6 Backyard DIY games

While our main focus at Mosquito Joe is making your outside fun again, the whole purpose is so that families can get outside and enjoy it!  We thought it would be fun to offer some great DIY options for backyard games, so you and your family can spend some time together enjoying your mosquito free yard.  Let’s start with some true Southern options.

Texas Horseshoes/Washers:

Also known as Redneck Horseshoes, this game started in Texas in the oil boom of the early 1900’s.  While a game of horseshoes involves tossing irons to wrap it around a stake, the Texan option has players throwing a 2.5” circular washer towards a board or to a hole in the ground.   This is a very easy DIY, requiring only two 4.5” sections of PVC driven into the ground, and a collection of washers. For more info just click here.

Cornhole:

This one requires a bit more work in the DIY department, although the resulting board will be with you for years.  Rather than reinventing the wheel, this post from A Wonderful Thought breaks it down perfectly, including detailed instructions and some great design ideas for you finished product.  

Beanbag toss:

Maybe you are not up for the construction of a cornhole board. You can take those beanbags and instead set up a game of beanbag toss.  All that’s required here is a bunch of paper plates, with points written on each. You can start with your closest plate at 10 points, and go all the way up to whatever you chose.  The game simply requires the player to land on a plate and they are awarded the points from that plate.

Backyard Yahtzee:

Great fun for kids, this just requires some cubes of wood and a permanent marker to make the dice. If you want to get a little more fancy, check out this post by Momstastic who burns the dots into herwood (which she gets at Michaels, pre-cut!).  

Bowling:

If you are up for some bowling, a great idea mentioned on several sites is to use some old water bottles, or soda bottles, as pins and throw a tennis ball into the mix instead of a bowling ball.  You can paint the bottles to look more like pins and feel good that you are recycling.

Backyard projector:

Often considered an expensive option, we’ve discovered that it doesn’t have to be.  Small projectors don’t run that much these days and can run off your laptop or phone to play a movie.  For the screen, you can use PVC pipe as a frame and attach projector screen material around it (you can buy the material by the yard as a fabric) or a white sheet if you want to go the most inexpensive route.  Another option is to hang the material as a curtain, weighted inside the bottom seam (we used chain) and with a magnetic strip in the side seam. When the curtains are closed the magnets seal the join, and the weights prevent movement and hey presto – your curtains become the screen.  We don’t have a link for this one as we did this one ourselves!

For a myriad of other ideas, you can check out this great article from DIYncrafts.

Whatever games you pick, please just remember two important things:

1. Clean up your yard afterwards, and make sure all containers are turned upside down so they can’t collect water and make a home for mosquitoes.
2. Have fun and enjoy that yard!