Fountains!

This week has been HOT in Denver.  It's a good thing that we had playdates on Wednesday and Thursday, and both were at park fountains.  Definitely a great way to cool off! On Wednesday we met up with my friends Jenny and Konstance at the Northfield Mall to have the kids run through their little water fountains.  The kids had fun for a little bit, but the fountains weren't very big and it was in a shaded area so they were getting cold easily.  It was also next to a busy road, which made all of us moms nervous.  

While we were there, another mom's baby boy -just barely walking- managed to toddle over towards the busy road while her attention was directed elsewhere momentarily.  I ran over and managed to pick him up one step before he would have been in the road.  Unfortunately this seems to happen a lot...at the zoo, other parks, etc. some small toddler or baby will make their way over to a busy road while the parent is distracted and I'll catch them just in time.  Every time I'm glad that I noticed them in time, but I always feel awkward chasing after someone else's child.  I'm always hoping that the kid will turn around and toddle back or the parent will notice and run after them so that I can stop before I have to pick up a strange child.  One of these days I'm probably going to get yelled at by some parent because I touched their child.  But I'll just have to deal with that if it happens, because I'd much rather have some parent attempt to yell at me than to have the child harmed.  It's just amazing how many small children manage to escape without our notice.  Johnny has tried to make mad dashes into dangerous situations before too.  It's a miracle that any of us moms manage to not have a heart attack every other or day or seclude ourselves inside our house 24/7 with all of the scares our children put us through!

Anyway, back to the story: after I picked up the adventurous tot, I got to talking with the other mom.  She seemed really nice.  Another fountain that was bigger and more fun was mentioned and the decision was made to transport the playdate to that park instead.  I gave the new mom my contact information in case she was interested in joining us for playdates, since she expressed a need for her son to play with other kids besides his older sister, and we went on our way.  I still haven't heard from her, but I hope I do.  She seems like someone I could get along with well. 

The Northfield Mall Fountains

The fountains at the Northfield Mall, where we started out at, were located only about ten to fifteen minutes from my house, depending on traffic.  Really just up a major arterial near my house and over the freeway.  The new park that we went to is called Central Park and is even closer to our place.  It is about five to ten minutes from our house, depending on traffic.  The park is only a year old, or at least all the new equipment in it is only a year old.  It had huge grassy areas, a huge sections with lots of fountains, and a big play area with new play equipment and rubber hills the kids can run and play on.  The only complaint is that there isn't any shady areas for the moms to sit near the fountains - just one big giant open area.  The play area is also a little hard to keep track of the kiddos too and the rubber they have on it, while safe cushioning for falls, gets pretty darn hot in the heat.  Just like concrete.  Other than though, it was an awesome park and the fountains reminded me of this water park on the South Hill back home that Johnny loved to go to last summer. 


After we changed to Central Park, we spent a few hours letting the kids run through the sprinklers and play in the playground.  They all had a blast!   It was a nice day in the high 80s on Wednesday too.  Perfect day for the fountains.

Central Park Fountains

On Thursday we all went back to Central Park and the fountains for another playdate - with Jenny, Kristen, Konstance, and their kids.  We met at noon with picnic lunches and let the kids run through the fountains and play for a few hours again.  The moms brought lawn chairs this time and sat in front of one of the small trees there and tried to stay cool in the mid 90s weather.  It was HOT!  It was really nice to talk with my friends and Johnny had a lot of fun running through the fountains to cool off and playing with bubbles.  It was a lot of fun!  We'll definitely be going back to Central Park again, especially since it is really close to us.

Central Park Fountains

The downside to the playdates: Johnny fell and got his first skinned knee, and I didn't put any sunscreen on the circle areas under his eyes (who knew you needed to apply sunscreen dangerously close to the eyes?), and he got a slight sunburn just in those areas.  It sort of looks like black eyes, only pink because of a sunburn.  Poor baby.  I'll have to hold him down and do a better job of putting sunscreen on his face in the future.