Centennial Lake

My friend, ChrissieMarie, tells me I should write about Centennial Lake.  It's an obvious place to go, she says!  Obviously, judging by the number of cars, people, and dogs that were there over the weekend!  On Saturday, the kids and I met a friend for a leisurely walk around the lake. 

I always park near the maintenance shed.  Then I head to the left, towards the pavillion, amphitheatre, bathrooms and concessions.  And, the big playground.  This way, everyone gets a little walk and the kids get to play and everyone is happy!

The walk around the entire lake is very long, but totally worth it!  (Umm...we didn't do it this time, however!)  There is a cool arboreteum on the farside of the lake that the kids love, love, love!  They run from sign to sign, shouting, "There's one!  There's another one!"  We always comment about how naughty those people were to write all over that one tree! 

The Living Colonnade is in full bloom right now!  Why go to DC to see blossoms when we've got our own right here?  There's also a cool boyscout path you can take through the woods near the boat ramp.  And, did you know that there's an upper loop of trail just past the arboreteum, near the information bulletin?  I didn't?  There are also basketball courts and two playgrounds--the red one is perpetually crowded, but the old brown one, notsomuch!  So, get out there!

Lucky Leprechaun Hunt

Today the Princess, the Pea and I went on a Lucky Leprechaun Hunt at the Glenwood Community Center.  This was a totally adorable and fun activity.  First, we received a goody bag to decorate with shamrock stickers and a gold coin.  We used the coin to buy a map from the Leprechaun.  The map told us where the Leprechaun had hidden his coins around the center. 

We ran from room to room searching for gold! 

When we were done, we enjoyed some juice, pretzels and cupcakes.

 

Then we played a coin toss game and a balloon race and won more prizes--pencils, bracelets and lollypops!

The Duck Pond

The Duck Pond off MacClintock Road, officially known as Warfield Ponds Park, is one of our favorite places to go.  There is a playground, tennis courts, covered pavillion, volleyball court, and a walking path that goes around, what else?, a duck pond.  We love to go and feed the ducks, fish and turtles that live in the pond.  On warm, sunny days you can see turtles basking on reeds at the far end of the pond.  After dinner on summer nights, we like to ride bikes around the pond (we always stop and walk our bikes across the far end of the pond, though.  When you go, you'll see why!  There's a boardwalk and the sides are made of cables.)  The kids love to dig in the sand volleyball court, which kind of grosses me out, because, really, who knows what kind of animals use it for a bathroom?  The only drawback to this park is that there are no swings.  But, all in all, this is a great park to go to for some nature spotting and exercise!

(apologies for the non-rotated pictures--blogger is not letting me rotate them!)

IKEA

Okay, so IKEA is not exactly in Western Howard County, but it just happens to be where the Pea and I went today and we had a blast!  And, it's only about forty-five minutes away, which isn't far considering everything is about twenty minutes from my house!  Plus, the Ruler HATES IKEA with a passion, so we picked the absolute best day to visit!

We went through each of the display showrooms, checking out all the sofas and chairs.  Then we hit up the children's section for more storage bins and art supplies!  We strolled through the Marketplace and picked up several bags of clips.  We ate lunch in the restaurant.  There are some seriously good choices for kids and I had to try the Swedish meatballs.  $10.38 for both of our lunches--so cheap!  I even picked up some yummy cinnamon rolls for our breakfast tomorrow.  On the way out, we checked out Smaland, the play area for kids.  The Pea wanted to go in, but since the Princess wasn't with us, I knew that would not work out.

So, IKEA, definitely, two thumbs up.  Or, four, if you count the Pea's thumbs, too!

IKEA College Park

10100 Baltimore Ave.

College Park, MD 20740

Welcome!

This blog will be a record of all the fun places that we've visited near our home with our kids--Western Howard

County, Maryland. 

If you've got a favorite place that you like to visit with your kids, please leave me a comment!