On Target

Game fans of a certain age might recall playing lawn darts with heavy, metal-tipped projectiles, which were banned (thank goodness) back in 1988. Our homemade version, made of sand-filled plastic bags, takes away the danger but retains the fun.

The game is played like horseshoes. Place the rope targets on the ground about 35 feet apart (shorten the distance for younger players). Two teams of one or two players stand next to one target and take turns lobbing their darts toward the other target. Players throw a dart by holding it by the fringe and tossing it underhand. A team gets 3 points for each dart that lands at least halfway inside the target, 1 point if their dart is nearest to, but outside the target. The first team to get 21 points wins.

What You Need

4 plastic shopping bags
Duct tape in 2 colors
2 cups sand

4 cable ties at least 6 inches long
Scissors
2 5-foot lengths of rope (we used 5/8-inch plastic rope)

Instructions

For each of the four darts, lay one shopping bag flat on a table. Fold one bottom corner up to meet one side of the bag and secure it with a strip of duct tape, folding the tape around the seam, as shown (A).
Cover the front and back of the triangular section of the bag with additional duct tape (B).
Fill the taped section with 1/2 cup of sand. Gather up the bag, twist it, and secure the twist tightly with a cable tie (C). Trim the tie's end.
Trim the bag's top to 4 or 5 inches above the tie. Snip the bag's top into thick fringe, making sure your cuts stop at least a half inch from the tie.
For the two targets, form the rope pieces into circles and join their ends with duct tape.