Park Hoppin'

Whenever my kiddos are out of school, we do a fair bit of park hoppin' and I don't mean of the Disney variety.  Spring break, summer, all of those random one day holidays throughout the year, you can find us eating a picnic at a park somewhere. 

Even when it is hot outside, we enjoy a picnic at a park.  For some finding a good park can be tricky.  Some of you live in a community where there just aren't good parks.  Others struggle to find appropriate and/or safe equipment.  For us the trick is finding a park with the right mix of equipment and just enough shade.  We are blessed to have many options!  Our biggest struggle is to find one where the equipment doesn't get too hot.

Yesterday we started the day at the Tot Lot which is the park closest to us.  This is the one where we can walk or ride our bikes.  Yesterday we drove as we were headed to the pool.  I realized that maybe I need to be doing more to meet Walker's needs.  He is only three, and he is spending a lot of time at the pool which is not his favorite place to be.  No wonder his behavior is deteriorating by the day and with it my patience and tolerance.  Not a good combination!

For lunch, we packed a picnic and went to Byrd Park.  This was a new one for us and I was most impressed with the equipment.  Sometimes the play equipment can seem too babyish.  Not here!  It was great for my older two and really more suited towards Mary Frances.  In fact, even I thought some of the things were really cool.  I decided that when you get excited about playground equipment you probably need to get out more.

Being outside makes us happy!

On getting out more ~ fortunately for me we had dinner plans with our neighbors.  The adults enjoyed adult conversation while the children played upstairs.