The Wheel of Death

I had two favorite recess activities in the fifth grade. Swings and the monkey bars. The monkey bars at my school were very basic. Just straight bars, straight across. We would swing, dangle, sit, and flip on those bars. If I fell off, it was right down to some hard packed earth where the grass had been worn away. Those were the good old days. The days when your blunder would land you with a cast on your arm or at least some major band-aids. The swings were just as fun. They were super high and we would spider them all the time. If I didn’t get out to the playground in time to get a coveted swing, there was always frogger. We would jump between the swingers as fast as we could and race to the end of the swings.

These incredibly enjoyable dangers are absent on today’s playgrounds. My kids’ school has monkey bars, but they are too high to realistically play on the top of them. And they are (thankfully) on top of several inches of playground bark. But the school doesn’t have any swings. C’mon, where’s the love?

But, if you want danger, I’ll give you danger! Our city park has what I affectionately call the wheel of death. My kids LOVE it. They spend all of their park time on the wheel. They used to just sit and let other kids spin them. Now, Kate and Aaron are among the bigger kids on the wheel, and they love to push it around in circles and try to hop on without getting dragged. Holly is a rider, and Emmy, well, I won’t let her partake quite yet. I love watching the kids on the wheel. They will fall, get dragged, and then just shake it off and play some more. I know it is dangerous. I’m sure that because I posted this, the next time we’re there, the wheel will draw blood in my family. But it is so much fun! (I can’t get on it. Spinning makes me puke in my old age.)

We went to said park last week. We had Jamie and her darling little girls with us. Here are some picts of the wheel of death and other playground fun.

My cute niece Lexi isn't afraid of the swings! Below this picture is Aunt Tauni and cute Tatum, Lexi's sister. Kate and Emmy. Emmy mostly hung out on the slides. Far less scary than the wheel of death.