As many of my local Athens, Georgia friends know, the new World of Wonder Playground, also know as the WOW Park, has reopened recently with an awesome new playscape.  We ventured out there today to celebrate our first day of the new semester in homeschooling.

Anyone that ever went to the old WOW park knew that you weren’t able to go in the summer during the day.  It was far too hot.  The new playground has plenty of shade with giant canopies over many playscapes and more importantly, over some of the benches for the parents.

Another big complaint was the forever hike to the bathrooms from the old playground.  The new playground is located right next to the bathrooms now, making it much easier to take a potty training toddler to go before an accident happens.  They also have water fountains inside the park fence but they weren’t working while we were there.

Source: https://www.athensclarkecounty.com/7124/World-of-Wonder

I can’t quite tell you about the benches, though, because I had a blast playing on the playground with my children!  They have a ginormous tube slide, a fun roller slide, and really all sorts of slides everywhere!

The best part for me was the awesome Generation Swings that are located at the front of the park.  I could swing with my youngest!  He thought this was the best thing ever!

My 16 month old enjoyed the playscape designed for the 2-5 year old crowd.  On this one, there aren’t any stairs, so he was able to just walk right up the incline to get to his favorite slides.

My little monkeys enjoyed the many different types of monkey bars that were available.  Several look like things out of the American Ninja Warriors show.  My 10 year old son LOVED this part since he has great upper body strength and often needs a challenge.

One of the highlights for the kids was the intriguing merry-go-round type equipment.  It doesn’t spin as fast as the ones did when we were kids, but still super fun.  There is netting all around to keep kids from falling off as easy, too.  My kids loved climbing on it and then taking turns spinning everyone around.  Even my teenager had a blast!

All the equipment easily works for when a bunch of kids show up at once to play.  Everywhere we turned, there was something new and different to play with or on!

Another great feature is that there is walking path that parents can walk on that goes around the playground but is inside the fence!  You can get some exercise while your children play.  From what I am reading, it’s about 1/5 of a mile path, but I haven’t measured it for myself yet.  I definitely will be using this feature.  I saw one man walking/jogging the path and a few little kids riding their bikes or scooters on it as well.

We had a blast and will definitely be back!  This is a great place to visit!

Looking for more local ideas?  Visit my post:  Free Things To Do With Kids In Athens, Georgia!

Also check out Things to Do With Teens in Athens

For More Information:

Interested in taking an outing to this park?  The WOW playground is located at 325 Whit Davis Rd and is open Monday-Friday at 8:00 a.m.; Saturday-Sunday at 9:00 a.m. and closes at sunset.  Free.

Have you been to the new location yet?  How much fun did you have?

We recently took the family to Funopolis Family Fun Center in Commerce, GA.  We have been here only once before and it was a huge hit with the kids.  We were eager to go back and review it for you guys.  Big thanks to U.S Family Guide for helping us to provide this Funopolis Family Fun Center Review.

For reference, we were give the 3 hour wrist bands, a $5 game card, a slice of pizza and a drink for each person in our family.

About the 3 Hour Wrist Bands:

Includes unlimited: Go Karts or Mini Go Karts, Mini Golf, Tornado Ride or Pirate Ship, Rock Wall, Bumper Cars, Spider Zone Hip Hop Ride, 2 Sessions of Laser Tag.
Seasonal Attractions: Bumper Boats, Water Wars (2 buckets), & Down Pour Derby (2 dunks)

Discounts are available when you buy as a family 4 pack, and more people can be added for an extra charge if you have additional family members.  Pricing is available on their website.

Our Thoughts:

I thought that 3 hours would be plenty of time, but we had so much fun we were wanting more time!  3 hours can go by super quick when you’re having that much fun!  When we go again, I plan on buying the all day unlimited pass.

There was something for everyone to do, from my 13 year old down to the baby, but keep in mind if you have several littles, you will want to take an extra adult or 2 so everyone can take turns riding the go-carts.

My 7 year old daughter’s favorite part was surprisingly the rock wall.  She had never been on one before and managed to complete both the beginning and intermediate levels and climbed halfway up the hard level!

We filled the rest of our time slot with laser tag, bumper boats, bumper cars, mini golf, go-karts, bowling, and more!  We definitely want to go back and do mini golf again when it isn’t so hot.  We only made it through the first couple holes before we remembered it was a 90 plus degree day in Georgia 🙂

Afterward, we enjoyed some fresh pizza from the cafe.  It actually was pretty good and wasn’t the typical cheap “cardboard pizza” that you find in many food courts.  We enjoyed it.

Lastly, we hit the game room.  There are tons of varieties of games and they all have a different price.  The game room is accessed using your play card to start the games.  The play card even holds all of your ticket values!

Interested in checking out Funopolis?  Head on over to their website to find out more and even locate coupons and specials.  Also as we get closer to fall, they will be offering their haunted house with Fearopolis.

The other evening, my family and I went to Medieval Times Dinner & Tournament at the Atlanta Castle.  It was such a fun experience and we were even given a wonderful tour of the stables!  This was practically my dream come true!

Once you enter the back, you can see where they work on all of their equipment and past that is the stables!  Oh my goodness at all the beautiful horses!  Everything was super clean and well kept for a stable.

After our tour, my kids headed out for Junior Knight Training!

Medieval Times Dinner & Tournament invites bold and brave youngsters ages 5 through 12 to step into the arena and partake in Junior Knight Training, available on select dates for a limited time now throughFriday, July 29 at the Atlanta Castle. Training is FREE with the purchase of each child admission and takes place an hour before the show. During the action-packed program, gallant Medieval Times knights will provide guests with a behind-the-scenes look at what it takes to become a true Knight of the Realm. Children will witness expert-level swordplay skills first-hand with an exclusive weapons demonstration and will even try their hand at the craft with an interactive tutorial on basic techniques. The training ends with a group knighting ceremony by His Majesty King Carlos himself! Closed toe shoes are required for all participants. Space is limited to 80 children and training is available on a first come, first serve basis. Spots are filled quickly, so interested families are encouraged to arrive early to claim a spot!

Junior Knight Training schedule:

• Tuesday, June 28: 6:30 p.m. (doors open at 6 p.m.)
• Wednesday, June 29: 6:30 p.m. (doors open at 6 p.m.)
• Thursday, June 30: 6:30 p.m. (doors open at 6 p.m.)
• Thursday, July 7: 6:30 p.m. (doors open at 6 p.m.)
• Friday, July 8: 7 p.m. (doors open at 6:30 p.m.)
• Wednesday, July 20: 6:30 p.m. (doors open at 6 p.m.)
• Wednesday, July 27: 6:30 p.m. (doors open at 6 p.m.)
• Thursday, July 28: 6:30 p.m. (doors open at 6 p.m.)
• Friday, July 29: 7 p.m. (doors open at 6:30 p.m.)

I highly recommend giving it a try!  My kids had a blast!  The dinner tournament was great as well!  Our knight, the Black and White Knight was the winner!  WOO HOO!