Park Tour: Gooseegg

This stop on our park tour was all Woody's idea. He thinks Gooseegg park is a gem. (why gooseegg, why not goose egg?) It's not a gem. In fact, Hope is over there crying by the sign because we told her we were going to another park. She was crying saying "park! park?!" Seriously, she wondered where the park was. Here it is in all it's glory. You know those medians in the middle of roads? This is basically situated on an over-grown median. It's hard to imagine until you see it. Notice the acres on the sign above. 0.5 acres. My backyard is bigger than this park....well, almost. It does have 2 great shade trees and believe it or not was mulched and pretty clean.

We are most likely the only people to visit the park this calendar year. Woody had to take the swings down....

and move a park bench out from under the swing set. But he was DETERMINED we would play here. "You'll play here and you'll like it! Dang it!" He didn't really say that, but he was thinking it.

The slide. Believe it or not, we went to 3 parks this day and this is the only one Hope would go down. Hot metal. Go figure.

As always, Hope cleans off every stair before she'll step up.

There's no toddler swing so Hope got to swing in the big girl swings. She did really well holding on. Oh, and see the church in the background. Woody would like you to know that his great grandfather, Fred, was a founding member.

That's Gooseegg. Sorry Gooseegg, I can only give you about a C. And that's because I was feeling generous.
Woody's quote after reading my review: "They do a lot with 0.5 acres, I'll tell you that!"

The Heat is On!

Whew it really feels like summer now! On the first really hot day of the year we found ourselves outside water toy-less. I'm a slacker mom. But, whoever said children need fancy expensive toys to have fun never spent much time around kids!

All we had were bubbles, a water hose and sidewalk chalk. But it was great fun all afternoon!

Is it okay for kids to drink directly out of the hose? It's tap water, right? I don't use it to fertilize my flowers or anything.

The best part is Hope felt she was helping mom the whole time water her flowers. I hope wave petunias still wave after toddlers trample them.

Next year, this will surely be the start of some delicious mud pies!

Park Tour: Chautauqua

We're back on the road again. Welcome to: This park will stand out as the thrill seeker's park. We are not thrill seekers, but we can appreciate other people's different preferences. So, if your kid is in to a thrill, bring 'em here! The slides are abundant and very steep! There is no separate toddler area, but all the features of a toddler area are incorporated into the main playground (i.e. shorter slides, the steering wheel, and baby swings). It's clean, great shade, and has mulched ground. It was a beautiful Saturday morning. Some kids, but not too crowded at all.

Do you see that really steep slide on the left of the picture above? Notice the landing strip at the bottom for the kiddos! Great touch. They need it because they've built up so much speed. At least they don't get dumped right on to the ground!

Hope wouldn't do the slides. Even the toddler ones. Not because she was afraid of the speed. She has no concept for speed. It was because they were hot. She's a little on the delicate, prissy side. See her drawing her little legs up? We couldn't get her to go! "Hot, hot!" she said.

And for further child thrill seeking: The people bridge. The stairs are steep! Hang on tight to your kids on the way up and down! It leads over to the pool which I can't offer a review for since it wasn't open.

But, it's a great way to to watch the cars pass under you. Fun for little girls. If Woodrow is ever elected to local public office you can bet his first order of business will be to transform Owensboro's blue bridge into a people bridge like they have in Newport. I keep telling him, Newport has Cincinnati on the other side. We have...fields. Fields where weird people hang out.

The look of wonder.

I'm married to a local history buff. Did you know how Chautauqua Park got it's name? No, the Indian tribe didn't once inhabit the land. It was part of the Chautauqua Movement that brought culture to different areas. There are old photos of this park with women dressed to the nines and floating around in sweet little boats under arched bridges. Floating on what you ask? Not in the pool...in the many lakes that used to be there. There's not even a trace of any of them left.

Overall, for the thrill seekers, this park is an 'A'. For your average toddler, maybe a B+.

