Bellevue, WA Park Reviews : Downtown Park

This park is huge! Huge grassy areas and a nice walking path, with a pretty pool with ducks.

At the south end there is a nice play structure with a variety of levels of activities. It is very sunny there! There is a nice bathroom building right by the play area including a family restroom.

There are several parking lots. The one on the west side of the park I would use if I were walking around. On the southwest corner, by the play structure, there is another one. If that one is full, like it was when I was there yesterday, there is another one, slightly further east that would be a shorter walk than the other.

This is a very popular park!

City of Bellevue website for this park

Redmond, WA Park Reviews : Westside Park and Spiritbrook Park

These are two small neighborhood parks that I really like. There is talk of "upgrading" them in the near future but I hope they don't change them too much.

Here are some things I like about these parks -

• never crowded
• huge grassy area for ball sports or any sort of running around
• street parking right beside the park
• swings and simple climbing structure with slides plus basketball goals
• Spiritbrook has monkey bars
• Westside Park has a wooded trail you can take to Marymoor Park

Of course, both are small parks without bathrooms.

Spiritbrook has no real shade where Westside can be shady at times.

Westside Park

Spiritbrook Park

Redmond, WA Park Reviews : Cascade View Park

This is a fun sunny park with a nice big play structure and a smaller play structure for littler kids. It's a bonus that there is also a huge grassy area for all kinds of playing.

Parking is on the street (never had a problem finding a spot) and there is no bathroom.

This is a good park for little ones to practice their trikes or scooters, either on the basketball court or on the paved path around the play structure.

Here's the link to the City of Redmond site for this park.

Bellevue, WA Park Reviews : Kelsey Creek

This is a really nice park, because it really has some of everything.

There are big grassy areas for playing ball and running around.

There is a nice playground area.

There are trails through the woods for family friendly hiking and exploring.

There is an actual farm with animals to watch.

A few words about the play structure. This one is for the little guys mostly - so bring your toddlers and come on! The only thing that would make this a perfect place would be a fence around the play area to keep the littlest ones contained.

That said, there are some rope webs for the big kids to climb on as well. And my boys are pretty big and they still had a good time with a little imagination. Plus the bigger kids in your group could always play games in the grass nearby.

We were there in the afternoon and I want to note that the playground was in full sun, which was fabulous since we have been lacking in the sun department lately. There are a few trees around but I think this playground is mostly sunny all day.

It also has a bathroom right by the play structure and lots of parking. If the lot is full, you can park on the road all along the edge of the park on 130th Pl SE.

Here is more information.

Redmond, WA Park Reviews : Idylwood Park

This is a fabulous park in Redmond!

The big caveat is that you have to walk a little ways from the parking lot. If you have littles, you may want to bring a stroller or a wagon for the path down to the lake and play structure.

This park has a really nice beach on Lake Sammamish. In the summer there is a lifeguard and everyone enjoys swimming in the lake. My kids love playing in the sand all year round.

The play structure is large and has multiple parts for different ages of kids. There is a very large grassy area for playing. There are lots of picnic tables and of course there are bathrooms.

Here is the link to the Redmond Parks site for this park.

Issaquah, WA Park Reviews: Lake Sammamish State Park

This is a neat park with a lot of beach area on the lake. It was too cold for swimming but they had two pretty large swimming areas roped off that I am sure are fun in the summertime. The sand area was not real big but there was some sandy beach for digging and playing,

There are two play structures that we saw in the park, and several trails that are good for exploring. The main thing about this park is the large grassy areas and huge number of picnic tables and grills. This is definitely the spot for your next barbecue or picnic. Plenty of room for your group, no matter the size.

There are, of course, plenty of bathrooms and a very large parking lot. There also were lot of sunny spots for those sunny spring or fall days where you need the sun to be warm!

Unplugged Project : RED Still Life

At first glance, it may not look like we did a lot this week for our weekly Unplugged Project. All MomUnplugged gave us to go on was 'RED' and we were just supposed to run with it.

First I tried asking my 4-year old what he thought we should do. I spent a long time explaining what it was all about and then sent him away for 5 minutes to think something up. I was pretty impressed that he was game for this but when he came back all he had to say was, "I have a sheet of red construction paper." Hmm! Maybe he is not quite getting it yet.

So that left me to come up with an idea all on my own. Here is what I came up with. Still Life! To make it extra educational, we spent some time talking about art and different types of art, and even wandered around our house looking at various pictures and trying to categorize them. Very funny since I only could think of portrait, landscape and still life, and my 4-year old as always had way more questions than I had answers.

I sent each kid to collect up to 5 items that were red, and then arrange them on some red felt into whatever arrangement they wanted to. Then I snapped some pictures. The first picture with the grocery cart is my 4-year olds and the 2 face-down Cliffords (yes, that is what that is) is my 2-year olds creation.

Then because I was feeling extra patient, I let my 4 year old snap his own photos of his creation.

Unplugged Project : Haiku

This weeks Unplugged Project was haiku.

I have to say that when I first read the idea I was pretty skeptical. My kids are 2 and 4, not reading or writing yet. But I was happy to have a break from painting and after thinking about it, came up with a plan that I thought would work for us.

Day #1 Syllables

We started at the beginning with learning what a syllable is and practicing counting the syllables in a bunch of words. This was something we just did for fun while driving around in the car.

