Hoover Park

 

Hoover park is one of my favorites, mostly because it's the best one around for littler kids. Not so much this summer, but last year and especially the one before it, this was the only park that we could come to that I could relax a little and let my tiny tots just play without me having to help them all the time and shadow Andrew in case he fell. Now that Andrew is three though, it's not such a big deal anymore. Next year though, it'll probably be Isaac we come for. But even though it is great for little kids, it's still fun for older kids too. It's a great park. 

These monkey bars didn't get much use from my kids the last couple of years, but this year, my boys have been trying them more and more. Oddly, Andrew is much better at them than Deano, but they both like them. I think they're pretty cool though because they slant slightly downward, making them just a little bit easier, which is perfect for little boys just learning how to do monkey bars.

No matter what else they may or may not decide to do at the park, they each have to come play this 

 musical instrument at least once, if not two or three times.

 

These ramps are good for little ones to get up to the slides easily without having to climb too much, or when my kids are running around pretending they're on the deck of a pirate ship, but today it was used as a track that Deano raced his truck down again and again.

There are also things to climb up, but never very high, so it's a great place for little ones who are just starting to climb on the playground more. There are a lot of parks that have that arched ladder like this one, but they go much higher, and this one has another bar to hold on to as well. The kids learned how to do it at this park, and so it's a lot easier when we go to other parks

 

 And then there are all sorts of other little things for them to manipulate and play with down on ground level. 

 Andrew calls these the bouncy circles because I used to hold his hands while he jumped from circle to circle. He's not so interested in doing that anymore, which I'm not complaining about since he's getting a lot heavier and I have a bad wrist. Now he climbs on them himself and tries to make the short jumps. He's getting pretty good at it. Sometimes I'll still hold one hand while he does it, but he doesn't really need me.

 

 

It's been fun watching their balance improve each time we come. I'm pretty sure he learned to hold his arms out like that from Jake and the Neverland Pirates... it works.

 Every good park has to have a slide. There are two good ones here. Slides are incidentally also good for trucks... which I think is what all these boys were staring at.

There is a nice pavilion with a picnic table, but for some reason it almost always seems to have this puddle on it, which Andrew loves. Nothing is more fun than splashing in a puddle

Nearly every time we come, the playground turns into a pirate ship. The wheel helps. 

Today, someone brought paper and markers, and several of the kids were drawing. Deano said he was making a treasure map. A little later on, I saw a whole group of little boys running around following maps they had drawn. Occasionally we have brought chalk to draw on the sidewalk here.

For some reason, Andrew has gotten it into his head that this big bush tree thing is a Christmas tree, and he throws sticks and pine cones at it and they stick in the branches and he calls them ornaments. Every time we come, he has to do that for a little bit, and more often than not, he gets other kids doing it too. I normally don't let them throw sticks and such, but at least it's directed at a tree that's big enough that it's not going to go elsewhere and hit anyone.

There are lots of good trees that offer shade, so it's good on a hot day.

 

It's also quite shady under the playground itself.

 

 I do wish there were a fence or something on the far side of the field, because occasionally the boys will go run off that way, and the field is so big that calling them back often goes unheard. There used to be a baseball backstop that I would tell my boys they couldn't pass, but that was gone today, I wonder if they'll put it back up, or if it's a permanent change. The field is nice though, we've used it to play baseball, frisbee, water balloons, and launch rockets... just don't get a rocket stuck in a tree, those trees are painful to climb!