Tag Archives: playground

Playground of the Week – Eagle Lake Park

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This week’s playground of the week is brought to you by sunny Eagle Lake Park (1800 Keene Rd, Largo 33771). This county park is the perfect place to play on sunny winter days because it provides little in the way of shade. Located towards the back of the park, its playground is surrounded by a wooden fence and has three play structures, perfect for climbing. There is room to run around, plus swings. Henry could literally spend all day swinging at a playground, and he has many times over (the boy loves a good swing). 
   
   
Other awesome features of the park include a wide, paved trail, picnic shelters (including one adjacent to the playground), and public bathrooms (again, right next to the playground). People who visit the park regularly also know that turtles and birds frequent the pond behind the playground, and it is a fun treat for the little ones to feed them. Henry loves taking them bread and lettuce (I really hope these things are okay for these animals to eat; I guess I should have checked first)!

   
 

What We Did On Our Summer Vacation (Part 3) – SGI Playground of the Week

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This week’s Playground of the Week is located on St. George Island at the foot of its lighthouse at the beach. We rode our bikes along the island-wide paved trail every night to the playground so Henry could get the last of his energy out. There were swings, slides, games, balance beams, and things to climb – with the sea breeze keeping things cool and the bugs (mostly) away. It was never crowded, had public bathrooms, and was a perfect spot to end our days.    
    
    
    
   
One evening we road bikes to the foot of the bridge connecting the island to the mainland to watch the sunset. It’s weird to watch the sunset over the mainland when we are so used to watching it set over the Gulf where we live. Weird, but still beautiful and worth the extra ride. I loved how we could visit anywhere on the island by bike (a lot of people used golf carts – not as cool as biking!), and we definitely took advantage of that.

   
    
   

Playground of the Week – Bonner Nature Park

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Last Wednesday, Henry I visited John R. Bonner Nature Park (14444 143rd St, Largo 33774) for our Playground of the Week. We love this park! It is tucked away into a neighborhood in Largo, and backs up into the intracoastal waterway so it is beautiful and quiet. There are a few nature trails, one with a sidewalk-like surface and another with a soft surface, and there is a boardwalk leading out to a covered deck on the intracoastal. Henry likes to stop and watch the fiddler crabs on our way out to the deck where he can then watch birds, boats, and fish play. I like that deck is shaded and cool with a Gulf breeze.   
    
 
The park also hosts a good-sized playground in the shade. It has two sections, one for 2-5 year olds and another for 5-12 year olds. Henry likes both, of course, and also loves the swings. It’s not fenced in, but we’ve never had a problem with Henry running into the adjacent parking lot. There are bathroom and covered picnic facilities, which are always nice to have around especially with kids, but they also are frequently used by City employees. There is a big grassy field that we haven’t used yet since it is in the full sun, but looks like a good place for playing baseball or soccer. The Largo parks department just opened a kayak/SUP/canoe launch on the waterway, so we will have to check that out sometime, too. Every time we visit this park I think, “we need to come here more often.” It’s that lovely. 

   
   

Playground of the Week – Shoecraft Park

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So I’m really behind on posts; traveling with a toddler (and the recovery time that goes along with that) will do that to you. A couple of weeks ago, Henry and I visited Shoecraft Park in Pinellas Park (7900 54th Street N, 33781), and had a fantastic time! Located a few blocks from the library, it is tucked into a neighborhood at the end of a dead-end street and is fully shaded. There was no surrounding fence, but since the street wasn’t busy I don’t consider it an issue.    

 

Fun diggers to climb, swings, two separate jungle gyms with slides, a big grassy area, covered picnic tables – the only thing this park was lacking was a bathroom, which isn’t a problem for Henry right now, but will be in the future (near future, hopefully). It felt like an oasis that no one knows about, because there was only one other child playing the entire time we were there. This park is definitely getting added to our rotation!

   

   

Playground of the Week – Fuller Park

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For this week’s Playground of the Week, we traveled to Saint Petersburg to its Walter Fuller Recreation Complex located at 7891 26th Ave N, 33710. Its playground is fully fenced in, with two separate areas. It looks like one of the playground areas was built first (faded plastic, no shade) and then they added a second area later to expand the playground. The newer section has some shaded umbrella areas, but not enough to fully cover the equipment. So it made for a hot day at the park! The equipment was challenging, yet fun, for Henry with plenty of things to climb and slide. Henry especially loved the bouncing digger and ATV. He also loved the swings, located outside the fence, partially under giant shade trees. We couldn’t stay as long as we wanted because it simply got too hot and it felt like our faces were melting off Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark-style.

