Park Day with the Aunties

Last fall when I went to visit Rebecca at JMU, I noticed this huge park, as we were on our way to her house. I asked her about it, and she said it was awesome, and we should take Meggy. I agreed with her, but the weather was cold, so I told her we'd wait a little while.

Well, it just so happened that Rebecca, Rachel and I happened to have a free afternoon last week, so Rachel Meggy and I drive out to JMU! It took a while for us to pick up Beka (have I ever mentioned that I hate college campus'? They are the bane of my existence, and I'm so glad I've never had to live near one), but once we got her, and some Chick fil A, we were ready for the park!

I wasn't able to get a picture of our picnic table, mainly because I was trying to use my knees and elbows to hold down our food, as Meggy and I tried to eat it. It was super duper windy and we almost lost Meggy's lemonade, which would have been a tragedy. Thankfully her romper caught it instead, so after getting a jacket from the car, we were good to go!

This park is truly awesome. It's built as a park where disabled kids and 'regular' kids can all play together. There are lots of special-needs swings and ramps that Meggy loved using. I didn't see any special-needs kids there the day we were there (it was pretty windy and chilly, not the best mixture for a wheelchair) but it looked so awesome and convenient.


I was surprised at how adventurous Meggy was with the slides. She normally likes the kind of slides in the above picture - not baby slides, but not too big either. However, by the time we left, she was going down the tallest slide, without help from anyone! I suppose that's what happens when you have your Mom and two Aunties as your own personal cheerleaders


Meggy is very big into climbing at the moment. She gets scared when she gets too high, but I love watching her work on her critical thinking as she climbs. Sometimes I help her find a foot hold, and sometimes I hold back - but she's always proud of herself when she makes it to the top, no matter how much help she's had!


Another SUPER cool thing about this park is that they had balance bikes and push scooters for anyone to use! This was Meggy;s first experience with a push bike, and I think I can say that she didn't love it. She tried though, and was determined to make it all the way around the little road.


One section of the park has these little make believe buildings. Meggy's favourite was the ice cream shop. She was in charge of the shop, and chose what scoops of ice cream (rocks) we were going to get. Meggy was very fair, and made sure we all had the same amount of ice cream at a time, and we were required to "jus' lick it, okay? Jus' lick it like dis!"


Taking our orders


We took Meggy over to this little fire truck a few times. The third time, she made us all sit down, and informed us she was driving us to the animals. I wasn't sure what that meant at first, but then she started gesturing out the 'window' and saying things like "Lookit dat giraffe! He's soooo long, and eating da tree! An look! It's a pana bear! De're so silly, lookit it."


After this ride, she had us all get out and stand behind bars. She told is "Look, now we're at da zoo! Beka and Rachel and Meggy and Mommy in da zoo!" And then she doubled over with fake laughter. Ahh, almost-3-year olds. Such a sense of humor.


We had so much fun playing with Aunty Beka (and Rachel, who is not very well featured in these photos) and are so glad Rebecca invited us to come and play!

Comments

Popular Posts