Day #2 Poetry

We read lots of poems and talked about how some poems rhyme and some don't and that some poems are long and some are short. I have a Shel Silverstein book we looked at and my 4-year old loved the silly poems. My 2-year old also enjoyed listening to the poems

Day #3 Haiku Samples
I read the samples that MomUnplugged linked to in her original mail to the kids and had my 4-year old count the syllables. Then we talked about how they were all 5-7-5 and how there are different kinds of poems that follow different rules. After that, I cut the haiku out and let the kids glue them onto sheets of paper and then "illustrate" them. This was another activity they both liked. I was going to include one of my 2-year olds works of art but I can't get it to work right now.

Day #4 Writing Haiku

Only my older child did this one. He dictated some haiku to me and I wrote it down. Of course I had to assist as his lines tended to be really long so I had to help a good bit to get it to follow the patterns. The ideas were his though.

So here are his original compositions:

Up above the world
Find the brown bear in the trees
So that they went on

A boy is eating
In a house with a big boy
Eating on a chair

I am so glad we did this project in spite of my initial hesitation. We really did have a fun time and it was nice to have a project we could do in little pieces as it worked into our schedule.

Make your own Puzzle

Another activity idea from the Busy Book . I made puzzles for the kids out of old boxes. I had macaroni and cheese boxes in the top of the recycle bin so that is what I used.

I wasn't really thinking and I started to do this activity with my 4-year old. The puzzle was way too easy for him the first time I cut it. I cut each piece in half again to make it harder, but by then he had lost interest. I am hanging onto it to pull out at a good time to try again.

So I tried again with my 2-year old and had great success. Well, I guess that depends on how you define success. He did not run off to spend lots of independent time working on and improving his puzzle skills. But we had a fun time playing together with a free and easy toy. He really liked watching me cut the puzzles, so he asked me to make one from all 6 sides of the box. Then, after spending a little time putting them together with him, he found an old plastic butter conatiner to store his new toy in, and carried it around a bit.

Unplugged Project : Painting Pumpkins

This weeks Unplugged Project was to paint pumpkins.

The kids had a super time painting them. We started with some very small white pumpkins but it did not take long until they were covered and starting to look a bit muddy so we switched over to some larger ones.














As you can see, this turned out to be pretty messy. I guess when painting something 3-dimensional the inclination is to turn it around, pick it up to paint the bottom, and whatever else you might could do to get paint ALL over your hands.

Here are the finished products:

Ice Cube Activity

We got another activity idea out of the Busy Book today. My husband and I thought it was pretty cool but I am not sure it was the best activity for the kids.

You make ice cubes in the three primary colors - red, blue and yellow. Then you put them into three bags like this red&yellow, red&blue, yellow&blue and wait for them to melt. Yep... wait for them to melt. It takes longer than you think. Maybe this should be a summer activity.

I tried to be really laid back and let the kids play with the bags while we waited but I did not succeed. My four year old was pretty rough with the bags and I was afraid they would bust.

Anyway, once they start to melt, you can see that yellow&blue make green etc. In fact, it is really cool because you can still see the two colors of partially melted cubes, plus the new color water in the bag. Like I said, my husband and I liked it. The kids, not so much!

Source for Fun Ideas

My kids are really good at playing by themselves, or with each other. Of course when they are playing with each other, they tend to need some refereeing. I have recently realized that when things are not going well sometimes they need a little break from doing their own thing and need a little time with mom.

Sometimes I offer to read with them (that rarely gets a no) and sometimes I just pull out a toy they haven't seen in a while, but sometimes it is fun for all of us to do an activity together. Unfortunately, I am way short on creativity, so I appreciate having resources to go to for ideas.

That is why I was happy to see this post from MomUnplugged. I immediately headed to my library's website to see what I could find. I really wanted the Preschooler one but my library does not have it. I ended up requesting the Toddler one and the Arts and Crafts one.

We have started off with a very simple one. There is an idea called "Sticky Feet" where you tape contact paper down to the floor (sticky side up) and then let your kids run, jump, play and crawl all over the sticky paper.

The kids really, really liked it. It lasted about a week and then all the stickiness was gone. I think it was a great sensory activity. My oldest did not like to touch it with his hands at first but over time got used to it. My youngest avoided the whole thing for a few days before he got into the act. They had fun coming up with their own ideas of silly things to do on the sticky paper.

I am excited to see what other activities we can do from these books.

Fall Leaves Project

Inspired by our successful unplugged project we decided to do another fall project. This one wasn't quite as hands-on for the kids because of the ironing aspect. The boys collected the most colorful leaves they could find in the yard. When the little one was napping, the big one and I arranged the leaves on wax paper and then I ironed another sheet onto the top, making our patterns permanent. Now they are hanging in our kitchen for us to enjoy. They look great on the window with the light shining through.

I got this idea from someone's blog but I am not sure who!

Our Unplugged Project Attempts

We worked on the Unplugged Project and these are the results of our efforts. I only had blue and yellow paint, and we only had about 30 minutes, but I was determined to get in on the inaugural project. I thought it was a great idea of something to do and really wanted to participate.

The picture don't really capture the whole "picture" though. The kids enjoyed collecting items on their walk outside, and learned several new and interesting things about the items they collected. And they really liked experimenting with painting/stamping with the different items.
They used pinecones, helicopters, rocks, berries, sticks, bark and pine needles.

Definitely a success although I want to allow much more time for future projects.
Thanks Mom Unplugged!