When you live in Florida and you don’t have a swimming pool, you have to be pretty creative for summer parties. You really don’t want all those kids in your house, but it is way to hot to be outside…unless they are playing in water.
When my kids where little this was the dilemma that we found ourselves in. A pool wouldn’t be in the cards for a few more years so we went to the hardware store and bought a 20′ x 25′ piece of visqueen for about $10. We simply spread it on the grass, squirted some generic brand baby shampoo on it, turned on a sprinkler and called it a super slip and slide…
I can’t begin to tell you how much they loved it!
We have learned over the years to not to buy the black visqueen…way too hot! And even with the clear…you want to remove it right after the party or you will have baked grass.
This is a sure party hit….Long after the pool was installed, the kids were still requesting it.
I’m linking up at…
Wow, that is a fantastic idea!
These are the summer bomb! I’m with you – no black – and no dogs! Ours tried to take a spin and it wasn’t pretty. Thank you for sharing. xoxo michele
What a super-clever idea!
I LOVE LOVE this idea! My kids pop the actual slip and slides the minute we put it up. This is awesome!
thanks so much for sharing with our Summer Camp link up party! love, love this idea!!
What a great idea. I think I will be trying this out soon.
Thanks for the details about your success! We’ve been trying a few things here and will try your version next!
We do this often…my teenager boys like to slip and slide at night with girls! We first tried it with baby oil, but discovered that it kills the grass! Then they used dish soap, but discovered it kills your eyes! So we finally figured out about the baby shampoo!
Hehee….we did the same thing with the dishwashing soap…we had thirty crying kids..not good
Simply wonderful! I am featuring this today!
This is such a great idea! I am going to have to do it this summer! I would love for you to come and share this at my Fantastic Friday link party! http://ironvioletdesigns.blogspot.com
Thanks.
Fantastic idea – love the baby shampoo addition too! Pools aren’t in the cards for us because I have a home daycare and a lot of little ones but this one would definitely be a hit!
My mom has a huge sledding hill and we put plastic down it. Great idea!
Awesome! This looks like a blast!
wow, what a great idea! i can’t wait to head to home depot to make this happen in our back yard! plus, does this count as a bath since you use baby soap??? ; )
I can’t wait to try this!
Do you need to anchor it with anything to keep the edges flat?
It works best if you use tent stakes or very large nails…sorry I forgot that part
What a fantastic idea Dianne! My kiddos would just love it!
Vanessa
Great idea! Lovely way for the kids to enjoy the summer days too.
Awesome … with the addition of a sprinkler they can have continuous spray. Thanks for sharing.
Wonderful idea! We have three little boys who would love it! Headed to the hardware store!
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any tips on how much baby shampoo to put? and you just squirt it all over the sheeting? or is there something im missing.. Thanks!
We just squited on the sheeting and kept the water squirting on the sheet and the kids..which they loved..every once in a while we would squirt more baby shampoo…we just buy baby shampoo at the dollar store so we could use as much as we wanted without seeing dollar signs
This is fabulous! My 3 year old requested a slip n slide as her only birthday gift! I always wanted one myself as a child, but we had no grass. sniff. Anyway, if we ever have a huge grassy yard, this will be high on my list for summer fun. And thanks for mentioning the baby shampoo tip!
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We’ve been doing this this summer as well, with the addition of a 25 ft sprinkler hose which we place right down the middle. It is SO much better than a regular slip and slide…
My friends and I did this last month in the local park. We cut the sheeting into long strips and laid them out down a slight slope. We asked permission from the park to use their faucets and bought out own hose to set the whole thing up. we didn’t use baby shampoo, just water, so there was a little blood, but we had some kick boards the we could ride down it on our knees and it was a blast. My 6’2” boyfriend was so happy to be able to slip-n-slide again!
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Can you use a tarp or painter’s plastic?
A tarp would probably be too rough and I think painter’s plastic might rip to easily.
I am excited to do this for a party coming up but having trouble finding the visqueen. Found plastic sheeting in 4 mil thickness. Is this what I’m looking for?
4 Mil should be fine. I wouldn’t go any thiner though. Be sure to read all my comments..like it’s best to use some tent stakes and don’t forget the baby shampoo. Have a great party! The kids will love it!!!!
where did you find your visqueen at? we went to lowes but they only have the 10 ft. x 100ft. and it was almost $100.
This worked wonderfully. the 20×25 foot at Ace Hardware and a small local store was $20 but it was still worth it!
As a stay at home dad this is a wonderful idea for my two children. They have been using a garden hose with the neighborhood children, but this idea is wonderful and easy to use. Thanks for Minnesota!
I love this! And double duty: the kids are all CLEAN afterward!
Thanks so much for the fantastic idea!
Who knew 30 odd years ago when we did this as kids we were trend setters… My grandfather owned a carpet installation business and had clear visqueen all over the place, us kids would make slip and slides and pools (a brick boarder with visqueen wrapped around them) and all kinds of things… the only time we got in trouble was the year my cousin broke his finger; there was a hole, his finger went in and bent backwards… the mean old parents shut us down for that year.. after that we learned to check for holes every time we made one… glad to see more kids having a blast like we used to.
now this looks great! BUT..I must ask, is it safe?? I envision children crashing and falling and twisting joints..no??
safe??? hmmmm …is climbing a tree safe? Someone could probably get hurt..even though we did this for years and never had a problem…I don’t tend to be a high stress mom but if you are I would say don’t do it…it helps cushion the crash if you put it on over grown grass
Wow! Now that’s a slip ‘n slide! Whenever our slip ‘n slide broke when we were little, we used garbage bags and dish soap. Yours is much bigger! My husband (a carpenter) keeps saying we should just get a big piece of that!
awesome. awesome!!! so fun.. we have some birthdays coming up and might just have to give this a try.
thanks for inspiring~