Insider info...

Today we met my wonderful friend Katherine and her lovely girls, Maia, Eva, and Anya, as they wanted to join us on our park adventures! Cam, being a Parks and Rec man this summer, told me that the new Matsqui Village Park, 6074 Riverside Road was complete and that we should head over there. Here's what it looked like when we got there:

But what you can't see is the excavator that was digging in front of this fence (later ripping up a water line that Cam and Jay would come to fix... ha ha), making a bunch of noise and dust. Tempted as Katherine and I were to dash our kids to the playground to claim that we had been the first ones on it, we respected the cautious workmen who thought we should wait until the afternoon when they were done. "You know kids and machinery," he said. Cam said I should have told him that my kids have already driven an excavator that size. But I didn't tell him. Instead, we headed over to Bateman Park,
34638 Bateman Road. And as if it wasn't a cool enough park already, lo and behold, it was Community Cruiser day and there was a bouncy castle there too! I will publish the schedule for that in a separate post, for those who cut it out of the paper and lost it :) So, yeah, the kids were super pumped.

Bateman Park has tons of fields (one of which has a 'perfect sledding hill', observed Katherine), a new playground (installed during the playoffs this year), and a most excellent creek and secret foresty fort area.
Playground: One 2-5yr play area and one 5-12yr area, which I always like. There are 2 swings, one of which was m.i.a today, and a froggy/horsey see saw- you know, the new kind, where no matter how heavy or light you are, you can balance and have a grand time- perfect for mommy and toddler! There was also some shade. Here's our gang on the 2-5 set: (Katherine protested, "that's not why we joined you! We're not trying to get in your blog!" ha ha...well like it or not, you're in!)

Creek and foresty fort area: I was introduced to this last year by my awesome cousin Lizzy, a true Abbostfordian. We had taken a picnic dinner there on a particularly icky hot night, and it was an oasis of cool, so it's a great summer spot.
To find this particularly nice part of this super awesome area, go to the lower fields by the forest, and then of the 3 paths/entrances to the forest, take the one on the right. The ground is knotty, so be careful not to let your kiddos run, and don't wear fancy shoes or anything. No yummy mommy playground outfits here- you need spelunking (sp?) clothes. I will resist the urge to oversell this, and instead seriously urge you to check it out this summer for yourself. Bring a towel and make sure your kids have flip flops or water shoes. (Apparently this is also a nice spot to enjoy alcoholic beverages and then break them and leave a few small pieces...so you will need shoes just in case. But don't let that turn you off- it's lovely in there.)
Here is a blurry pic of our kids and their 'tree house'...I just thought it was so cute the way they were sweeping the ground and divvying up building projects and chores. Isn't this the picture of childhood?

Upsides: Good playground, awesome creek and forest area, bathrooms and shade (my two favourites!), dog park, soccer nets, parking at either end of the park (playground or fields). Pretty busy park, with lots of people coming and going, but not so busy that you fear you'll lose your kids in the crowds.
Downsides: Lots of dogs off leash. All the ones we met were great, but it's just good to know ahead of time, just in case, or if your kids are afraid of dogs.
Caius gave this park an 8/10 and Addie gave it a 10. Maia wanted to give it a mark but I think was totally confused by Caius and his completely random rating scales. "How do you rate this Caius?" "264!!! Out of Ten hundred!!! It's so cool!!!".

Oh! And before I forget: Matsqui Village Park is totally playable now. We stopped by in the afternoon and the kids had a lot of fun (don't let the look on Addie's face fool you- she just had to pee real bad and couldn't understand why I just had to have a photo) And on that note: the bathrooms are still being renovated so for now it's the bushes...