Spring Break Bucket List

One the greatest blessings at teaching at my independent school is the glorious two weeks of Spring Break that we have at the end of every March. Here is my Spring Break Bucket List this year.

We are headed to Orlando for 4 days with Abuelos and little ones all in tow. We plan on going to Disney just for one day because we have seasonal passes. These passes have black out dates for most folks this doesn't work at all, but for us as locals we have more flexibility in going, so it works well. Plus as a Floridian I am thankful never to go to Disney in July because the heat is unbearable. For this break, we will be at a villa hotel room, plenty of room for us all. Here are a few things I am taking for the girls to do. I always take hotel room items because I hate having them in the sun for 12 hours, however we do plan on lots of pool and outside time.

• Disney Junior Super Stretchy which is just like Twister
  
  
• Paint a Chick -- wooden Easter chick with paints
• Alex My Collage Farm
• Go Fish Card Game
• Puzzles -- as many as I can find

Here are my other Kid Friendly Plans:

1. Ft Desoto Historic Park There is a toll on the way out there otherwise it is a free excursion
2. Great Exploration Museum Terrific Tot Time We have annual passes that we got dirt cheap with a Groupon.
3. Rowdies Opening Game Which is free for everyone young and old via the Rowdies Soccer Club
4. Turns out our Groupon Great Exploration museum passes have an Florida Aquarium reciprocal in April so this is a free trip too.
5. Lowry Park Zoominations (my father in law purchased annual passes for him and the girls, so we get a discount.)
6. Watch Dolphin Tale and go see Winter at the Clearwater Aquarium which is a year long reciprocal with our museum passes.

It is also Egg Hunting Season. We are hoping to hit up a couple of new egg hunts this year. Here is the best list I found locally: Eggs. There are couple that I think will be awesome when my girls are even a little older such as the Flashlight Egg Hunt in Dunedin.

It's this time of year in Florida where I wish I went ahead and got my pool heater fixed. The outside temperature is ready for a nice dip but the pool water is still way too cold. It only really matters 2 months out of the year.

Bonnie Brae Park Temple Terrace

Last weekend we stayed in Temple Terrace to take care of our in law puppies. We hung out with some good friends that we don't get to see very often one evening. Because we knew it was going to be a grown up evening we wanted to take the girls to the park.

We ended up only having less than 20 minutes because a huge storm was brewing in the sky and we left just as the rain got started. However we made the most of it.


This park is about the playground for sure and though there aren't many fancy things there are several unique elements like the fire truck below. There was a four post climbing apparatus which when Lydia gets a little older I think she will climb up and over then down.


A few riding toys which are definitely is a fan favorite. There are a few scattered picnic benches and a shelter with more. A bench that says grandparents across the back and a special pole for piñatas were nice touches. It's designed for a birthday party for sure.


Suddenly in the distance there was the sound of hundreds of drops crashing into the earth. The sky had become darker and I said to Eliot " I think I hear it coming." Just as the words finished out of my mouth, we each grabbed a child and ran to the car. Our fast response minimized our wetness for sure.

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Curtis Hixton Park

Over the weekend we took an afternoon and headed to Curtis Hixon Park in Downtown Tampa. We needed an activity to get as much energy out of our toddler as possible. We have annual passes to the Glazer Children's Museum and we invited Grandpa G to join us.


The museum always seems to have something slightly new for her to explore and do. Plus as she gets older there are new things for her to do. The last time I was there with the girls was on Lydia's second birthday and Vivian was only 5 weeks old. Now even the baby has designated areas that she can crawl and interact with new things. She really liked the crawl tube but seemed to be stuck in the middle. She sat there and laughed for a long time until Dad helped her out, not because she couldn't crawl through but because she was taking her sweet time coming out.



The one area that Lydia has always loved is the dance studio where you can select from various different music options, dance under a disco ball and in front of your own reflection that is projected by cameras. The only down fall is that there is always some kid that just wants to push the buttons of the music choices and stops all the dancing. Prior to that inevitable occurrence, Lydia danced. Vivian built a few things and played with some toys.

After being inside in the museum for a couple of hours Lydia was ready to return to the out doors. The Curtis Hixon Park is host to many big events for the Tampa Bay area, especially this time of year where the weather hasn't ushered everyone indoors quite yet. It sits adjacent to the Children's Museum and the Museum of Art and runs into the sidewalk that lines the Hillsborough River. The playground looks over the river to a picture perfect image of the University of Tampa, whose unique architecture adds a rich feature to the skyline.


