Parks And Playplaces | Pensacola with Kids

PlayPensacola.com

February 7, 2010 By Jen 1 Comment

There are some fabulous parks around Pensacola but if you are like me and don’t live in a neighborhood that has a great park, you might not be sure where to look. Sure, you might have heard of Solutia Park or some of the other large parks but you might be amazed to find out just how many parks are out there! That is where Play Pensacola can come in handy! Play Pensacola is the Parks and Recreation website. Here, you can find a list of all of the parks and their addresses. It gives the location and amenities (playground equipment, covered shelters, basketball courts, soccer fields, nature trails, etc) for each park. The site lists programs available and a calendar of events. Did you know that there are toddler arts and crafts activities at the Vickrey Center? Explore Play Pensacola for new things to do at our local parks. We will definitely be using the list of parks over the next few months because our goal is to visit each of the parks (or most of them) and tell you about them!

Our Top Five 2009 Family Friendly Picks in Pensacola

January 1, 2010 By Jen 4 Comments

In honor of the new year, we give you our top five family friendly activities/places in Pensacola for 2009. There is no fancy statistical process here…I asked my three and five year old children what their favorite things to do were and this is what they came up with. If asked what they wanted to do that morning, one of these activities was probably on their list!

1. Splash Pad at Plaza De Luna

blog4-small1

2. Sam’s Surf City — Sam’s Fun City was number 6 on the list, but my kids love the water park. We are thinking about a year pass this time!

3. Parks — Their favorite park right now is the one off of Tippin, but they love to visit any park!

benny2-small

4. Walking — We love to go on nature walks as a family and Pensacola has so many awesome trails and boardwalks. Our favorite is UWF Edward Ball Nature Trail because they love to spot the turtles swimming!

naturetrail2

5. Bowling — Right now, our favorite place to go bowling is Oops Alley because you can set the bumpers to go up and down depending on who is playing at the time.

oops1-small

What are your family favorite activities? List them in the comment section or send us an email with your suggestions so we can try them out!

Happy exploring!

Filed Under: Parks and Playplaces, Things to Do Tagged With: Free Activities, Parks, Pensacola, Splash Pads

Living Sensation Gymnastics-Pace, Florida

October 25, 2009 By Jen Leave a Comment

**Living Sensation no longer has Open Play Time. See their sister gym, In Motion, for open play time and birthday parties.**

livingsensation1 (Small)

A little while ago, I wrote about the grand opening event at Living Sensation in Pace, Florida. We finally made it there the other day for their toddler play time. Living Sensation offers toddler and open gym time, cheer, gymnastics, and dance classes. They also put on birthday parties and Parent’s Night out events.

livingsensation (Small)

Toddler Playtime is a great way to spend a rainy morning and we have had a lot of those this season! There are all sorts of activities for the little ones-tumbling, rings, rope climbing, running, jumping, bouncing and more. Little S had a great time running around with her buddies. Her favorite part of the whole morning was all the jumping off of things and bouncing on the track. There is great kid-friendly music playing while the kids run around. Parents are encouraged to play with their children but there is also a small area where you can sit and watch your little ones play. The cost for Toddler Playtime is $6.00 for crawling children up to 6 years of age. The schedule is available on the website but as of today the hours are listed as Tuesdays 10am-12noon and Wednesdays 10am-12noon.

livingsensation2 (Small)

Things to Know Before You Go:

Bring cash or check. They are not set up to take credit cards and if you do not have cash/check you will have to head to the nearest ATM.
If you have a crawler, they will be charged the $6.00. The cost is $6.00 for children from crawling to 6yo.

Living Sensation is located at 4360 FloridaTown Road in Pace, Florida and the phone number is 850.994.6450.

Filed Under: Parks and Playplaces, Things to Do Tagged With: Pace

Shoreline Park – Gulf Breeze, Florida

October 1, 2009 By Jen 1 Comment

Oh my goodness…almost a week since my last post! I have been outside enjoying the cooler weather with my family and I hope you have been to! What is one of my favorite things about fall? The park visits! I have never been an incredibly outdoorsy girl but I have been trying. My husband and kids love to be outside so we go camping, ride bikes, kick the soccer ball around and head to parks. The park visit in the summertime is excruciatingly painful to me. It is miserable hot and just standing under a tree makes me feel like I am going to pass out from heat exhaustion…okay…I am being dramatic. That all changes once the weather gets cooler. We spend many afternoons at the park. As the weather cooled down this past week, we decided to visit a park we haven’t been to yet.

