Mama Bean and Bean have a new playground

We live across the river from a large city park, with an outdoor stage and a zoo and lots of grass and trees. It's a 10 or 15 minute walk from our house. This will be our second summer with membership to the zoo. I like to think of it as our very own park. I call the pedestrian bridge we use to cross the river Bean's Bridge.

The city and province have dedicated a significant amount of money to revamping much of the park and zoo. Part of the rejuvenation has been the construction of a giant new playground. It opened last Friday; we went Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. We'll probably go tomorrow. I've taken to calling it Bean's Playground.

The playground is dominated by a large hill with twisty slides and pseudo-wall-climbing handholds. There's a beachy area with water features (mess factor extremely high!) There are two alcoves with percussion playthings. There are flowers and topiary and willow-tunnels everywhere. The designers pretty much thought of everything. There are so many distinct play areas, lots of variety for different age groups, plenty of opportunity to challenge motor skills and get adventurous but somehow it all feels safe, and so much room for families and community to grow.

Bean playing on the eggs in the robin's nest.

I wear Sprout in the sling when she gets tired of being in the stroller.

These disc swings are a great improvement on the old-fashioned tire ones I grew up with (and was terrified of, I don't know why.) Here, Papa Bean and Bean try a little role reversal.

Topiary beasts afoot!

There's a reason we call him monkey. He climbs everything and is virtually without fear. Though he doesn't like slides yet, just likes to climb the stairs, and then stamp nervously making anxious noises at the top until someone rescues him. Silly boy!

We're totally smitten with the place, I feel like we'll be living there this summer. It's nice to play awhile, have a snack, wandered over to the zoo for a bit, then go home for naps. Here's hoping for lots of sunshine this summer! (And a comparably small mosquito swarm, aie.)