I was sent ToySmith toys for review. All opinions are my own.

I keep some toys here to entertain kids while they are over. I have a yard so I like having outdoor toys in particular. One day I had the toys out with the kids and we left a few things in the yard, planning to come back out in a few minutes. Then the kids changed their minds and wanted to stay in. I forgot to go grab the toys out of the yard and a huge storm came through that night, knocking out power for most of our town. At the time our main concern was moving our food to someone else’s house so it didn’t go bad, but I was also really bummed that some of our favorite outdoor toys blew into the pond in our yard. “Pond” is a generous description because it has a layer of muck covering the top most of the time. It’s not the kind of pond you’d want to wade into to retrieve a toy that has sunk into it. So, the toys were lost.

Since then I’ve been working on replacing those toys. I’ve also been wanting to update some of our indoor toys as the kids are outgrowing them. I was sent three fun outdoor toys from Toysmith and they have been a lot of fun.

The Toysmith Get Outside Go Spring Ring is really unique. It’s two large (16-inch across) rings that have a springy, mesh material in the center. It comes with two types of balls, one that is a fairly simple rubber ball, another called a splash ball that has stringy bits all gathered together at the core. There isn’t a specific set of game rules that comes with the set, you’re encouraged to get creative and make your own game. The set is recommended for ages 4 and up but my kid sister is 14 and we had fun with it together! It really is a great set for covering people of almost any age. It was interesting to play with how the two different types of balls bounce and react quite differently, so if you get in a groove with the rubber ball and then switch to the splash ball you’ll find yourself having to adjust your style a little bit. We tried hitting back and forth, giving ‘points’ to the person who dropped the ball. We found ourselves sometimes hitting the ball multiple times per person before being able to ‘pass’ it back. So you could easily create rules about how many hits each person can have before having to pass it back. It is even fun just to challenge yourself to see how many times you can bounce it before it hits the ground.

ToySmith Nightzone Capture The Flag was also sent to me. This is for ages 6+  and it’s designed to let you play capture the flag after dark. There is one flag per team, and both flags light up and stay on a base. The goal is for each team to steal the flag from the other team’s base. This set will be really fun to play at family gatherings that include several of my nieces and nephews who are a bit older, but we haven’t tried it out quite yet.

The last item I wanted to tell you about it called Bashminton. This set is recommended for ages 5+ but I found that it’s entertaining even as an adult. It’s roughly based around badminton, but the rackets are very large (so they would be a struggle for younger kids to handle). Instead of a traditional birdie the set comes with a really unique birdie ball that is big at 4.5 inches. While the pieces are large they are pretty lightweight so it’s not too tiring to play with. We don’t have a net so we just played back and forth trying to stay in roughly the same area and it worked just fine. Each set comes with two rackets so if you wanted to play as a family you could just buy multiple sets. The slight difference in racket and birdie make this a fun twist on a classic.

Giveaway: Enter for a chance to win a Bashminton set from Toysmith! To enter fill out the GT form below by 9/20/2017. Giveaway is open to the US.

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Emily

Hi there! I am Emily Evert, the owner of Emily Reviews. I am 28 and live in a small town in Michigan with my boyfriend Ryan and our two pugs. I have a large family and I adore my nieces and nephews. I love reading memoirs, and learning about child development and psychology. I love watching The Game of Thrones, Teen Mom, Sister Wives and Veep. I like listening to Jason Isbell, John Prine, and other alt-country or Americana music. I created Emily Reviews as a creative outlet to share my life and the products that I love with others.

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