In mid-October we headed to Richmond to celebrate our old college roommates surviving the first year as new parents and their sweet daughter’s first birthday. On the morning of the party we met up with several college friends and all our kids at the Greater Richmond ARCpark to get the wiggles out before the big party later that afternoon. There’s something so sentimental about reconnecting your kids with your college friends’ kids and this weekend visit was no exception.
The ARCpark is located at 3600 Saunders Avenue, near the intersection of highways I-64, I-95 and 195. This park is designed for kids of all ages and features mostly wheelchair-accessible play areas. The tot playground features several slides, a small rock climbing wall and stumps for hopping on. It also has nearby handicap-accessible swings, all located on a rubbery surface. Adjacent to the tot playground is a stage area and greenhouse with flower planting beds. 
Beyond the tot playground is another playground area built into the side of a hill with rocks and tree stumps for steps and slides for sliding down the hill. There’s also a small play house, two large disc swings (which were the crowd favorite), bench swings, water tables, musical instruments, and a wheelchair-accessible tree house nearby. The littlest ones in the group loved making music with their hands and mallets while the older ones loved running and exploring the tree house. A paved walking trail leads to basketball courts and other fitness equipment behind the main building.
After some tree house play, the kiddos gathered throughout the largest playground, which features several long ramps connecting the smaller-age play structures with the taller ones. The big kids ran up ramps, flew down slides, and climbed up nets and walls while the younger ones crawled between stumps and held on to nets. Everyone also made time for the cool sensory wall featuring brightly colored mirrors, shiny rocks, spinning wheels and more. Claire and I also took time to walk through the small flower garden area. She loved climbing on the benches and stopping to smell the flowers.
The ARCpark was a great way to kick off the first birthday celebrations. It’s always such fun to watch the kids play together while the parents can catch up (as much as one can while wrangling kids)!
Thumbs up: so much to see and play with, large disc swings, playground built into the hill, variety of activities for kids of all ages and abilities, tree house with long ramp for running
Thumbs down: with so much to see and play with it can be hard to wrangle multiple kids
Blue Jay Point County Park is an outdoor mecca for people of all ages! We visited Blue Jay Point County Park about a month ago after hearing so much great news about the new 
After some playground time, we headed towards the covered pavilion where the Laurel Loop nature trail begins. This was such an ideal walk for young kids – it is a well maintained unpaved trail with lots of shade, has several benches and picnic tables throughout, is only 0.2 miles, allows for a short walk by adjacent Falls Lake, and loops you back to the playground area. All of the girls from ages 18 months to 4 years old loved exploring this trail, especially finding the dozens of caterpillars along the trail.
We then headed outside to the nearby fenced-in garden area for a much deserved picnic lunch. After our lunch we walked all throughout the gardens learning about the different herbs, flowers and vegetables they’ve planted. The biggest highlight for me was the “pizza garden” where they planted lots of basil and tomatoes. The biggest highlight for the girls was spotting butterflies and checking out the resident turtles and water snake in the small pond area.