shorelinepark (Small)

Shoreline Park is located off of Shoreline Drive in Gulf Breeze. You can’t miss it as you drive by! The park has tennis courts, basketball courts, an enclosed skatepark, and several play structures. The play structures are a bit old but they are well kept. The park is right on the street but is surrounded by a wire fence. I think that even if the park got crowded, it is set up in a way that makes it easy to keep an eye on your child. My daughter’s favorite part? Tons of squirrels running around.

shorelinepark3 (Small)

shorelinepark2 (Small)

Shoreling Park is located at 1070 Shoreline Drive, Gulf Breeze, Florida.

Filed Under: Parks and Playplaces, Things to Do Tagged With: Free Activities, Gulf Breeze, Parks

Sam’s Fun City – Pensacola, Florida

September 20, 2009 By Jen 1 Comment

Welcome to Pensacola with Kids! Our mission is to help you find places to explore in Pensacola with your family. If you like what you see, why don’t you subscribe to our RSS feed to receive a daily email update or updates in your Reader. If you haven’t already, check out our Famous Dave’s Giveaway. We are giving away a feast valued at $55.00. See the rules and how to enter. The giveaway closes Tuesday evening!

I have been taking the kids to the Soft Play section of Sam’s Fun City every couple of weeks over the past few months. For $6 dollars each, your kids can play on the Play Zone City for as long as their heart’s content (or as long as you can sit there!). The Play Zone City consists of a jungle gym climbing structure and a bouncy inflatables. My children will happily run around for several hours. They do like to stop and explore the arcade, but for the most part they are happy bouncing and climbing. Until it is time to go. We have to walk past the cars, carousel and other exciting to 5-year-old rides! This is when I decide to either fight the battle and drag them kicking and screaming to the car sorry that I even made the trip or I go in and purchase 6 tickets (that is the smallest denomination) so they can each ride a ride. Sam’s Fun City has just made my life a bit easier…and for a great price! They have a new weekday special. For only $10.00 each, I can let my kids play as long as they want, all day long, and then they can ride 6 of the participating rides! This is cheaper than my previous method and everyone goes home smiling! See the official Sam’s Fun City flyer that was sent to me below. As always, call ahead of time to verify!

day pass weekday special---

Filed Under: Parks and Playplaces, Things to Do Tagged With: Pensacola

Splash Pad at Plaza de Luna – Pensacola, Florida

September 10, 2009 By Jen 2 Comments

We love splash pads at the Pensacola with Kids family! We were especially excited when the splash pad/water feature was built in Plaza de Luna but we were quickly disappointed to learn that the only guaranteed time that the splash pad was open was on Thursday from 5:30-7pm…what???? We have this awesome free water feature that is a way to attract not only locals to the downtown area who will spend money on lunch or go shopping while they are down there, but also to attract tourists looking for a day away from the beach and it is only open two to three hours a week? That is a little ridiculous, don’t you think? Well, we thought so…

blog-small

I have been in contact with the awesome staff at the Community Redevelopment Agency since the beginning of the summer. They have been so helpful in answering any questions that I had right away and they have been great about keeping us informed of fantastic family friendly activities! They have been trying very hard to get the splash pad and concession stand up and running more than just two hours a week so that everyone can enjoy it.

So…the big news?!?! The splash pad at Plaza de Luna is tentatively open from 11-7, 7 days a week! The concession stand is also open for some of that time. YEAH! We are so excited about this. They are still trying to work out the kinks so please be patient with them. There are no guarantees that you will find everything up and operating because they may need to turn off the water or shut down the concession stand at any point.

But, with that being said…throw a swimsuit on, grab a towel and go have a picnic lunch in Plaza de Luna! We will post any information we receive about the Grand Opening!

