Maybe it's the Spring time weather, or maybe its the being stuck at home sheltering in place from Covid-19, but something inspired me to figure out a weatherproof solution to my lack of tunes on the patio. After very little research and planning, I went straight to Amazon and started clicking.
First up, I needed a cheap Amazon Echo device to serve up the content. I spent some time on eBay looking for cheap Dots, and during this research I discovered the Echo Flex which is a smaller plug-in device that was on sale for $19.99. The Echo Flex as a 3.5mm audio out (aux) port which can power headphones, but not any speakers of decent size. So the next item to find is a tiny cheap little amp with 3.5mm input.
The amplifier I found was one that looked pretty cool, had an aux input, cost less than $40 and was able to be shipped to my house in two days. I bet there are better choices out there, but so far this little guy has served my patio well. I purchsed a Kinter K2020A+ Limited Edition Original Tripath TA2020-020 Class-T Hi-Fi Audio Mini Amplifier...doesn't that name sound cool?
For the outdoor speakers, my criteria were cheap, weatherproof and must include mounting hardware. These speakers are nothing special by any measure but they sound decent and fit the budget nicely at $30 for the pair.
"Alexa, play music on the patio" 
Project Costs
- Echo Flex: $19.99
- Amplifier: $34.99
- Speakers $29.99
- AmazonBasics speaker wire: $9.95
- Aux cable: FREE (already had one) but you can get them for around $5
- GRAND TOTAL: $95ish