Play Atlanta

After an absence for about 2 weeks, I am back. I know you all are really excited. 😛

I was in a car accident (somebody ran a red light and t-boned me…thankfully, no one was hurt, no kids in the car, but both cars involved were totalled). I have been having some anxiety driving, so I just haven’t driven very much lately (particularly to any playgrounds). Plus, you know…if you’ve ever been in a car accident, there are a tons of little things you have to do. Rental cars, insurance companies, buying a new car, court dates….all that jazz. My life is finally getting back together and I am ready to rock and roll with the playgrounds.

Hope you all are doing well!!

This is exciting news about Springvale Park. In case you haven’t read the review, Springvale Park is a small community park/playground in Inman Park. The playground equipment is not memorable, to say the least.

The park itself is, however, pretty memorable. There is a goose! I remember the day we went there was a sign that said “be friendly to our neighborhood goose” and the goose followed me and my family around the pond. I suppose it was looking for food, maybe? I didn’t bring any bread and really worked hard at avoiding the goose. I just am not a huge fan of geese. To me they are like evil ducks, but I suppose that there are friendly geese out there, and perhaps this is one of them.

This is exciting news about the playground though. I will keep you updated!

Inman Park Fundraiser For Springvale Park Raises More than $1,400

Park playground proposal designs to be unveiled in early November

by Jane Gibson Smith

Thanks to the awesome generosity of One Eared Stag Chef Robert Phalen and his co-owner Zoe Cernut, the Springvale Park Playground Event Sunday afternoon raised over $1,400!

One Eared Stag served us a variety of complimentary wines, and gave us a great sampling of their house-cured bacon and pickled treats (the mussels and cauliflower were absolutely amazing). On top of all that, Chef Phalen, showed us how to make his “Trotter Bolognese” (pork) in a very intimate and interactive cooking demo at the large farm table in their main dining room. It was a memorable and fun event and we really appreciated all the time and thought One Eared Stag owners and staff put into helping us.

We hope Inman Parkers will make a special effort to get to One Eared Stag during Inman Park Restaurant Week (which runs through Sunday)! They will be serving $15 lunches and $25 dinners all week, with an exciting, rotating menu (including the Trotter Bolognese).

Special thanks to all the folks who came out for the event (a very enthusiastic bunch). Stay tuned for details on the next playground fundraiser, “Design Day,” which will be held in Springvale Park on Nov. 5. We’ll unveil the top three design proposals for the new playground equipment and give everyone a chance to critique them and then draw their own vision for what our playground should look like. Looking forward to seeing you there!

Ms. Smith, an Inman Park resident, is a Playground Committee volunteer with the Inman Park Neighborhood Association.

http://eastatlanta.patch.com/articles/inman-park-fundraiser-for-springvale-park-raises-more-than-1400

Would you let your child wear this to play at a playground?

I grew up wearing all sorts of smocked things. My husband grew up wearing smocked things. We are from a well-smocked family. But, my children? Well, I just have a different point of view on these very expensive outfits. I just don’t understand why I would spend $50+ on an outfit that my child will only wear to church or to a wedding, or worse yet, just for a family picture. My kids do not wear these things. It would be silly of me to dress my children up in a smocked outfit to have a forever, on the wall picture, printed out for everyone to see, of them in a smocked jon jon. It’s not them. And, to top it off, I would feel downright awful if they got food or mud or snot or whatever grossness they may have on it. But that’s just me.

Apparently, people do actually wear these outside of fancy occasions. I have witnessed kids on the playground wearing them. On the playground. Playing in sand! Getting dirty! With snot running down their face!

The way I see it there are two ways to look at it:

1) you should never wear an outfit that expensive to play on a playground

or

2) if somebody gave you an outfit, just wear it. Who cares? At least you’re getting good use of your money.

What do you think?

This picture was shown in LIFE magazine in October 1954.

My dad was born in 1945, so just trying to imagine him playing like this lifts my spirits and makes me smile. Even as a kid growing up in the 1980s, I recall playgrounds with these wonderful rainbow climbers.

Boy do I miss them. We had one at my first elementary school in Texas – you had to cross the entire soccer field to get to it. 😛

There is definitely something to be said about the simplicity of playgrounds that let children play like this.