Water Table..

dbertagni

I've seen a few ranging from $29 at Wal-Mart to $59 on Amazon, is one better than another? Costco has a water and sand one for $50, but I didn't know if that was worth it, or if it would be super messy.

I am looking for outdoor stuff for this summer. So far we are doing a little splash pool, sand box, water table and one of those crazy water things you attach the hose to and it sprays. Any other ideas?

starz080

We have the step 2 water table from WM.  ILs got it as a gift for her b-day.  I think it was in the $30 range.  It's just a water table and doesn't have a separate spot for sand.  I saw the water/sand/attached umbrella tables at WM (online) for $60 and at Aldi for $59.00.  They're a lot nicer than what we have, but ours is sufficient.  I actually really enjoy the water table!

I went ahead and stocked up on summer outdoor stuff for her since we were going to use it for her b-day party.  We have everything you mentioned except for the sand box.  I'm feeling anti-sandbox b/c of the mess.  I am tempted to get the play balls though and thought about putting those in her pool (without water) from time to time.  I also picked up a slide at a consignment sale and will probably use that with the pool too.

 ETA....Since I looked everywhere for something to attach the water hose too, I figured I'd let you know where I found mine.  Maybe it'll save you time.  I went to sooo many stores looking for something.  I ended up getting a flower one at WM for $1 and a fire hydrant at Tuesday Morning.  Both are very cute.

dbertagni

So far all we have is the pool. I am thinking about the sand box, if I can find something not totally ugly we are going to get it. I want a little play/slide thing but Jocelyn does not like slides at all, so maybe once she warms up to it. I am going to check out Craigslist. I saw the Step 2 water table at Wal-Mart for $29.

What water sprayer thing do you have? I was looking at this and this.

akspriss

I would suggest if you are going to do a sand box to just do the water table vs. the sand and water table.

dbertagni

Yeah, I'm thinking I may hold off on the sand all together until we see how well she does playing outside. We also have our neighborhood playground, pool, and baby pool, so I am hoping we'll spend a lot of time there this summer since we are still trying to get grass to grow and I'd hate to mess up our grass.

crescentmoon99

We have this one, and Liam loved it all last summer (we haven't put it back out yet this year).  The water wheel is a really cool feature for extra fun.  We didn't pay that much for it, more like $35, but if you watch Amazon their prices usually go up and down.

starz080

We have this water table...

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Step2-Water-Wheel-Play-Table/13070215

 

I have no idea why that one is a little more than the arctic one.  I cannot find links to the water sprayers I have, but the fire hydrant one is very much like the ones you posted.  It's kinda boyish, but I was desparate for something and she doesn't care!  Tuesday Morning is hit or miss, but I think it was $6 or $7 there.  The flower one moves all around once the water starts coming out.  It's actually really cool.  It was originally $15 then marked down to $10 then I guess they were just trying to get rid of it and marked down to $1.  Craziness.  I should have gotten all of them now that I look back on it.  It's actually really cool.  But it was a fluke that I found it for so cheap!

 You're so lucky that your neighborhood has so much to offer for kids!

murph04

We've got this Step 2 water table. I got it from Wal-Mart, but our WM had it for $29. I haven't set it up for DS yet, but I chose it because of the good reviews it got on Amazon and on some of the other Bump boards. I decided not to go with a sand and water table after hearing from some friends that they could get really messy, and we've got a regular sandbox that we're going to set up for him soon anyway.

As for other outdoor toy ideas, I've picked up some cheapo rubber balls from Wal-Mart to kick around the yard, DS received a bunch of bubbles for his birthday, and I've been looking around for something fun like this fabric tunnel thingy. Other than that, there are a few good community yard sales in my area that I plan to go to in the coming weeks, and I'm hoping I'll find some stuff I haven't even thought of.

ETA: I've also got a baby pool I picked up last season at WM for $7 on clearance and stashed away for this year.  It's got a little thing where I can hook up the hose and it is like a little sprinkler.

dbertagni

Murph-we have that tunnel thing and Jocelyn loves it, we have the tent upstairs and the tunnel downstairs (I wasn't going to have a tent in the middle of my tiny living room). She loves both of them, but the fabric on the tunnel is really thin.

I got the baby pool at WM for $10 and I think I will go with that same water table, my WM had it for $29 as well.

MrsJones2005

murph04:

We've got this Step 2 water table. I got it from Wal-Mart, but our WM had it for $29. I haven't set it up for DS yet, but I chose it because of the good reviews it got on Amazon and on some of the other Bump boards. I decided not to go with a sand and water table after hearing from some friends that they could get really messy, and we've got a regular sandbox that we're going to set up for him soon anyway.

As for other outdoor toy ideas, I've picked up some cheapo rubber balls from Wal-Mart to kick around the yard, DS received a bunch of bubbles for his birthday, and I've been looking around for something fun like this fabric tunnel thingy. Other than that, there are a few good community yard sales in my area that I plan to go to in the coming weeks, and I'm hoping I'll find some stuff I haven't even thought of.

ETA: I've also got a baby pool I picked up last season at WM for $7 on clearance and stashed away for this year.  It's got a little thing where I can hook up the hose and it is like a little sprinkler.

 We have a tunnel thing similar to that (only without the tent) that is meant to look like a giraffe that we got at Target.  Maybe try looking there. 

raceyrae

crescentmoon99:

We have this one, and Liam loved it all last summer (we haven't put it back out yet this year).  The water wheel is a really cool feature for extra fun.  We didn't pay that much for it, more like $35, but if you watch Amazon their prices usually go up and down.

We have the same one.  Natalie loves it.  We have our on our enclosed deck so during the summer we had water in it.  From Fall through Spring, we put sand in it for her to play with when the weather was decent enough for her to play on the deck.  We just empty the sand and put water back for the summer again.  It worked out really well for us.

raceyrae

murph04:

As for other outdoor toy ideas, I've picked up some cheapo rubber balls from Wal-Mart to kick around the yard, DS received a bunch of bubbles for his birthday, and I've been looking around for something fun like this fabric tunnel thingy. Other than that, there are a few good community yard sales in my area that I plan to go to in the coming weeks, and I'm hoping I'll find some stuff I haven't even thought of.

We have a similar tent item that we were using indoors with her for awhile.  Now that the weather is nice, we've moved it to an outdoor toy which she loves -- mixes it up for her.