Best outside toys

Charlie is almost 10months & due to currently living in one of the hottest places in Australia in a company house with "NO" backyard he does not often get to go outside.

We will be moving in a couple weeks & will have a great backyard....I'm sick of him playing with the telly & so on. So have decided for his 1st Birthday he will be getting a stack of outside stuff & he can go nuts everyday!

So my question is, what do you have that has been great? What are good outside things, or what has been a waste of money?

We have a swing & ummm thats it.:)

Our boys love their clam shell. It used to have sand but I got sick of vacuuming it off the floor. I'll restock it over winter but for now with the hot weather we use it for water play. On a hot day I half fill 2 buckets with water and put them in the clam shell with a few plastic cups and empty bottles and the boys have a blast measuring the water and moving it around between the buckets and containers. When they've finished we put it on the gardens so they carry it around pouring it on plants.
They also love their balls.
We also have a play-gym with a slide that they like.
The hopper gets used occasionally but they get bored and forget it then re-discover it again.
Also they have one of those 'trikes' that are foot powered not pedal powered and they love it.

Totally agree re the clam shell........ours is still going strong.....sand in winter and water in summer.

We also have a little pop up tend (cost about $10 from a variety shop) and it is eternally popular. Some days it is a train, other days it is a cubby......it allows them to use their imaginations, and also houses all sorts of "stuff")

We have ride on trikes, which annoy me as they often get dragged inside, but the kids love them.

Olivia & Charlie both have a gardening set which gets a lot of use (little watering can and mini trowels etc)

For Christmas DH we organised them a cubby house, and we will add bits to that as we go.......

And we also have a "tunnel" thing.........it was a hand me down from a friend.......and all of the children still love it. It is about 3 m long, made from blue tarp that coils into itself, and they use it to link the cubby to teh tend, or just to roll round in......Lexie in particular loved it when she was crawling....

I can't believe I forgot to mention the bilibo
Bilibo indoors and outdoors, all year round...

We got one a month ago and it's fantastic. They use it as a tunnel for their train, they sit in it, they stand on it, they wear it on their head. We took it to the pool and my niece and nephew wouldn't give it up lol.
it's an indoor/outdoor toy but we mainly keep it indoor just because things last longer kept inside.

Aidyn had a push around lawn mower which was an absolute hit for years!!

His trampoline is also a big favourite, but that should probably wait till he is of toddler age?

Sandpits have always been popular too.

Riley loves his little tikes car, he drives that around for ages. He also loves the clam shell pool/sandpit too.

If you get a tricycle, make sure you get one with a tray for putting little toddler treasures in!

Ditto on the clam shell.

My DD also used to derive endless hours of amusement from carrying around one of those little cheap plastic toddler chairs LOL! Chloe, I've never heard of the bilibo's but think they look fantastic, that was a hot tip if I ever heard one!

We have tunnel, mini watering can, a thousand balls, trikes, shovels for the dirt in the garden, a tent, strollers - because the dolls lov to walk outside a blackboard...hmmm not much else. We don't have a lot of room, but she's a good little player...lol yesterday she watered all the plants with a 50ml cup.

Chloe that is fantastic - where did you buy it???? I tried the links but it goes around in circles...

I got one on ebay but you can also get them at cowtrees.com.au and moochiemoo.com.

All the above ideas are great, but also an easel... we have one which has a blackboard on one side and a white board on the other, then a big roll of paper for finger-painting which loops up through the middle. Finger-painting is great outside when it's hot as you can just hose them off afterwards! LOL.