Airing my dirty laundry

It's softball season. I always feel like an inadequate wife during softball season because I just can't get Woody's clothes clean. I felt somewhat redeemed during service today when Woody's nastiness was actually used as a teaching illustration from the pulpit. I'm not joking. Little did the speaker know, I had these pictures taken and prepared for my blog entry. Here's the before. Mild day for us.... no grass stains. Only mud. I think Woody only dove once this game. Here's the cleaning crew. I am usually budget conscious and only buy the things on sale that I have a coupon to go along with which means for some reason we use a lot of ALL detergent. They go on sale often. But... I sprang for the good stuff. I put together different cocktails of the following when I'm working on the uniform:

And here we are after the first washing: I used Tide stain release and Tide Sport (which makes your clothes smell great at least!) I'd sprayed the Shout Advanced on as soon as he took these clothes off so it sat overnight getting to do it's magic. Here's the result:

Next was Oxi-clean, Tide stain release as the pre-treater (which it says to do on your "tough stains") and Tide Sport. Here's the result:

These stains are laughing at me. Help.

Brrrrr- B-Q Festival

Brrr! It was a cold Saturday for the bar-b-que festival! The sun was out for most of the day so it was tolerable. I feel like my hair is still smellin' like smoke from being down there. If it's not smoke from the bar b que pits, it cigarette smoke from the "crowd" that the bar b que pits draw to our little Owensboro! We brought Hope down to the First Baptist Family Pavilion. Her favorite was by far the petting zoo.

I was so surprised that 1. Hope would wait in the long line for the pony ride and 2. That her Papaw would think it was safe to let her ride but most of all I was surprised that she didn't cry or get scared. She wore her serious face the whole ride but based on how much she talked about it the next day, I think she liked it.

Woody the face painter. This year his most memorable request was for a tribute to Micheal Jackson. It's actually that girl in the black hat in this picture who asked for it. Uh...how do you do a tribute to MJ on a kid's face? Woody did a white glove and microphone on one side and just an MJ on the other. I think she was satisfied. Wish I'd been a few minutes later to get a picture of that one.

Later, Papaw took Hope to the carnival. Can you believe how expensive rides have gotten? $2 a pop! Hope is such a big girl riding them all by herself.

Uncle BJ took her on the merry go round.

She also rode the train.

Papaw really wanted her to ride the Ferris wheel. (mom did not want her to ride, but what do you say to a grandparent?) Thankfully, this man was the man who put you on the ride and strapped you in. Hope took one look and clung to Papaw saying "no!" That's my girl! I didn't catch his face. (You have to be a little bit inconspicuous!) Still can you blame her for not going right in to his arms to be strapped into a ride that only had a lap belt but went way high in the air?

Overall it was a good day. Woody had homemade banana ice cream, Papaw had his first funnel cake ever and I got a bag of Kettle Corn...the real kind. Yum! (we fed Hope too, but I packed her supper. Bad, mean ol' mom!)

Park Tour: Moreland

Ta da! May I present, our favorite park so far!! I need to preface these pictures with a statement. It was almost sunset on a cold night after we'd spent the day at the bar b que festival. I sooo wish these pictures were better, brighter and made the park look better. But, they are what they are. Okay, actually they are what they are after a little lightening work in Photoshop.
First, here's Hope and Dad zooming around like airplanes (Hope really believed she was flying!) looking for the sign. No sign! The sign that used to be there has been replaced with a direction sign leading you to the new ice skating building.
The toddler area. See, it's not an after-thought. It's nice. The shade, it's great, too. Have I mentioned we love this park?

Here's one view of the big kids area. But honestly it's so big I couldn't fit it all in to my view finder. We'll try again to get some pictures but we were in a hurry this night.

The ground! Oh the ground! It's that soft squishy stuff. (the toddler area is still mulch. It's the only thing keeping this park from total perfection.)

There is a rock, thingy that the big kids climb on. It scares me a little. Actually my fingers got sweaty just typing this. But Dad was here today so Hope got to go.

And also because Dad was here there is actually a picture of Hope and mom together. Hi everyone!