   
     
Since it is part of a larger rec center, ball fields, and pool, there was a pretty large summer camp program operating out of the center while we were playing. The kids were older elementary ages and were definitely excited to be outside. This made the park less fun for the Hen because he loves playing with other kids, and they just wanted to hang out together (totally understandable; two year olds are demanding). Overall thoughts: not too far from home; liked the containment; did not like the lack of shade; good variety of equipment; will return in winter when the weather is cooler.  

   
   

What’s Happening Hot Stuff?

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It got up to 92 degrees on Saturday, and it felt like 102…summer is definitely here, and will remain here until at least mid-October. Therefore, we have to start our days outside earlier than I would like, or wait until early evening to play outside (and face the evil Mosquitos that LOVE Henry). Saturday morning all three of us went to Largo Central Park to play. The Hen and I play at the park soo much, but Keith doesn’t usually get to play so it was awesome he could come, too. These days, the Hen is most excited by climbing up walls, ladders, spiderwebs, rocks…pretty much everything. Sure, the swings and slides are fun, but they cannot compare to climbing as high as possible. Since the Hen is only two, this means I have to climb up after him so I can help him down, because he hasn’t quite mastered climbing down all these various apparatuses. He’s getting better all the time though, so hopefully I will be able to watch from the ground soon enough. 

 

spinning until he couldn’t walk
  
  
big spiderweb
    
little spidey
 Despite the heat on Saturday, I decided to make soup for dinner because the ingredients we had left in the fridge were perfect for it. Pinterest is my secret weapon when I want to make something using up ingredients just sitting around and this soup was delicious – Sweet Potato Corn Chowder (http://immaeatthat.com/2013/01/11/chobani-recipes-sweet-potato-corn-chowder/). I modified it a little (less onion and different seasonings), but otherwise it will now be part of our soup rotation. Hen helped me cook; well, mostly he pretended to cook his Mickey Mouse in a separate pot, but he tried shucking the corn husks and helped dump the ingredients in the pot. He is shaping up to be an excellent sous chef (boiling Mickey alive notwithstanding). 

   

we made extra corn for this purpose
   Sweet Potato Corn Chowder – serves 4

Ingredients:

  • 2 large sweet potatoes, cut into cubes
  • 1 medium sweet onion, chopped
  • 4 ears of corn on the cob
  • 1 cup celery, chopped (more is fine)
  • 1.5-2 tsp Cajun seasoning (Penzeys preferred)
  • 1/8 tsp salt
  • 1/4 tsp pepper
  • 2 cups chicken broth
  • 1 cup water
  • 3 Tbsp olive oil
  • 1 cup plain yogurt

Directions:

  1. Preheat oven to 400F. Toss sweet potatoes with 2 Tbsp olive oil, 1/8 tsp salt and 1/4 tsp pepper. Bake in the oven for 15 minutes. Stir sweet potatoes and then bake for another 15 minutes.
  2. While sweet potatoes are baking, boil corn on the cob, and then cut the kernels off. In a high powered blender, combine 1.5 cup of the corn kernels with 1 cup water. Blend until smooth. Set aside corn puree, but leave it in the blender.
  3. Heat a large soup pot over medium-high heat. Add 1 Tbsp olive oil and allow it to get hot, ~2 minutes. Add onions and stir frequently for 5 minutes allowing the onions to slightly soften. Add in the celery and allow vegetables to soften for ~5 minutes, continue to stir frequently. Once vegetables are soft, add in Cajun seasoning and stir until fragrant. Turn heat to low.
  4. By this time your sweet potatoes should be done roasting so use a spatula to transfer all of the roasted sweet potato cubes into your blender with the corn puree. Blend the corn puree and sweet potatoes together until smooth. Add in 1 cup chicken broth and continue to blend. Pour this puree into your soup pot with the softened vegetables. Add in remaining 1 cup chicken broth, remaining corn kernels.
  5. Partially cover and allow to simmer for 30 minutes. Whisk in 1 cup plain yogurt and serve immediately. Add salt and pepper to taste. 

