Playground Fun…or Not?

It was a gorgeous day, so I offered to take the children over to the school playground after school was out. We drove over there and hit the playground only to discover that the school has a track and field program that meets on Mondays and Wednesdays. It was crowded on the playground so the grandkids asked to go to another playground.

Back in the truck we went. I drove over to the next closest school. I drove behind the school. Viva immediately asked to play in the stream that runs just outside the playground. I put her off for a few minutes, but then we went down to the stream.

Lincoln walked right into the stream. (He had sandals on.) Viva tried to stay dry for a while, but eventually got her feet wet. Jake played near the stream, but didn't go in. Evan stayed away from the stream, but threw rocks in it. Lincoln fell in the stream and got his butt soaked, but he didn't care. (Jake last year made us leave when that happened to him…although he might have soaked more than just his pants.)

Every child is so different one from another. Every playground visit is, too…when we tried to leave the playground we found ourselves locked in by padlocked gates. It turns out we had perfect (?!) timing and arrived during a narrow window of time when the gates are open for buses to come in and leave. I had to visit the school office to have a custodian unlock the gate for us.

When did visiting a school playground become so difficult?!

The water was cold. There's still snow on the stream!

Evan scavenged for rocks to throw.

Jake found an island in the stream.

Evan had to dig rocks out of the dirt to throw.

All the loose rocks had been thrown by previous visitors. LOL