Farewell Party at Ballantrae Spray Park

One of Sam and Kate's pre-school classmates is moving to Colorado this summer, so there was a going away party for him at the Ballantrae spray park. I'm not sure why we don't go to this park more often, it's only a few miles away and the kids absolutely love it:

Just a Sunny Sunday and Some Parks

Jodi was painting this Sunday morning, so I "helped" by taking the boys out of the way. After getting a haircut for Sam, we headed to Kendall Ridge park:

On the way there, right in the middle of the bike path, we came across a strange find:

Heather Glen, Balgriffin, and Ballantrae

Today we promised the kids we would take them to the spray park at #5 Ballantrae Park. It was supposed to be right after lunch, but things got pushed back and we weren't able to leave until after dinner. The weather was looking pretty ominous:

But we rode on. The dark clouds continued to gather, so we stopped by #25 Heather Glen to spend some time and see if they would blow over.

 

Heather Glen has a little gear driven race car track that is pretty unusual among playgrounds:

And I was happy to see that they had a little trainer for a manual car transmission:

A three way slide gave us a chance to set up a race:

 

Which Henry won in a photo finish:

The skies were lightening up so we headed towards the splash park, past #4 Balgriffin Park. They have a frisbee golf course here:

But then things got dark again so we stopped at the playground:

Yet another three way slide:

We started to head for home, but rode past the splash park to think about what to do. Turns out, you can't go near a splash park, with kids in swimsuits, and not actually stop. So we did:

Henry and Kate have really progressed in their ability to enjoy water since their swim lessons at the Dublin Rec this summer. They both got soaked:

Sam, not so much:

But they all had a great time:

We toweled the kids off, wrapped the twins in a dry towel and bundled them in the trailer, and beat the rain home to a nice warm bath!

Three down, 27 to go. More than halfway done!