The park has several traditional and non traditional playground items. My favorite is a cool sound light game. Where you can pick a setting like ninja and you hit the light that pops up with a tone as quickly as possible. There is a multi-player function that makes it really challenging but fun.



Lydia fell in love with hammock. When she would open her eyes and pop off of it, she would sprint back if she thought another kid was going to get on it. At first sort of cute after a while several conversations about sharing were had.



There are public restrooms which is always nice for potty training kids and, well frankly all people, since we all use restrooms. Nestled near there is a vendor that sells drinks, snacks and ice creams. We picked up a popsicle for us each and tucked our mini-party under some shady shelter that overlooked the river. It was a really nice afternoon.











Both girls fell asleep on the way home which was a nice treat for us all. Curtis Hixon Park normally has a large green field area that is set up in large steps for outdoor concerts and events. On this day the remnants of the Friday and/or Saturday  night festivities were still there, so it wasn't the best day to take a picture that would invite others to come to a normally beautiful park, however on an average day it's a nice place to grab lunch and pop a squat on the grass and enjoy the rare juxtaposition of city and nature.

The park also has to fountain areas that kids will frequently play in. Many parents will use these areas as mini-splash parks, I am not sure that was the original intention, though it is certainly encouraged on a hot summer day. Even on this fairly chilly Spring afternoon, there were about 3-5 older elementary kids running through the fountains. I am not normally a big seller of Tampa, since I find the culture of St. Pete to be more my style, regardless this area is a great place for a family afternoon.

Temple Terrace Parks

Yesterday we spent the day in North Tampa, also know as Temple Terrace, with the Grandparents Gaurkee. We went to 2 different parks that had very different things to offer. The first was a small gated park off of 56th Street on Whiteway Drive, officially called the Omar K. Lightfoot Park.

There were several odd elements to this park. There is a pond at the center that is fenced off and sadly a couple of punk kids broke in to try to hit ducks with metal pipes. Luckily we were watching them very closely but admittedly it clouded our experience a bit. There is a portion of the park that is in direct sunlight which caused some of the play elements to be to hot to play on. There weren't any traditional elements like slides and monkey bars, even the swings were different. Not necessarily bad swings because both Gram and I loved them because they were comfy. Vivian really liked swinging as you can see by the close up pic of me holding her.

The  best thing that this park had to offer was the musical elements. They had giant xylophone and drums which of course my daughter adored because she likes playing band all the time! I also likes that they had a couple elements that required imaginative play, like this picture below. Lydia decided it was a ticket booth and would sell us tickets.

Later on in the evening after dinner we headed to Riverhills Park and Preserve which is nestled behind Riverhills Elementary along side of the Hillsborough River. I thought it was beautiful. Being a St. Pete girl I haven't spent too much time by the river since we are on a peninsula that is within a peninsula, so tons of water and not much need to look for more.

This playground was wide open and had so many fun and different elements to it. Again a focus on the musical instruments which was fun, but also an old school merry-go-round made safe with seats that have backs. There were sensory areas that were tiled with different textures including stones and fake grass.

There were twisty and turny things, but I have to say there is something about the swings, slides and monkey bars that my kid likes. She eagerly checked this out  but it took her a little bit to figure out how things worked.

We stopped and bought bread on the way, so we could feed the ducks. It was a nice change from other of our duck feeding experiences since we weren't bullied by seagulls. Even the squirrels got into the fun. It was pretty fun to see a squirrel with an entire slice of bread happily sitting in a tree.



The boardwalk along the river is filled with pieces that have been dedicated by families mostly to lost loved ones. There is something about a community putting something together that is a beautiful testament to the human spirit. Some of the pieces where old and some quite new.

It is a very shady park. It was perfect last night last because there was a soft refreshing breeze and the shade made it even more comfortable for a hot summer night I would totally recommend this park. In the past we have also gone to this park for their annual art festival more on these types of events can be found at the Temple Terrace city site.

Some of you may be thinking, Temple Terrace a city? I know how you may feel. It's like saying Pinellas Park is a city. However it turns out that both are, whether I believe it or not. My favorite Temple Terrace event has been the 4th of July. They had their own fireworks and the whole community gathered on the golf course and clubhouse parking lot to watch them. Since they are a small city, it was a perfect family event, to enjoy the fire works without too much of a crowd. We actually walked there.
   All in all a lovely day of park exploration. Temple Terrace has many other recreation areas and is very close to  Lettuce Park.


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