deJong Online

So we took the girls to another new park this one in one of the neighboring cities. We were going to take them to Miller Park, but the playarea was under construction. That will be an awesome park once it is done and I am exited for that to happen so that I can do a review of that one.

Anyways, Staring Lake was just a really nice park. I loved the play area as it is like Lake Ann in Chanhassen with the rubber bottom. I will let the pictures speak for the park… I really liked the whole area as it has a nice picnic area and tons of grass to just spread out. My mom’s group is having their summer picnic at this park in a few weeks so I am sure I will have more pictures from that day as well. This is one of my top 5 parks for sure!

With hubby home on vacation I am hoping to sit down and create an actual “grading” system for the parks and do one big review instead of going back and updating each one. My hope is to still visit a few other parks this week and someday go to Miller Park as well.

Just chillin'

The slides

Play area

The shelter

Thorpe Park is one of the first parks that we went to once Chloe was born. It is on the way to the church that we belong to and over the years is the park within walking distance to where one of  her best friends lives.

It is a nice walking park as it has a nice path that is longer and weaves and curves around. Downside is that there is a nice pond that it goes around that the geese love, meaning you have to watch where you step. I hate that part of walking around this park, but the path is still really nice.

The playarea is big with a couple seperate areas along with seperate swings and also a couple seperate slides and a climbing thing. The biggest downside… SAND. I hate sand as a base for any playarea. I can’t totally put my finger on the exact reason why, but I hate having to empty kids shoes before getting in the car because I don’t want a sandbox in my car or in my house. It makes for difficult walking for a toddler as well. Especially one that likes to put things in her mouth, meaning that she will put a whole handful of sand in there if you let her. Poor kid, thankfully she hasn’t played in sand much outside of the beach and she learned quickly she doesn’t like the taste of that sand.

There is a pavillon that offers not only some shade and protection from the elements, but also has a few picnic tables under it for better eating pleasure if needed. There is a small hockey rink for the winter, baseball field and tennis court. It is a nice park and I do enjoy it for walking the most. Plus it worked out nicely when Chloe was in preschool. I would drop her off at school and then take CJ there to walk around for about 45 minutes.

Birch Island sign

This is a new park that was finished not too long ago. So it is super nice with wonderful walking paths all around it. I am actually hoping to go back to this park in the next few days to walk it with the family. As today I went an hour before CJ’s nap time. The girls had a blast playing today and I really have a dare devil on my hands with both girls. CJ shows NO fear on anything. She had fun on the little kid part, but made it very clear she wanted to go down the big kid twisty slide and she did too.

* Has two play areas. One for little kids and one for big kids.

* Wood chips were the choice at this location

* No real bathroom, but a HUGE port-a-potty for those that need it.

* New

Playareas~ You can see the little kid one to the right

Chloe has always loved this park. Mainly because of her name sake for it. It has two big metal slides and one that is much longer than the other. This park is another one that is close to where we live. If I felt that I could make it up the three HUGE hills, I would walk to it with the girls.

* Small pebbles is the choice of ground under the play area

* It has the two big metal slides and then the big play area

* There is a grass area where we actually ran around and blew bubbles.

* There are only 2 picnic tables and no shelter area

Silverwood SignThe Big Slide