53rd Ave Community Park

53rd Ave Community Park 

300 NE 53rd Avenue

Hillsboro, OR 97124

 It's another rainy day here in Oregon so I thought I would stay inside with my coffee and tell you about the 53rd Ave Park.

Pros

Huge! 

New and different toys on playground

Big water feature

Good parking lot's

Astro turf fields 

Sandbox

Good bathrooms

Clean

Basketball courts and tennis courts

Con's

Can get very busy

There are 2 baby swings but the play equipment is recommended for 5 to 12 year olds making it tricky for younger kids. 

  So a friend suggested that we check out the 53rd park because the playgroud toys were "crazy" and a bit different from all the other parks. So the next sunny day the kids and I decided to check out. It was easy to find and I turned into the first signed parking lot. Then I noticed that the playground was across the two AstroTurf fields so I went and found a second signed parking lot that was much closer. I was surprised at the size of the park, it is HUGE! I haven't even been to the other parts to explore all that this place has to offer. I know they have basketball courts, tennis courts, a concession stand, probably a baseball field, and I heard that there is an indoor center. They playground area has a huge water feature, a sand pit, a rock area for kids to climb on and some interesting, fun and different toys. 

  The kids loved climbing the big steps for the water feature and ran on those until they saw the giant saucer swings. Then we noticed nearby was a good sized sand pit for digging fun! I noticed a water fountain that will be great for rinsing kids off after a morning in the sand. Or if a child happens to get sand in their eye (not that kids ever throw sand...) there is running water close to help. 

 water fountains!

 water fountain by sandpit and sandpit

  After checking that area out we headed around a hill with rocks for climbing and saw the playground. My friend was right these toys were crazy cool! The best is a netted cone shaped spinny thing for kids to climb all over. As I mentioned in my first blog, I am not so good with words, so here is a picture. 

I'm not sure why this is sideways, nor do I know how to fix it so sorry. At least you can get an idea of the thing.

  The park is great and we had a great time! The only problem I had was that while my 3 yr old wanted to play in the sandbox, my 5 yr old wanted to be on the playground and it was hard to keep an eye on both of them since there was a hill in between the two areas.  My kids also had a hard time with some of the toys. The slide doesn't have sides to keep the kids from falling off. My 3 yr old has gone down it twice but needs help getting up. My 5 yr old gets to the top then freaks out and climbs back down. He is not a fan of heights.

  Oh and if I didn't mention it before, I am not a total fan of the shredded bark chip ground cover that I have seen at every park so far. It's not a big deal, but it's not my favorite.

  A great part about this park is that they have restrooms by the concession stand. There is also a port-a-potty in case the 3 restrooms are in use.  We have used the restrooms twice and both times the seat had been sprayed with what I am assuming was pee. Could have just been bad luck on my part but I am a little grossed out by that. Luckily it was nothing a few wipes of toilet paper couldn't help. Otherwise the bathrooms were in good repair and clean. 

 Picture taken from near sandpit with one of the two saucer swings and the concessions and restrooms in background. 

Here are some pics of the playground area and the rock hill. Again I apologize for the sideways pictures. I don't understand why some come out right and then others aren't. :/

  I wouldn't suggest this playground for younger kids like between 7 months to 2 1/2 years. There just isn't much for the younger kids to do unless you want them in a swing or eating sand or bark shavings. Maybe when the water comes on that could be fun for the littles, but I personally, would not want to deal with a young child there if I had older kids to watch as well.  But for a picnic, a place to walk around (with or without kids), I think this park is great for every age.

  My kids love this park. We went there 3 times in 2 days. It was a little crowded the 2nd and 3rd time we went. In the evening it was the most crowded. It seems like a great community. There are apartments that are right along the park and a little place at the corner that has a pizza place, and a Coyotes grill. I didn't go into the little food/shopping area so I'm not really sure what all it has. It is a great park to meet up with friends, let the kids ride bikes, run around, dig and explore. I'm excited for the weather to warm up so we can enjoy the water feature too! Overall a great park. Check it out for yourself and let me know what you think! :)

Pictures!

I am new to this Blog thing so I will add pictures as soon as I have them and can figure out how to get them on here. Thanks in advance for your patience with me. :)

Magnolia Park

Magnolia Park 

1810 NW 192nd Ave,
Hillsboro,
Oregon 97006


For those of you who don't really care about reading my rambles about the parks, you just want to know the Pro's and Con's, I will put that first for ya. ;)

  

Pro's

     - newer play structures

     - older and younger play areas

     - port-a-potty on sight

     - great covered area with lots of places to sit
- clean 
- water feature

Con's

- usually crowded especially in evenings

- parking is not the best  

 - windy (which will probably be good in the summer)

 - only one port-a-potty 

Magnolia Park is the first one we visited shortly after moving. I printed out my directions (this is before I had my iphone), and headed out on a sunny day in January. I turned onto 192nd and it was pretty much right there as I drove up. I didn't see a parking lot but I noticed a lot of parking along the street. It's kind of a narrow street and the spots are for parallel parking. I am NOT good at parallel parking, but since it was a cold day in January, even I could easily pull into a spot. Now that the weather is getting warmer the spots fill up quickly and it can be hard to find a spot, especially since the spots are shared with the apartment building right across the street. I have always been able to get a parking spot without problem but it's just not always as close as I would like it to be.

