Woodlawn Park

My deepest apologies to the rest of America because the weather here has been divine. Probably even better than that. We decided to go out to dinner last night at the St. Pete classic The Chattaway for some burgers. They have a nice courtyard that is decorated in a very traditional Florida style. The girls enjoyed the surroundings for sure. It's kid friendly because it's outside but we did have to ask for the kids menu since there really wasn't one.
Since Lydia had swim we didn't want to drive all the way back home and then to swim so we found a park on the way that we hadn't really spent time at. Woodlawn Park is situated right on the corner of 16th Street N and 13th Avenue N, next to Woodlawn Elementary. The place of the park is odd because it's ultimately at the center, the school on the northside, the police shooting range to the south, the police appreciation association building to the east and the parks and rec building right the west. Because of the position of the park, there were a handful of homeless persons in the nearby shelter.
This field house provides restrooms that we didn't need to use but I am sure would be handy with young children however I would imagine that they get a significant amount of use throughout the day.


The playground appeared to be the new standard issue set. Things for the girls to climb, slide and swing on.
The park does has about 5 baseball/softball fields and about the same amount of tennis courts. There were a few basketball courts as well.

It was a nice pit stop before swim and the girls loved to play. Because most of the playground was expected, the girls felt very comfortable running around and exploring. Lydia practiced going down the fire pole and Vivi tried all the slide options. Were were there a short time, but the Florida weather really encouraged us to soak up every once of 70 degrees it was offering.
We were seconds away from swim. Lydia did a spectacular job last night and her coach is saying she is ready to move up another level. Vivi, the assistant coach and sister, is a little concerned with her form. She is also ready to be in the one in the pool.

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Philippe Park

On the latest park adventure we headed to Philippe Park in Safety Harbor. When we first arrived I was admittedly underwhelmed. I thought it was going to be much like Veteran's Park in St. Pete which in my humble opinion is fine woodsy area with picnic tables but leaves a family needing more. However, Philippe was a rather great surprise. It certainly is woodsy. It has winding roads within it to provide the scenic ambiance and likely to slow down the traffic. As we were taking our initial tour we saw several spaces where the park met the shoreline of the harbor and glistened through the trees. Perhaps the residual Valentine's in the air we saw those small spots filled with couples gazing into each other's eyes.

Tucked in the woods was the coolest play area. Giving the appearance of boulders this play space had several obstacle course style elements and climbing areas. It is definitely not for young kids. Vivian got very frustrated with this area because nothing was accessible to her, and to be honest it was only accessible to Lydia because she is tall and coordinated. Otherwise, they both would have been cranky.
Philippe Park is also the home of a historic landmark site. The Tocobagan Indian Mound positioned right on the edge of Safety Harbor has a little bit of a steep incline to get to the top and two sets of stone staircases that take you to the water. We were there at sunset providing an ideal backdrop with the refreshing evening coolness. The girls loved going up and down the stairs. For those that may struggle on stairs there were several landings with benches available for rested if needed.
In addition to these fun features there was also a tradition playground area. There was both a large play area typically designated for 5-12 year old kids and a smaller one for 2-5. This space also had a couple of highlights. A couple of dinosaurs that were ride-able and a climbing thing that sort of looked like a caterpillar so we went with that. The girls could have played for a lot longer but the once the sun was gone it was our signal to head home.

This would be a great park to consider for a family picnic or party. A good friend has his company picnic here a couple years back no doubt because there is a plethora of picnic shelters of various sizes, barbecues both near some empty field spaces where we saw families kicking soccer balls around. It would be a place to scout out to pick the best fit for your party for sure.

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Safety Harbor City Park

Technically for me growing up in South St. Petersburg with parents who worked in Safety Harbor this park would squarely be considered to be far north but now that isn't that far I can say that it is actually right in the middle of the county.

This park was  real surprise for us. It was clearly a neighborhood park with playing fields and courts for various league sports. It was a great space to play.

In addition to the fields, there was a really nice skate park. It was fenced in and clearly serves as a place to the tweens to come  on a Friday night because there were admissions costs and events posted along the fence.

We of course are big suckers for shade and new interesting playground equipment which this park had. There were multiple structures that provided new things to climb and explore.

Since we enjoy the outdoors and find ourselves checking out a "new" park as often as possible, we look for the usually or the different to catch our eye. This dinosaur below certainly did that especially for Lydia. There was a slanted climbing wall-esque spine which provided for her a great place to try a new type of climbing.

They also had a climbing wall. This is becoming a more common feature. My girls are still a little young for this but Lydia does like to give it a shot. Her struggle is the strategy involved in wall climbing. She doesn't quite have the forethought to plan yet, however she is pretty brave with a spotter.

Interesting, probably only to me, Lydia went through an anti-swing phase. My only motherly explanation was that she didn't like the feeling of losing control; didn't like the tickle she got in her belly when she was swung too high. In the last few weeks she has revisited the swing. Several parks have the swing she is in here (pictured below) and the front harness gives her a sense of security.

She will also swing on the swing belly first which I remember thinking when I was little was the coolest way to swing. The thing that I really enjoyed about her doing this is that she found a way all on her own to feel comfortable on what is often a favorite playground item. She figured out that she didn't mind playing on the swings belly first and she could still be with her friends. And even more recently, she has re-approached the swing all together. Baby steps even for preschoolers.

Sometimes it's the small things like swings that show us how our kids may consider situations in there future. Playground lessons if you will. She is thoughtful and curious all at the same time.
Vivian on the other hand is ready to fly right off the swing, just as she is ready to run right off the slide because she is brave and willing to see what happens, with little forethought, at the moment, well and she is a toddler.

