Greenwood Park Splash Pad!

Today was opening day of the new splash pad at Greenwood/Ashworth Park. It's official name is the "Dan and Mary Kelly Family Sprayground." I think it's gorgeous! The kids had the best time.

The ground looked like it would be slippery, but I didn't see any kids slip. In fact, Jo kept climbing on rocks and jumping down without any problems. It must be well textured (I didn't venture in to find out), but I'd probably be a little more cautious with younger kids.

When we first moved here, I thought this park was kind of hard to find. So in case you're not familiar with it, you turn south on 45th Street from Grand, almost as if you're going to the Art Center, but don't turn into the Art Center's parking lot. Keep heading south. You'll drive through a bit of forest and reach a big pond. As soon as you're at the pond, turn left and head east. It's a small road that winds up to the park, shelter, and new splash pad. I circled the spot in blue where it's located:

It's easy to turn on the splash pad. There's a stand right in the middle with a big, yellow button on it. When the kids pushed the button, it seemed to last about 10-15 minutes before everything turned off, and they needed to push it again.

More pictures of the kids having fun at the splash pad:

In the background of this next picture, you can see the shelter house. During the school year, they hosted a lot of after school activities for kids there, like bird classes and even snowshoe hikes.

There are plenty of picnic tables, made in the same design as the splash pad structures. They aren't shaded, and neither is the splash pad. However, in the background you can see the playground area does have a lot of shade--which is why it's one of my favorite parks! There's also a picnic shelter for shade, too.

This playground was already one of my favorites, but now that they've added in this new splash pad, I think it's going to be our go-to park this summer. It's just so lovely, and the kids had a ball playing there. I hope you enjoy it as much as we did!

For more details and pictures of the playground area, see this post from 2014.

Greenwood & Ashworth Park

Monday, I took the kiddos to Greenwood & Ashworth Parks off of 45th & Grand. There are forests of oak trees and supposedly even rose gardens in there somewhere in the summer.

There's a playground near Bergman Academy that we attempted to play at. I missed the turn first and ended up at Ashworth Swimming Pool. I'll have to remember that discovery in the summer! There was a trail head near the pool for the Bill Riley Trail, which I guess winds down through Water Works Park, across the Raccoon River, and into Gray's Lake. The part I saw was paved, which made me think of bike riding. It's under two miles from one point to the other, so it might be really fun to do with the kids sometime soon! Soon being when they are riding bikes, I guess...

We only attempted to play at the park because it was soaked through from melting snow! It was the first warm day in a while. It was probably in the high-50s when we arrived and was mid-60s when we left. We played there for about 20 minutes and left soaked & muddy. Oliver wasn't very happy about all the water.

The kids cheered up when we left the playground equipment. They scavenged for acorns, and Oliver buried them to grow trees.

Jo liked the large oak leaves.

I love trees, especially oaks. I think I was the happiest of the three.

From there, we parked near the pond and hiked around there a bit.

Muddy face!

Oliver wanted me to help him get up on a small tree. I helped Jo, too, but she wasn't too sure about hanging out on a limb!

By the time we left, our feet and ankles were soaked. The kids had muddy knees, and Jo had a muddy butt. Oliver's face was dirty, too, and our hands were filthy. We definitely had a good time! We warmed up with a Starbucks afterwards, and I bet the baristas were wondering if we ever bathe.