My facebook friends have already seen these swing pictures, but I love em, so I'm adding one here, too.

Overall Moreland is a total winner. There are usually other children there, but it's not too crowded, the play stuff is fun, it's got a great ice cream shop nearby, the ground is amazing. It of course gets an A. Sometime when the light is better, I'll show you the rest.

Magnadoodle art

Most of you know Woody so you won't be surprised by this. On the nights when Woody cleans up the living room play mess, he usually arranges Hope's toys with some sort of humor. When we got the magnadoodle things went to a whole new level. I submit Exhibit A. Look closely. It's a regional Kentucky geography lesson. Does the iPhone have a magnadoole app? Woody needs this.

Tales of the Chocolate Crinkle Cookie

"Yes! While I was napping Mommy made these chocolate balls just for me! They are kind of soft and squishy. Let me see if I can get one and see how they feel when I throw them...."

"Mommy! You're such a party pooper! You said I could throw them! I want to throw them! What's all this business about rolling them in powdered sugar?! Balls are meant to throw on the floor!" "okay, you're the mommy. I'll trust you, but the it's not as fun as throwing them. I think you're really missing out. How's this looking? Is that enough?"

"hey ma'! Have you tasted this white stuff? It's delicious. Forget those chocolate balls, just dig in with me!"

And the chocolate crinkle cookies lived happily ever after. The end.

It's not all just a walk in the park.

Some days around the Maglinger abode we actually do work. Yard work mostly, it seems. My perennial garden hopes and dreams have just not come to be. I've got a pesky area where nothing comes back. After 4 years of trying, I'm sticking a knock out rose there. It'll come back. I know it! Hope loves the planting season! She likes the visit to the nurseries to buy the flowers, she likes the dirt and she likes the flowers. Hopefully she'll have the green thumb that I don't have. After this picture things got even messier. I was digging dirt out of her ears.

This serious face is the face she wore during all her digging with Dad. Does she just mean business when it comes to her garden or is she as prissy as I think she is and really not enjoy being dirty after all?

Park Tour: Legion Park

I didn't want to like this park. It's trendy. It's where all the kids seem to go. It's the "east -sider's" park. (sorry east side dwellers, we really do love you!) It's just not us. But, that being said, this is a really great park. We had great day and I'm sure we will be back. The playground. It's fine. The toddler area is also fine. The shade is more than adequate. The ground is well mulched.

The spray park: this is why I'm sure we'll be back as the weather warms.

Hope being Hope...

There were plenty of other children. They and their parents were very friendly. (did they just not know we are west- siders?) kidding, only kidding.

While we're on the subject of playgrounds. Why do they all have this? In the toddler area there is always rails leading up to a platform that has no rails, then more rails again to get to the top. If it weren't for this platform of death, I could just let Hope go up by herself but as it is, I have to be right there or the little dare devil walks right off. Why? Why not finish the rail? It's not just Legion. They all have this! And by the way, this picture doesn't have good perspective. I'm an amateur photographer. The drop really is higher than the 2 inches it appears in this shot.

I was also planning on asking you similar questions about this apparatus. It's also at all the parks in the toddler section. Hope kept mistaking it for a slide which it most certainly is not. I was taking my lens cap off to take a picture of it like I did for the above shot when the little monkey started climbing right on up it. I guess I stand corrected. Maybe it is age appropriate for the toddler area.

Here's why this park was such a hit. The airplane. Oh how we love airplanes right now.

Would you just look at this lady? In my opinion, you'd only find her kind at this park. I actually met her and she's very nice and friendly. Still, her linen pants are ironed, she's wearing a 3/4 length little jacket number over a lace shell. Her perfectly pedicured toes stick out of wedged sandals and her twin girls are matched and wearing an outfit Hope has that is in her "cute clothes" section of the closet that we would never wear to a park. You need to know she also had a 3 year old little boy. Tell me how those linen pants were still looking neatly pressed. Tell me.

Overall we'll reluctantly give this park an A because we are being fair and it really is a great park filled with wonderful children and parents.