Raccoon River Park

Raccoon River park & beach in West Des Moines is about a 10 minute drive from our house, and I've gone with the kids a few times now. The playground is pretty big, which isn't a good thing when there's a beach in running distance. I have to make sure I always know where the kids are. When Andrew comes with us, the trip is definitely worth it. The kids love all of the equipment, and they really, really love the beach!

And then, like the responsible parents we are, we had the kids run through the splash pad to get sprayed with chlorinated water to clean them up for the beach :)

And Then I Stole a Tree--Scratch That, a Weed!

OK, it was a seedling. I'm still kind of sorry (but kind of not). To the city of Des Moines, I'm sorry! Sort of. 

We decided to take the kids to the park. As usual, Oliver got distracted picking up acorn caps and "planting" them. Andrew dubbed him "Johnny Acorn" (like "Johnny Appleseed," get it? Ha). 

Oliver does this kind of thing all the time. At home, he planted an acorn cap and watered it every single day. I didn't have the heart to tell him an acorn cap can't grow, so I ordered a little sapling from Ebay. It was like $3 but shipping was like $9. It took over a week to arrive and was delivered in sorry shape. All the leaves but four fell off in the mail. I soaked the roots in a bowl of water for a bit to try to keep it alive, and then I planted it. After that, I told Oliver to come outside to see his tree that grew! He helped mulch it and water it. He has been so excited and has watered it every day. It lost two more leaves right away, and the last two leaves fell off yesterday. Unless I see some new buds soon, I think we can write it off as dead :(

Anyway, back to the park! We spent part of the afternoon playing at Witmer Park yesterday. It was a gorgeous day, 75 degrees in the afternoon and a bit breezy. 

Oliver played a bit and then got busy in nature. He found bark from what I think is a London plane tree. The trees at this park are beautiful! Here he is sharing some bark with Andrew:

...and then he started planting more acorn pieces, telling me where different trees were going to grow. He just planted and planted and planted!

A whole acorn! He saved that one "for Eli" (his neighbor friend):

 When he was planting, I got a closer look at some of the weeds growing at the edge of the playground. They sure look like little oak seedlings, don't they?

With all of those oak trees around, what else could they be?

So, I pulled one out of the sand.

I brought it home, and I planted it. Who needs a $12 dead oak seedling from Ebay when you can pull one out of the sand at the park? Jackpot! 

...and that's the story of our new oak tree. On the one hand, it was growing in the sand in a playground and wasn't going to survive or mature. On the other hand, I feel a little guilty because I know it wasn't ours for the taking. Still, it looks pretty nice in the yard, doesn't it?

Here's the one we got in the mail. Not looking so good...

And here is one of our volunteer maple seedlings! Most of the weeds at our house have been maple seedlings. I just keep pulling them out by the dozens, but I decided to let this one stay. I'm hoping either it or the oak seedling I just planted will survive the winter, but we'll see!

Edit: ...and I've just been informed that it's a weed. Darn, I was so excited, too. I guess I should get outside and pull it.

Prospect Park

My parents came into town for a quick trip this weekend. They arrived Friday evening and left already on Sunday morning. It was really nice to see them and, of course, show them the house!

My mom and I wanted to take the kids to an egg hunt at Union Park. Time got away from us, and by the time we got the kids dressed and ready, we were really cutting it close to get to the hunt on time. We drove by the park without seeing it, so we decided just to give up on the idea and take the kids to another park to play.

We went to Prospect Park, which is right off of the Des Moines River. It's nicely forested, and a busy trail runs through the park, on the opposite side of the river from the playground. I really want to go back when everything's green!

There was a crew team or something in the water. It was a beautiful day for it.

The park is lovely, and I could see taking the family there for picnics. The only downside was the trash. It was overflowing from the trash cans, and some people had set their bags of trash around the pavilions and stuff. I guess park clean-up hasn't started yet for the season, but it really needed it.

South Karen Acres Park

It was another perfect almost-spring day on Friday. Temperatures reached 60, and there was a nice breeze. It's perfect park weather, so the kids and I set out to play at yet another local park! I looked for parks nearby on Google Maps and found one called South Karen Acres Park. It's just a little southeast of Walker-Johnston Park, where we'd played the day before.

This park is in the middle of a residential area, but it has some wide spaces for kids to run and play. There was also a little kid-sized basketball hoop, and there was a (currently empty) wading pool for the summer.

The playground was small, but the kids loved it. That is, they loved it until Oliver spotted...

...the ride-on, sand-digging crane!

That was when he went crazy for the park! We used to play with those all the time when we were kids, but I think they mostly disappeared when sand parks were replaced with wood chips and gravel. Oliver took to the crane immediately and dug and dug and dug.

Here's a video of him working so hard:
                      

Jo just loves to be outside and play. She has no fear on the play equipment and was content to just keep climbing & sliding.

I had to keep telling her that this climbing wall was for going down and not up. She seriously kept trying to go off the edge there.

Wee!

Digging in the sand:

There was also one of those merry-go-rounds that they used to have at parks when we were kids!

And, again, we spotted a trail running through the park. A few cyclists went by as we played. I checked the map. Apparently, this trail does a big U and can take you back to Walker-Johnston Park, where we played yesterday. About halfway along that trail is a main trail that you can follow south all the way into Des Moines and the parks there.

Photos of the kids playing with some trees and planting magic beans for a beanstalk:

I'm really looking forward to seeing these parks and trails when everything is green. Just a few more weeks!