A Park Surprise

The area of Spokane Valley that we live in is known locally as "Greenacres". Yes, cue song from old TV show... it is a lot of old farm land. Some has been developed into small single-family homes, like ours, and some is still farmhouses on larger plots of land. When we first moved here we heard there was a group working together to build a neighborhood park. It was still in the funding/design stage. Last summer they had some of the roads around the designated plot of land repaved...but for some reason, besides the annoyance, I didn't give it much thought. I thought the potential park had gone by the wayside with the lovely economy.

Then, to our surprise, this weekend our neighbors told us the park was almost completed! What?! The plot of land happens to be off our main route home, and conveniently blocked from view by a few farmhouses. After church on Sunday we took a drive by and found this:

I can't even tell you how excited I am! My pictures do not do it justice at all and they are taken through a bunch of chain link fence as the park is not yet open.

There is a huge play structure (the barn), restrooms and a splash pad!!

View from the entrance, next to the restrooms. That guy in the foreground is "Ferdinand the Bull."

The lighting is all wrong, but on the post reads "Ferdinand's Farm." When I saw this I realized it is based on the book "The Story of Ferdinand." It is a book that is about a bull who does not want to fight in bull fights, he wants to smell the flowers. And, in the previous picture he is doing just that. We purchased this book for David's sister's kids for Christmas, but we don't have it ourselves. I think we need to find it soon and get the girls familiar before the park officially opens. So cute!

The farm play structure....there are cool "hay bales" on the other side to climb up. Morgan always loves a swirly slide!

And the best part...for Morgan....the swings! There is another small set with baby swings next to Ferdinand as well. So much fun!!

There is also a large plot of grassy field surround  the park, complete with a huge shelter for picnic tables as well as a disc golf course! We did this some when we lived in Eureka, so we're looking forward to getting our discs out soon! We are planning on spending a lot of time here this summer. It is just a bit over a mile from our house, so walkable....but we'll see how that goes when we have two tired girls wanting to get home after hours of playing in water, sand and climbing things. It is an exciting addition to our neighborhood, so I'm also hoping we'll meet more families who live close by.