After getting out of the car we are hit hard with a lot of wind, but that doesn't stop my kids. The kids run up the hill and see the wonder of the playground. It is a newer park so the equipment is new and clean, just how I like it. There are two areas, one for older kids and one for younger kids. For my daughter the park MUST have a swing to be fun. Magnolia park has two regular swings and two baby swings so it's a winner in her book.

In the "big kid" area there is a big slide, a side-by-side slide, a suspension bridge type thing, monkey bars and a few ladder climbing things. There is also a big green thing that reminds me of an umbrella skeleton that spins. My kids can't reach it by themselves but it's one of their favorite things to do. You just hang on (or sit if you and your child are comfortable with heights) and spin around. It's fun for the kids but a bit of a workout for me. I have to lift my 60 lb kid up there, then get my daughter up there and then I have to push it a little to get it going all while holding on to my daughter who is afraid to fall. It's doable and fun but not something we do more than 4 or 5 times a visit. 

In the younger kid area there is a slide, shorter monkey bars and a bouncy teeter-totter. There might be a telescope thing too on the slide platform.  Both areas use this shredded sawdust type stuff as ground cover. It brushes off easily if it's dry but tends to get into places it shouldn't when the kids sit in it, fall on it, etc. It's soft though and doesn't seem to bother the kids unless its in their pants or down their shirts.

The great thing about this park is that it has a water feature. Of course it hasn't been warm enough for it to be turned on yet so I will have to write about that when I can. For now though, the water area has 3 different sized rocks that kids love to run/climb up and jump off of. It is a fun feature without water so I'm guessing the water only adds to it!!

There is a large grassy area that is kept looking very nice. It's kind of like Disneyland, I have never seen trash on the ground, so I like that. There is a path that goes around the park but I wouldn't want to bring bikes or anything like that because it's not a very wide path. The is also a basketball court (I think) and a tennis court. There is a great covered area that has a lot of picnic tables. There are a few tables that have chess boards painted on them and there are even a few grills around for BBQ's.

Since my daughter is potty training I need to be able to get to a toilet. Magnolia park does have one port-a-potty that I have seen. When we used it it was very clean and it is probably cleaned quite often. It didn't help my daughter want to go, hence the fit she threw, but my son used it without any problem so there must not be any alligators lurking in the blue waters below. We did have to wait our turn and there was a line after we came out, probably due to the fit. Sigh.

This is the park we have been to most because it is a lot of fun!! I try to take the kids in the morning so it's not quite as busy and the kids tend to be younger, making it easier to see my kids. If I need out in the evenings I try to wait until my husband is home so we can have 1-on-1  coverage. It's hard to be in two places at once and both my kids either want my attention, or help, at all times. I have seen parents outnumbered by young children in the evenings there and it is chaos. The older kid want's help doing whatever, while the young toddler is risking it's life by the swings. Parents have to cross the mass of crazy kids to swoop in and save the small child and then make a mad dash back to catch the older child who was left hanging from the monkey bars. It's more work than I am interested in but if you are up for a challenge, go for it!! :)

It's a great place to meet up with friends and have a fun time! Go check it out yourself and let me know what you think of Magnolia Park! :) 

 It's not the best picture but it's all I have so far. Kids hanging out on the spinning thing with the older kids play stuff in the background.

 water feature

 covered area with tables

 bathroom

 younger play area

 spinning umbrella thing

baby swings and teeter totter bouncy toy

big kid play area

Let the blogging begin!

Sooo I'm really doing this, I'm blogging. I'd say wish me luck but I think I really should be wishing you luck as I am NOT so good with words.

I guess I should probably tell you a little bit about myself. My name is Erin and I am currently a stay at home mom in Hillsboro, Oregon.  I have an amazing husband and together we have a 5 year old son and a 3 year old daughter. I have always dreamed of being a mom and I love, LOVE that I get to see my kids grow up. It's such a blessing and I am trying not to take any of this amazing time for granted. 

That being said, I have discovered that I don't have as much patience as I would like with my kids. We don't have a backyard at our place so when I am starting to lose my mind I can't just send the kids out back while I sit, turn on a TV show that does NOT include Spongebob or Ruby and her little brother Max, and play Angry Birds. I have also discovered that if we all get out of the house, get some fresh air and natural light we usually have a much better day. :) 

We lived in Salem until our son was 1 1/2 and we loved to get out to play at parks in town. Then we moved to Albany about the time our daughter was born. There isn't much to do in Albany so we spent a lot of time at a nearby park. Since we had a park so close that was new and fun we didn't really try out other parks. We then moved up to Hillsboro this past November. Since we moved during the cold, rainy season we have pretty much been hanging out inside. Needless to say I am ready to get out of the house and get some of my sanity back. 

My kids love parks so I thought that since we are in a new town we should make a point to visit a bunch so we can see what we like and have a few different places to go to. That's how this blog got started. I made a list I got online of some of the parks in my area and wrote them all down. Because I like to doodle, I had drawn a star rating next to the name of the parks we had visited. My husband suggested that I blog about it, so here I am. We are going to try a new park every semi-sunny day we get the chance. I will probably talk about a few in the other towns I have lived in as well, just for fun. So come join us on our journey and Let's go to the park! ;)