I never pictured myself as a person who wanted a yard, much less a yard that would sport giant inflatable creatures. And yet now, as father of a 6-year-old with an imagination bigger than anything Chat GPT can muster in a thousand years, I find myself in the position of knowing about the finer points of the care and maintenance for inflatable lawn creatures. This has not been an easy road and after many punctured dreams, I have arrived at the unicorn of all inflatable lawn toys, and I am happy to report it is a literal unicorn.
I’m talking about the Sun Squad Inflatable Unicorn Sprinkler. While it’s available for purchase at Target, Amazon, Walmart, and other outlets, this creature might just as easily be found in the heart of the Lonely Mountain guarded by a cranky dragon. We chose it because we needed a sturdy and reliable lawn sprinkler that our daughter could play with that was actually tall enough for her. But when this magical unicorn entered our lives, we realized it was perfect.
For one, it is pretty easy to inflate, the sprinkler feature is great, but, crucially, is not required to make this fun, and it has four lawn stakes that are easy to pop in and out of the ground. All of this adds up to a summer lawn toy that can actually just stay up all the time. In our house, we trot out the unicorn every morning, even in “bad” weather. Our house is now known as the “one with the unicorn in the front yard.” This too can be your fate, and to be honest, it’s not the worst — especially alongside the unbridled joy it brings my kid. The unicorn is here to stay — an honorary member of the family. -Ryan Britt