My only complaint about Safety Harbor Park is that there is no real website. The city of Safety Harbor lists it on it's park page here but that is about it. So to know more, you have to go and see it which I think will be a nice surprise.


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Sisters Theater Presents....

Over the holiday Lydia received from one of her aunties a set of cardboard finger puppets. She has really loved playing with them. On Friday when I got home from work she immediately started parading her finger people all over me, when I remembered that I had once mentioned a goal of making a puppet theater for them. I went to the garage and was mulling over how to create it with the boxes that we had available when I noticed that we still had a science board tucked away behind the frig.

It would be valid to wonder who keeps science boards around the house? Well, not us. We had it because we used to, before having kids, really liked making puzzles. We would use the science board on top of the table and then close it up and move it if we needed to use the table for something else. So it's really a puzzle moving board, which I am not certain makes more rational sense. Regardless, I had one.

The one we had had giant writing on the back of it which meant that the flaps didn't flap in the right way, so I bent them right off and reattached them with duct tape. Now being able to have the blank side facing out. I took a box cutter and cut a square in the center panel for the stage.
For about an hour the girls decorated the outside. I pulled all the stickers, pictures, glitter glue out along with markers crayons and I happen to have form flowers that were glittery left over from an Easter craft. They loved it.
Once their decorations were complete, I had them select from a box of fabric squares that I have. For a while I was hoarding fabric squares because I thought they were pretty and was determined that any day now I would be making quilts. Now that that delusion has subsided, I just have a shoe box full and use them for silly moments such as these. I simply took duct tape and stuck it on the inside creating a curtain.
We named it Sisters Theater and the show begun! Lydia really loved it. She performed several shows and we dug out other puppets that we had around. Mostly little finger puppets and a few that are supposed to be wash cloths but we always used them as hand puppets.
Vivian on the other hand, is still trying to come to grips with the mysteries of the theater. We have all been there, comfortably in our seats watching the show thinking, "How did they do that!!??" However, most of us sit and allow the show to transform us; to take us to another world, Vivi just goes to look.
The next plan is make puppets. By we haven't quite had the time yet.

How we used our Elf on a Shelf: Sky

Three years ago strolling through Straub Park with friends each duo pushing their own stroller with babies experiencing their first holiday season I had a minor rant about the Elf on a Shelf phenomenon. I remember it clearly I ascertained that I did not want to deepen the levels of deceit for my child by creating another potentially devastating life moment. I didn't want to compound the already heart shattering experience when they find out that not only the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy, Santa and now unnecessary Elf were not part of a holiday dream team providing gifts and tokens to children but rather an contrived series of falsehoods.

 

 

Fast forward to this past holiday season, one of my best friends has a little 8 year old boy that with all of his heart still believes in the Fab 3 of the holiday bunch but also their elf. He believes so much that he eagerly at the beginning of November begins to ask when the Elf is going to return. There was something about that story for both Eliot and I that warmed our hearts. We loved the idea that our girls would have a level of naivety, innocence, imagination, majesty and more importantly, hope. 

To our mind's eye, Lydia being only 3, we didn't really need to introduce the Elf until just a couple of weeks before Christmas.  We purchased a girl elf, because we have daughters, we read the book and watched the cartoon and we asked for an Elf to come to our house, all together as family. And so she did. Lydia named her Sky.

 

There a million variations to the Elf tradition floating around this year. We never intended our Elf to be a creepy mastermind extrinsically motivating our daughters’ right choices however it is the cultural story behind Santa as well. We just don't overdo it that storyline. Though in full disclosure we differently threw those lines out there in moments of frustration, "You better watch out, Santa Claus is coming!" or "Santa doesn't bring presents to kids that don't listen." But overall, it's just not really our style.

 

For the first few days our Sky, the girl elf, was very much a 3D virtual where is Waldo. Lydia would wake up in the morning and hunt for her. We also didn't really like the mischievous elf idea.
Why would an elf that didn't follow directions or cause raucous work for Santa? It didn't make sense to the narrative for us. Then some friends posted a link to a blog that suggested Kindness Elves, the elf leaves notes to promote compassion and love through the holiday season. That sounded like a nice idea. Then I read from another friend about the Wandering Wise men from the Little People nativity set going on adventures all over the house to tell the Christmas story, well that sounded pretty good too. Sky did it all! Why not, right?

One morning she was found in the Christmas tree promoting hugs. Sharing and encouraging compassionate and empathetic action. Another morning she was sitting on the chalk board pointing
down to the note that said “Be Nice!”, so we took a few minutes and brainstormed ways of being nice.

 

One morning she was found holding Baby Jesus and we talked through the whole manger story and Jesus birthday which she knew well from preschool. There was a morning that Sky was on one of the globes. We sang He has the Whole World in his Hands, which Lydia loves and we chatted briefly about that.

 

One morning Sky was hanging on our pantry with a note that read: give food to those that need it. A young boy in our neighborhood as a school community service project had placed Metropolitan
Ministry barrels for food collection. So we took the opportunity to talk to Lydia about the fact that not everyone has enough. We took her to Publix and she picked out some food to give to those that needed it.  

We really enjoyed our multi-purposed elf buddy, Sky and we look forward to continuing to use our elf in ways that will inspire and provoke important conversations and actions especially during
the holiday season. For our family the season is not over until the official 12^th day of Christmas, Epiphany, on January 6^th.