Filed Under: Parks and Playplaces, Things to Do, Things to do Under $5 Tagged With: Downtown, Free Activities, Pensacola, Splash Pads

Benny Russell Park – Pace, Florida

September 6, 2009 By Jen Leave a Comment

benny2-small

Before the sky opened up and let the storms loose, we headed out to Benny Russell Park this morning. The park itself is easy to find. There are so many different things for the kids to play with. The park is kind of set back in the woods so there is lots of shade. There are several picnic tables where people were set up with their birthday parties. There are benches throughout the park as well. There are relatively clean bathrooms that were both open and working while we were there. One of the things my little guys loved was that so much is made for big kids AND little kids! I didn’t have to worry about my kids being too adventurous and breaking something! There are little monkey bars and rings, as well as the Tot Lot.

benny1-small

The Tot Lot is somewhat of a replica of the bigger part of the playground but is sized down for 2-5 year olds. Overall the park is a great park but my number one complaint is that there isn’t anywhere that you can stand or sit and see the whole park. I was constantly chasing my kids all over and around blind corners so that I could keep an eye on them. This is not a park I would choose to take my kids to if I was looking to let them run around while I relaxed on a bench under a tree! I probably wouldn’t be comfortable taking both of my kids to this park by myself…one too many kids to keep track of at a park like this on my own! I would definitely bring someone with me to help! That being said, my kids loved their time at the park and we would visit again!

benny-small

Benny Russell Park is located at 5417 West Spencer Field Rd.

Filed Under: Parks and Playplaces, Things to Do, Things to do Under $5 Tagged With: Free Activities, Pace, Parks

Places to Have a Kid’s Birthday Party in Pensacola

August 20, 2009 By Jen 5 Comments

**See our newest birthday party list updated on January 26, 2011!**

We are celebrating Big S’s birthday in the house this week so in honor of his birthday, I have listed some places where you can have a birthday party around town. This is in no way a comprehensive list and it is in alphabetical order. I gathered the list from places we have been and various message boards. We have had birthday parties at a few of the places and have attended parties at a few of the places. That being said, there are some on this list that I love, some that were ok, some I haven’t been to and some I might never step in again. I am not going to give an opinion because that is what it is…merely a list of places you might want to look into if you are throwing a birthday for your child! If you have something to add to this list, please comment or send me an email and I will add your suggestion to the list.

Bounce House – Triple Play

Bowling Alley – Oops Alley, DeLuna Lanes, Cordova Lanes

Movie Theater – Rave Motion Pictures, The Ridge Pace, The Breeze, Silver Screen

Park – Escambia County Parks and Recreation and Santa Rosa Parks and Recreation

West Florida Railroad Museum

Filed Under: Parks and Playplaces, Places to Eat, Things to Do Tagged With: Pace, Pensacola, Pensacola Beach

TT Wentworth Discovery Gallery

August 18, 2009 By Jen Leave a Comment

5-small

On the third floor of the TT Wentworth Museum, a super cool imagination building play zone awaits! The Discovery Gallery is located on the third floor of the museum. The set up is geared toward imaginary play while learning about Colonial Pensacola. There is a fort, a ship in the Port of Pensacola, stores, houses, and so much more to explore. There are clothes to dress up in, imaginary bread to bake, treasure to be found, and ships to sail. You could spend hours here allowing your children to explore their imaginary side!

6-small

4-small

Things to Know Before You Go:

Only a certain number of children are allowed in the room at a time. If you have a large group, be sure to call ahead to schedule a visit.
Be ready to interact with your kids as they show you all the exciting things to be found! If you need a break from standing up, they do have a little set of bleachers available so that you can sit down.
There are plenty of photo opps so bring your camera.
Couple your trip with a visit to the rest of Historic Pensacola and visit the homes or the Museum of Commerce.
Bring a picnic lunch to eat outside in the grass or stop by one of the great little restaurants downtown after your visit.

3-small

2-small

1-small

8-small

7-small

The TT Wentworth is located in Historic Pensacola off of Jefferson Street. The phone number for the West Florida Historic Preservation, Inc. is 850-595-5985.

Filed Under: Parks and Playplaces, Things to Do, Things to do Under $5 Tagged With: Downtown, Free Activities, Pensacola

Grand Opening at Living Sensation Gymnastics, Cheer, and Dance

August 14, 2009 By Jen Leave a Comment

Living Sensation is having a Grand Opening Saturday, August 15th, at their new building in Pace, Florida from 10am-2pm. The new building is located at 4360 Floridatown. They will have food, games, face painting and special guests. See the invitation to the Grand Opening here! I have not been here yet, but I checked out the website and I am especially excited about heading to Living Sensation for their Toddler Open Play. The website states that Toddler Open Play is on Mondays from 10am-12noon, Tuesdays from 7pm-9pm, and Wednesdays 10am-12pm. Admission is only $6.00! We are going to try and go in the next week or two so I will let you know how it is when we get back!

Filed Under: Parks and Playplaces, Things to Do, Things to do Under $5 Tagged With: Free Activities, Pace