Backyard Fun to Save Your Sanity

Surviving summer with a toddler can feel like hosting a never-ending outdoor birthday party with no cake and too many bubbles. Now make it two toddlers.

Exactly.

Leaving the house with my two boys feels like a full military operation. Thus, the backyard became my best (and only) bet. Here are the backyard activities that have actually bought me some precious, tantrum-free minutes—and yes, some of them even involved sitting down with a cold coffee. You're welcome.

1. Sprinkler Time

I don’t know about you, but I fell for the HGTV aesthetic and thought I could be a gardener someday. Well, that dream was a bust, but now I have a sprinkler sitting on my porch not getting used. While my boys were screaming at each other for the fifth time in 5 minutes, I thought, what kid doesn’t love sprinklers? I know I used to love summers in Florida splashing through them in the front yard, barefoot and not a care in the world. Time to give my boys that same magic.

Set up time was miniscule and play time was about 30 minutes. Overall, this was the easiest activity I set up for my boys and toddlers and bigger kids alike, would love it too.

2. Inflatable Pool

This one is a bit more daring: My spouse and I saw this Costco pool on sale and, being the impulsive buyers we are, purchased it. Did we have a way to inflate this? No. Luckily, we got some help from my father-in-law and after about an hour we had the pool inflated and filled halfway (our boys don’t know how to swim yet so we only wanted it to go up to their thighs).

Was the water warm? No. Did my boys love it anyway? Yes. My oldest loves jumping into the pool singing the “Blue skidoo, we can too” song from Blues Clues. I also threw in some bath toys to make the fun last. This one earned us a whopping hour of fun! But it wasn’t as relaxing since I was hyper aware of every movement they made in the water.

3. Chalk It Up

Moving away from water, chalk is an easy way to have endless fun and check off the arts and crafts box of the day! My boys loved drawing scribbles all over our patio and of course I joined in. They’d ask me to draw things and enthusiastically scribble over it once I was done. You can add cars to the mix and draw roads or race tracks for your kids to drive the car on. Giving you about 15 minutes to remember how adorable your kids are and forget about the tantrum over the wrong blue cup this morning.

4. Backyard Toy Hunt

Easter Egg Hunts are a huge hit with toddlers. Why do we have to limit them to just one holiday? Take your kids toys (Dinosaurs, action figures, barbies, etc) and hide them around the yard. Your kids can spend at minimum five minutes looking for their toys. This is such an easy way to keep them focused on a mission and their fighting will hopefully turn into team work instead. Just make sure you remember where you placed all the toys. The last thing you want is to deal with the fallout of losing their random green dinosaur that has suddenly become their favorite.

5. Making Mud (Yes, Really)

Does your yard have random patches of dirt? Mine too. We’re not here to judge our landscaping abilities, we’re here to use what we have to our advantage.

Let your kids add water to that dirt. Make mud. Let them make mud pies and volcanoes. Bring out the plastic toys that can later be rinsed off and have your kids make their own sensory area with the mud! This could keep my boys entertained for at least one to three chapters of my audiobook. And if they eat it, well at least it’s organic?

It’s Not Perfect, But It’ll Do

All of the activities I described above had one thing in common: Me.

If I am engaged with them, even just cheering from our patio furniture, the kids are happy. They love having attention on them and giving them attention when they’re doing positive actions helps control tantrums.

Your backyard time is not going to always be a perfect Instagram reel; it’s going to be real life. So, take the snapshots to capture the happy times and remember not to sweat if things don’t go as planned.

You’ve got this, Mama. Showing up for your kids is half the battle. At the end of the day they won’t remember if you had their pool set up like an influencer’s. They’re going to remember how much fun they had in their cheap little plastic pool with their family.