Cy Tenney / Ross Memorial Park, Peabody

This past weekend we took a trip to Ross Memorial Park on Johnson Rd, Peabody MA (formerly CyTenney Park). This park is one that is near and dear to my heart, and I just love taking the kids there! I grew up just down the street. I'm not quite sure that there actually was a playground when I was younger, but a woman I used to babysit for spearheaded an effort to build a new playground at the site. So I've been involved in the construction of this park from the beginning. I volunteered at many of the events, and babysat for the planning meetings. Our family has a brick on one of the walkways, and my father was actually on the building committee and literally helped build the park. As time moved on, the park continued to evolve. Several years ago there was another group that built an accessible park on the site as well! Just a few years ago the City of Peabody began building a bike trail throughout the city, and this park is part of that bike trail! Awesome!

So, the park includes some baseball fields, a bike path that brings you out to Lowell St, by the Hannaford Shopping Plaza. (this trail continues through to the Middleton line if interested!) Plenty of parking here and it is not even close to the main road. (another plus!) Playgrounds are entirely fenced in.

As for the playgrounds, there are essentially three playgrounds at this location. For three toddlers, I prefer the kids to stay on the newest, accessible one for a few reasons. First, I like the surface much better. It's a rubberized surface so I don't have to worry about splinters or Cecilia eating it! I can easily stay on the structure with the kids if need be. The one downside, it is a little easy for the little ones to fall off. This happened to us last week, but with the soft surface, Cecilia was just fine. There's a great sandbox that's in one corner of the park. The swings in this part of the park are large swings so that most kids can enjoy them, even with various disabilities. This section of the park is mostly fenced in and seperate from the rest of the playground and there are a few benches scattered around. The walkway to the older portion is not gated.

The older (and more sentimental for me!) playground is located to the back and side of the Angel Playground. The structures to the side are for the smaller kids. Lower level slides, wheels, balancing boards, monkey bars etc. Cecilia likes this section, but other than the wheels, Patrick has no interest in it! He, of course prefers the large wooden playground! I certainly do get nervous with him climbing this section, but so far he does pretty well. There are two very high slides - one regular slide, and a tunnel slide. Patrick climbs up to both, but really can only go down the tunnel slide. He does pretty well on it, but this is just much to big for Cecilia.

In between the two sections are the swings. There's 2 baby swings and two tire swings. Since none of my kids are old enough use a regular swing, I didn't think to look for them!

I took some pictures of the park, but haven't had a chance to upload. After the big wedding this weekend, I'll get all my pictures up on the computer.

Currently, this is one of my favorite parks for the kids. When the weather is nice, I plan to park at Hannaford and walk/bike over with the kids. Right now it is a bit hard with the two mobile ones, since it is such a large area and the kids never want to do the same things. Patrick does end up being a bit more daring than I'd like since I'm stretched so thin with the girls. I'm not quite sure I'll be able to do this park once Riley's on the move. Although, Patrick will be a bit older, so maybe it will be fine?

Upcoming stops: Mall Tots, Liberty Tree Mall, Danvers MA; Ingaldsby Farm, Boxford; New Hampshire Children's Museum, Dover NH; The Butterfly Place, Westford; Ackerman Park, Boxford.

And send me ideas of places to go with my 'crew'! We love checking out new things!