The Park Tour

Today turned out to be one of those days where we slept late, ate a leisurely breakfast, and then asked the question, "What should we do today?"  The world was our oyster. Sort of.  I wanted to keep in mind cost and time, so I suggested a few ideas, and we settled on simply playing at a park.  But which one to visit?  Decisions, Decisions.  Then I remembered driving through a large nearby neighborhood that had not one, not two, but three different playgrounds in it! Thus a park tour was schemed up.  We decided to start with the biggest one, play for awhile, head to the next one, play, then visit the last.  At the end, we would each vote for whichever was our favorite.

Park One

Here's playground number one.  We named it the Pirate Park because of the boats.  The kids immediately loved this one, but after only a few minutes I spotted something disturbing.  Someone had drawn a large male body part on one of the slides. Ugh. Then as I walked around some more I noticed that the idiot who had drawn the body part had added several choice words too (f-bombs included).  Lucas was oblivious, but my girls can read now, so I quickly told them we had to leave.  They were disappointed and asked for an explanation.  I thought carefully how to discuss it, so I told them that someone had written inappropriate words on the playground equipment and I didn't want them to know what it said.  We ended up having a good discussion about the choices we make.  Hannah actually said, "Mom, I think Jesus loves those people who wrote those bad things.  I think he is just really sad that they made such bad choices."

Park Two

On to park two!  We named this one Animal Park.  Lucas loved it, but the girls complained that it was a little too "babyish" for them.  Still, they played for awhile.  The bonus of this park was the pond that surrounded it.  We got to watch ducks, geese, and egrets as they swam and waddled around.

Park Three

We ended with the smallest park. The kids all liked it better than Animal Park, but less than Pirate Park.  We named it Spider Web Park.  We spent the most time here because there seemed to be something for each child to do that fit his/her age.  We even ran into some friends that live in the neighborhood while we were playing.  By the time we were done, the kids were ready for lunch and Lucas went down for a nap as soon as his head hit his pillow.  Minus the obscene words and pictures, the park tour was a pretty good way to spend a summer morning.