Greenville Granny Needs Ideas

Hello S.!!!

I'm a Greenville mom of 6 kids, and I have gone about everywhere you can go in this area to entertain little ones. Someone mentioned Royse City's Spray ground, which is good, but it does not have bathrooms or any shade! How weird is that! Anyhow Rockwall has a wonderful Sprayground at Harry Meyers Park. It has a spray ground, shade, a pond you can go fishing in, walking paths, and some nice playgrounds there...and there are bathrooms!

Aunt Chars Kidzone, the "castle park" in the Greenville sports center next to the high school is a nice place for kids to play and they have nice pavillions for shade.

The planetarium at the Texas A&M commerce have wonderful movies I believe on Wednesday, you can call or go online to check those out. My little two year old loves goig there!
website:
http://www.tamu-commerce.edu/university/planetarium/

There is also a NORTH TEXAS CHILDREN'S MUSEUM in Commerce by the Walmart there. It's a great place for kids! All my kids love it there (young and older). It doesn't cost much at all.
website:
www.netxcm.com

Check out the Greenville Library. They have tons of activites during the summer that are usually free and tons of fun. Just find some that are age appropriate.
Website:
www.youseemore.com/harrison/default.asp

Graham Park in Greenville has a pond with tons of ducks and LOTS of shade. A great place to have a picnic and feed the ducks your old bread. Kids love it!

I hope these help you a bit! I have tons more so if you need info, please feel free to contact me!

Royse City just built a new splash park on Hwy. 66 and Rockwall has a very nice one (a little larger) at Harry Meyers Park. Perfect for toddling around and splashing in water if she doesn't mind getting spray in her face. Also the library in Greenville may have a toddler story time. One more idea is Jump N Jive in Rockwall. It is an indoor bounce play kind of place. I'm not sure what they have for such small children as Makayla but they probably have something. When all else fails, Chuck E. Cheese (even if you don't buy the pizza)!

I live in Greenville, and there are lots of fun things to do. There is a Children's Museum in Commerce (about 20 minutes), there is the local Sports Park (down by the Mall/I-30) that is fun to go to in the morning. There is also Graham Park (up on Business 69 and Walnut), there is a train museum in town that's lots of fun, and free, there is a spray park in Royce City and another one in Rockwall. The local library has lots of kids books, a story time (Wed. at 11) and a toddler play area. There's the city pool that's open 1-7 everyday, and they have family night (half price or so) from 7-9 on Tuesday and Thursday evenings. It has a great toddler play area, and they have life vests for the little kids to wear if you want. There's also Lake Tawakoni State Park - my kids love to go there and swim in the lake, and there are trails for hiking if you want. McKinney also has a Children's museum with lots of fun things - it's totally different than the one in Commerce. The one in Commerce is more of an indoor playground with lots of hands on learning things/things to climb on like planes, boats, shopping areas, home areas.... while the McKinney one is more of a science museum, and they have exhibits sometimes. Early this year they had a dinosaur exhibit, although I'm not sure what they might have now. We usually try to stay real close by (within 30 minutes) and always seem to have something to do. You can email me individually if you would like. We have a group of moms that get together (mostly from the church we attend) that get together and do things once a week with our kids (a kind of field trip) that's lots of fun. This week we will be going to the Aquarium in Dallas (that's a long trip for us - probably about an hour drive).

Most of the good indoor places are in Dallas. At Fair Park just east of downtown and south of I-30 where the giant ferris wheel is, there are several things. There's the Science museum which is hands on. They have an IMAX there that mostly shows educational films. There's the Fair Park aquarium just behind the Science place. Also there's a butterfly museum that's really interesting and the kids will love because the butterflies will land on you. Yes, you enter a caged area to be one with the butterflies.

There's the Dallas World Aquarium in downtown Dallas that is top notch and is a must see. I think the American Airlines Center gives tours (home of the Dallas Mavs and Dallas Stars), but you better check to make sure. North Park Mall near I-75 and Northwest HWY is great for shopping and there's kids stores as well like Build a Bear. The Galleria near 635 and the Toll road has both shopping and a nice ice rink.