From pirate ships to trampolines, kids have all the fun

HGTV’S “My Yard Goes Disney” may have turned ordinary backyards into Disney-inspired wonderlands, but Maricopa parents are giving the network a run for its money.

From pirate ships to beach resorts to go-kart tracks, local parents have created kid-friendly backyards that keep their children active and healthy, while exercising their imaginations.

Chris Weeks built a pirate ship for his kids, Natalie, 8, and Nicholas, 5, in their Maricopa Meadows backyard.

“I built it to keep their imagination going,” he said. “They’re always making up something out there and coming up with different games, like hunting for treasures.”

Weeks said it took him two months to build the wooden ship he designed. He used cedar, redwood and Douglas fir he got from Home Depot.

The technical support engineer said working with wood has been his hobby since junior high school.

“My dad used to be an architect, designing houses,” he said. “I picked up on things by watching.”

The ship has a picnic table inside for the kids to eat meals on and three cannons that shoot water into the pool when connected to a hose.

“I wanted to do something more fun than the typical play structure,” he said.

His wife, Christina, said the kids pretend to steer the ship and love going down the slide.

“They love to spray the ‘bad pirates’ coming into our pool,” she said. “We also have a treasure chest that has gold coins and rocks that they love to hide throughout our backyard.”

Prudential One Realty Realtor Larry Palmer said backyard features improve the marketability of homes.

“There are so many yards that I look at that are just barren,” he said. “People don’t want to spend $20,000 to $30,000 when they first move in to fix up a backyard.”

Palmer said some of the nicest backyards he’s seen are in Cobblestone Farms. 

Molly Batzer, a Cobblestone Farms resident, said she and her husband transformed their all-dirt backyard into a fun play-area for their kids, Katie, 9, and Ian, 6.

They now have a fire pit with cement seating, large grass areas, a playground, a pool and a sunken trampoline, which was installed in 2006.
“Katie was a toddler and we were worried about her falling off the trampoline,” Batzer said.

Shannon and Steve Ringenbach also have a sunken trampoline in their backyard along with many other features giving it the feel of a beach resort. 

The Ringenbach’s recently won the Tortosa HOA Home Improvement Award for their kid-friendly backyard. In addition to the trampoline, they have a pool with a water slide and diving board, four palapas, four tiki stands, seating areas and two kidney shaped planters that house two desert tortoises and a rabbit.

Shannon Ringenbach said the backyard features, including the pool, cost them around $100,000. 

Shailey, 9, said her favorite part of the yard is the trampoline.

“We play crack the egg,” she said, a game in which one person sits with their knees to their chest and the rest of the people jump and try to get them to “crack.”

Stockton, 7, said he likes running and playing catch with their dog in the synthetic grass and Saray, 6, said she enjoys the pool.
“We have boards we can swim on and noodles,” she said.

Ringenbach said the palapas and beach areas are the most used parts of the backyard.

“My son races motocross and is constantly making motocross tracks in the sand,” she said. “The girls also play in the sand with shells we have brought back from Mexico.”