Backyard Toy Recommendations!

This isn't a toy but my DD has a plastic table w/chairs for the backyard. In addition to eating at it, she can do messy arts-and-craft type stuff like painting, play dough, etc. on it. It works out perfectly for us. Plus it would be nice for playdates as well. The kids can sit at their own table. There usualy not too expensive either.

Water play!!! Maybe a sand-and-water type table although you mention that you already have a sandbox. Kiddie sprinklers are fun too. So are kiddie pools.

A plastic picnic table is great for picnics (obviously, lol), fingerpainting, and all sorts of yucky stuff that you don't want to do inside the house, a play house is fun too. My daughter takes her friends in hers to do tea parties (she's 3 this week) and she loves her art easel to use chalk on. We also have a sandbox (huge hit!) and a swingset and ride on toys.

Picnic table for kids
The little house~this was the best, best thing ever besides the swingset, we moved ours 5 times
Swingset~ours is a big wooden one, we've had 7 of those, each move we do another.
play kitchen
Fisher Price or playschool grill
THey will use these kinds of toys for everything. .
My daughter at 10 would sit on the little house and read. They locked dogs in it. THey took cats to it. THey decorated it for Halloween and Christmas with lights. They overturned it and made a boat.

Sandboxes are great, but I would go bigger in a year or so than the turtle one. They'll enjoy it for a long time! The sand and water tables also provide hours of entertainment. We love ride-on toys as well -tricycles, big wheels, Little Tykes cars and the ride ons they power with their feet. If you have pavement back there, sidewalk chalk is good and all sorts of balls. Little kids love to throw, run, kick and chase balls. When they're a little older, think about a trampoline. Most kids love them.

Hi Jeannie, Don't go nuts...a sand box, a swing, a wadeing pool and a bike along with a great imagination are all a child needs to play outside!! Jumping in a pile of leaves, hopscotch on the driveway, playing 4-square, basketball, dodgeball with friends....climbing trees....bumps, scratches, and a suntan! The joys of childhood!

My boys (ages 7 and 2) like to play with our Step 2 wagon, I like it because we can leave it outside and it won't get ruined. We also have the smaller plastic version of the wheelbarrow-it may be Step 2 or Fisher price. The kids like to use to to mock us doing yard work. We have one of those jungle gym climby things, its a half circle that the kids can climb in on or around (I have no idea what its called!) - give the kids a drop cloth from painting and its a fort! Other then that they sometimes take a few toys out with them like cars, scooters, bikes, chalk - if you have a walkway.

The Little Tikes Cozy Coupe Car is great!! My 2 year old loves climbing in and out of it and it is always the biggest hit during playdates. Also, Little Tikes moonbounces are super. The bouncers are on the expensive side (depending on which one you choose) and you can't leave them out in bad weather, but the kids have a blast in them and many of them can accomodate several kids up to age 7 or 8, so it will last a long time. Balls, tricycle, ride on toys, kiddie basketball hoop.