Field Trip Friday to the Pool

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For yesterday’s Field Trip Friday, Henry and I visited the Highland Family Aquatic Center in Largo and had so much fun we didn’t even take pictures of the place until afterwards from a distance. This place is great! There are a two pools, one for bigger kids and adults with a 3-story speed slide and a 214 ft corkscrew water slide (you have to be 48 in tall and a swimmer to use) so clearly this was not the pool for the Hen. The pool we used (& loved) had a zero-depth entry area meaning Henry could walk right in. He could also walk all around this area with its play structures, 3 slides (small frog, blue corkscrew, and yellow enclosed), animal squirters, and waterfall-like fountains. Separated by a rope divider, the other section of pool has two corkscrew slides you need to be able to swim to go down. Henry definitely wanted to try them out, and couldn’t seem to figure out why we weren’t going over there. There is a variety of seating, from picnic tables to lounge chairs to covered areas, and the bathrooms and changing areas were very clean. There is also a snack bar and shop for aquatic apparel, but we didn’t check these places out.


Three mornings a week (MWF), from 9:35 to 10:35am, they offer Itty Bitty Splashtime for the littles under five for $1.50 a person. The fountains we kept off for the first half, which really helped Henry adjust to the water because when they turned on, it was like a super soaker nightmare…no one was safe. And Hen thought it was awesome, yet scary. Overall, it was a mini-water park, perfect for my little Hen.

 

Afterwards, we ate our snack at the playground behind the pool area and played there for a while because it is awesome and in the shade. We will definitely be back to both places.

 

no shoes!
 

Playground of the Week (PlayWorld)

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This week’s playground of the week is PlayWorld at the Highland Recreation Complex in Largo (400 Highland Ave, 33770). It’s a three-story indoor playground for children 11 and under and it is amazing. There are two sections: one for kids under five and then one for bigger kids (but little kids can try it out, too). The younger kids area has tunnels, padded stairs, climbing sections, and giant exercise-like balls to bat. The older kids area has multiple slides (including a 3-story twisting, tunnel slide), platforms to climb, balance beams, hanging climbers. It also has a small rock climbing wall. 
   
 
Did I mention it is air conditioned?! A/C is my favorite, especially during summertime in Florida. Henry loves the slides, mostly in the bigger kids area. He needs help climbing up to the middle-sized slide, and luckily doesn’t even know how to begin to climb up to the 3-story one, but he giggles with glee each time he slides down. He also likes the tunnels in the little kids area, as well as swinging Tarzan-like on punching bags. 

   
   

On Tuesday and Thursday mornings, from 9-10:30am, they have “Itty, Bitty Playtime” only for kids five and under for $1.50 (it’s normally $3 or $4, depending on whether you have a rec card). It’s so affordable, we may be going here weekly until the heat lets up. I’ve heard it can get incredibly busy during the summer, so it’s great they have a separate playtime for the littles. 

  

Playground of the Week – Seminole Recreation Complex

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I’m going to try to do a weekly post featuring one of the many playgrounds in Pinellas County since there doesn’t seem to be a repository anywhere online. Here are my general guidelines for a good park for my toddler:

  1. Shade. It can be a tent covering the play equipment or trees, but it has to be out of the sun. We live in Florida and it gets hot as Hades. 
  2. Containment. Fenced in playgrounds are my favorite since the Hen is fast and I like to occasionally (who am I kidding, often) take breaks while he’s playing. 
  3. Distance. Right now, Henry fall asleep if we are in the car for more than 15-20 minutes so I’m trying to stay as local as possible. If he falls asleep, it’s like death for naptime and makes for a VERY long day. 
  4. Variety of Play Equipment. I prefer there to be things for younger kids and older kids to enjoy. Since Henry has already mastered most of the 2-5 year ones, I like for him to have a challenge. 
  5. X-Factor (for lack of a better term). This means that there’s a hiking path, splash pad, etc. available at the park that makes it even more awesome than average. 

First up: the unnamed playground located at the Holland G. Mangum Recreation Complex in Seminole (located approximately at 9100 113th St N, 33772). It’s a fantastic smallish play area entirely fenced in with tents above the main play areas, which is perfect for blocking the hot Florida sun. There are places to climb, hang, and slide, as well as benches to eat snacks. I also love the AstroTurf that the City recently replaced (it’s so soft you don’t really need shoes, but I make the Hen wear them anyway because rules). The main issue is the swings: they are not in the shade and like all black swings, they get mega hot in the sun. The City recently planted trees adjacent to the swings, but it will be a while before they provide shade. We play at this park on an almost weekly basis since it is so close to our house. Obviously, I love it. 

       

of course he’s going to play where there’s no shade
  

   

   

It’s part of a large complex that has sports fields, basketball courts, swimming pool and splash pad, and recreation center, but since we don’t live in the City limits and aren’t members, we haven’t used any of these facilities.