Outdoor role-play petrol pump

My kids love to be outside and we are really lucky to have an excellent outdoor area for them to use. Even though it is already great, I'm always looking for something to make it even better. I do sometimes have an issue with the amount of children that just want to ride around on the scooters/bikes and do nothing else, so it's a case of trying to entice them into doing something else as part of that play. This is where the petrol pump came in!

We regularly have out buckets, water & sponges for a car wash as the children love anything that involves getting wet but the petrol pump has helped to add a new role-play element to the ride-ons. It is very simply an old hoover pipe (from a neighbours rubbish), a piece of garden hose and a garden hose spray gun (wilko's have one that is shaped just like a proper petrol pump). The trick is to put the garden hose onto the spray gun and then hide the green hose inside the hoover pipe. All you then have to do is seal the top and there you have your own petrol pump! Simple but very effective (and great for hearing some of that all important capacity language for the FSP)! The fabulous 'cosy' catalogue also sells the pipe if you've not got neighbours who throw away these useful items!

Here's a couple of pics to show you how mine looks-

I attached the garden hose to the nozzle and then put that inside the hoover pipe. To secure, I cut slits into the top of the pipe meaning that I could squash it and then taped with black insulation tape. The whole thing was tightened with the silver screw key thing (technical term) that came from Wilko's- in their hardware range with the screws etc.