A New Park for a New Year

 Today we decided to take advantage of our gorgeous weather and went to the park. My go-to park for last year was probably Prairie Center Park. This was a great little-kid park and no more than ten minutes from our house and is very rarely crowded. So that's where we went today. It was an older park and I knew they were redoing it this year. I was excited because the swings were really worn and it had gravel which is awful in the summer because you can't wear sandals or all these pebbles get in your shoes. They did fix these things, which is great. However, I was not prepared for the fact that it now has an enormous play structure suitable for ten year olds. This picture does not do the size justice. It is the tallest park structure I have ever seen at a city park.

We started out with swings. Joshua is becoming such a big boy that he was working on self-propulsion. Hannah refuses to even consider such ridiculousness.

Next we did bubbles. Joshua told both Halie and me yesterday he wanted to go to the park and blow bubbles, so I made sure and brought them. They had a good time with that for awhile.

Then we spent some time on the play structure. The way it is set up, there is a lower level that has 2-3 slides and those are totally suitable for any age. And then to get up to the higher level, you have to climb a ladder. I told Clara she could go up there if she wanted, but she was too scared. So Joshua was the only kid who went down the big slides, which were pretty awesome because they are very fast and insanely long. Hannah really wanted to check it out because she likes long and fast slides, but I don't trust her on that ladder. She is way clumsier than my other kids were at the same age and falls more than you would think possible so I don't think she is ready for a ladder yet. I know some parents get on the structure and help their kids, but I'm not that parent. If they want to get up there, then they need to figure it out and gain the skills to do it on their own. I'm willing to stand on the ground and give encouragement and supervise and occasionally climb up there and help if they get stuck. So maybe by the end of the summer, she might get up there. Clara is totally capable of it, she just has to decide to do it. But she doesn't love slides like Joshua and Hannah, so I'm not sure when that will happen. Luckily one of the little slides was a twisty one, which is Hannah's favorite so she was at least appeased by that. She really dislikes short slow straight slides. I think they are too boring for her.

I am not sure about this park now. I guess what they did is make this structure for kids 5-12 (according to the tag anyway) and then add an additional structure on the other side of the same park that is for 2-7. I drove by that one on the way out and it looks fine, but kind of small and also not near the picnic shelter or the swings. So we might stick with this one, especially now that the kids are getting older and more capable. It's just hard because even the rock wall holds and stuff like that are made for kids with much longer limbs so it definitely has some stuff that is just not physically possible for them yet. And I hate to drive so I really hate to go farther. We'll see how it goes.