Playground Review : Bayview Village Park

When planning an adventure around the greater Toronto area we are often on the lookout for great playgrounds. While any playground can be fun and enjoyable, there are definitely some factors that make them more or less fun for both Buzz and myself (Bo doesn't yet care). Being the type of person who plans our outings I usually like to hop on the internet the evening before and check out whats in a given area. I always look for peoples opinions on local playgrounds, I'm almost always disappointed with the amount of info that is out there.  While you can sometimes find info on the parks in general, information on the playgrounds themselves are lacking and so I'm going to attempt to fill the void.

The format of my playground reviews may change a little as we find things that we love or despise about various playgrounds, but I hope that I can at least give a little insight into the condition, amenities, and general awesomeness of playgrounds around the city. I will do my best to include some photos, although they will most likely be from my phone as opposed to to the camera.

First up is our playground of choice for this evening : Bayview Village Park.

Location : On the east side of Bayview Ave, north of Sheppard.

This park is within walking distance to the Bayview stop on the Sheppard Subway Line. If you are driving to the park there is a parking lot which has about 25 spaces.We've only been here a couple times, but both times we were able to get a parking spot without any problems. As this park is surrounded by a residential area I suspect a lot of people walk over.

From a parents point of view I think the best thing about this park is that it has a fence separating it from Bayview Ave. Without the fence it would be unplayable as the playground equipment is located fairly close to the road. The fence runs all along the west side of the park and seems to generally contain the kids.

There are three separate play structures with slides, they seem to be for toddlers, young kids, and older kids as they are three different sizes.  I suspect that they  have been there for a while as they are made of wood, not metal and plastic like is commonly seen in most playgrounds. They are all pretty simple structures, but the kids seem to enjoy them. The surface under the playgrounds are either covered in sand or soft rubber. The sand is not deep enough to play in and is closer to teeny pebbles in some areas.

This park has a splash pad!! The sprinklers are in a concrete pad and the button to turn them on was difficult for the toddlers to activate, but all the kids running around seemed to the enjoy the water. The sprinklers are pretty basic, the only structure on the splash pad is a water tower, no water spouting animals or cat tails here. We were here around dinnertime and the splash pad was mostly shaded which was nice. The splash pad seems to be wheelchair accessible, however most of the playground is not all that wheelchair friendly.

Unfortunately the age of this playground is starting to show, there is some minor graffiti on some things, the benches could use a coat of paint, and the water fountain was leaking terribly. Despite the age and basic play areas this park has a lot going for it. The fence allows parents with more then one kid to watch them comfortably. There are plenty of shady or sunny places for a picnic, playing with a ball, or general running around. There are a decent amount of places to sit and even washrooms (albeit port-a-johns not large enough to fit a stroller).  This is a park that we will probably return to as it is near some shops that we frequent. I think that when it was first built the park would have been great, shiny and new is always better than tired and old. It could use some updating and a little maintenance, although I didn't see any trash around, the play areas seemed dusty and a little dirty.

Above all else this park is pretty average, it has some really good things going for it, but it is also fairly boring looking. Sometimes boring is great for kids, it develops their imaginations, however sometimes its just plain boring. This park leans a little more towards just plain boring.

This park has:

-3 play structures with slides.

-2 other structures with monkey bars and rings to swing from.

-5 picnic benches and 4 park benches within the playground area. More benches can be found on the outskirts of the big fields.

-Large open field

-Tennis courts

-Baseball diamond

-2 port-a-johns (not wheelchair accessible)

-concrete splash pad

-shaded grass area

-fence (not gated)

-parking lot

-2 child swings

-1 toddler swing

-1 accessible swing with asphalt leading up to it.

-1 drinking fountain (not working well when we were there).

 Score : 4/10

The Summer To-Do List : Blue Jays Game

Have I mentioned we're Blue Jays fans? Since we are lucky enough to live in the same city as a baseball team as great as the Jays we think it is important to take our kids to a game or two. I grew up going to games at Tigers Stadium and loved it, I have great memories of the games. For our kids to experience the game, the stadium, the crowd and the peanuts underfoot, is wonderful.

This past Saturday we took Bo for his very first game, Buzz having been many times before. Bo slept for the most part, Buzz ate popcorn and got himself a foam finger. It was all very exciting! Bo did manage to open his eyes long enough for us to snap a pic. Although he does not look all that pleased in the photo he was very well behaved and wasn't bothered by all the sights and sounds.

The Jays won and after the game we all went down on the field so that Buzz could run the bases, stepping onto the field was thrilling! We almost always sit way up in the nosebleeds and so being able to go right down and walk on the field was a great experience, the place looked huge from there. 

I think the only drawback to going to the games is that we always seem to sit in a somewhat rowdy section, perhaps all the cheap seats are rowdy. This time the rowdy was coming from two separate bachelor parties that happened to be sitting next to one another, they were trying to one up each other with their behaviour. For the most part we take it in stride and security at the stadium are pretty good at keeping people from getting out of control. I suspect that there aren't quite so many trouble makers down in the more expensive seats, but as we can't afford to get those tickets, we will just have to put up with the bachelor parties. I suspect a family section up in the cheap seats would go over well. 

The staff at the games are always kind and courteous, when I asked one of them if they would take a family photo of us in front of the Jays dugout, they happily agreed to. This is our very first family photo as a family of four.

Although these outings aren't always easy they are well worth it. Buzz remembers the games and the experience, he talks about it for months afterwards. Taking our kids out into the world to explore, to see and do interesting things, to watch them experience incredible moments is simply an amazing experience.