees and creeks or trails, we try to make sure we have other fun things to do, and we get our "creek walks" and other things at local parks. (o:

Does anyone know of websites with pics of kid play/graden areas? I have tried searching, but can't find much. But I know more must be out there.


Check http://www.gardenweb.com they probably have something.

here is a website that has a list of wonderful books for designing outdoor play areas

http://www.b4ubuild.com/books/playhouses.shtml (http://)

I have tried to find a site that offers on-line designs/ideas etc but have had no luck.