One year ago I took both boys to the park by myself for the first time. I remember closing the van doors and thinking, "Wow! I did it! We played outside - we explored somewhere new! We're all still alive!" While going to a new park may not sound like a massive accomplishment to some, to my freshly postpartum brain, I had just accomplished my own Mount Everest.
Now, it's been a whole year since I made this personal goal of exploring parks and playgrounds with my boys! What started just as a way to get me out of the house has became a way for me to connect with the boys, giving us opportunities to play, encourage them to try new and sometimes hard things, and to connect with nature has turned into visiting over 30 playgrounds in the St. Louis area!!
We’ve had so much fun exploring parks and playgrounds around the Midwest. Some have been absolutely incredible and others have been really sketchy, but each time we get back in the car and they tell me their favorite part, I’m really glad I took them outside to play!
While there's so many other playgrounds on our "list" to explore this upcoming year, I wanted to highlight our current five favorite playgrounds we went to this year.
1. Starting with the playground we frequented the most - Kennedy's Playground! This is our favorite playground! The firetruck is just too cool! Everyone loves getting a turn to drive the firetruck or sliding down the fireman pole or playing with any of the other inclusive features of this playground. What I love most about it is that it is very rarely busy!
2. Another inclusive playground that we had so much fun exploring this year -
Ollie's Fun Forest - St. Peter's City Centre Park. This playground has recently been completely redone. Is it weird to call a playground beautiful? Because this one is! I love the cute theme, but the zipline swings is always a huge hit for us. We also love that this park is completely fenced in!
3. If we just need to get out of the house and see other people, we'll most likely be heading to Veteran's Tribute Park. There are always families here playing which is great if you're a stay at home parent and looking for some kind of conversation with an adult. I can't tell you how many other parents we've met here while we were playing. The playground is kind of all spread out, but I personally LOVE the turf hill to slide down. The walking trail is amazing and we love to watch the ducks, read the storybook along the trail, or stop to play in the "magical forest".
4. The largest park (in acreage) in St. Charles County -
Indian Camp Creek Park! There's several playgrounds throughout the park, but this three level playground near the large pavilion overlooks the park's lake was one of our favorites! This playground is impressive, but I love the water area as well!!
5. Sometimes I think the smaller playgrounds like Hot Air Balloon Playground in St. Ferdinand Park give more room for imaginative play. My youngest had a blast climbing up the stairs on the smaller side of the playground and crawling through the tunnels while my oldest loved climbing the ropes course and going down one of the slides on the side designed for a little bit bigger kids.
Did our favorite playgrounds surprise you at all? Have you been to any of these playgrounds?
