More Than a Resolution

2025 Springfield Park Bingo Recap - 27 Playgrounds, 7 Walking Paths, 2 Lookout Points, and one new community.

This picture right here is the reason I started this!!! Our third meet up at Ruff Magnolia Arboretum.

All the way back in January of 2025 my daughter and I decided to make visiting every park in Springfield our New Year's Resolution. If you read my VERY FIRST ever blog post back from May of 2025 you know our little resolution quickly became so much more....

Going from one to two babes was a transition. It was hard. I couln't manage going back to work and it made no sense financially. After some intense struggling and juggling we made the decision in October of 2024, when my little guy was about 6 months, that I was going to officially quit my job. We pulled our daughter out of her "school" and a new transition began, becoming a stay at home mama to two. We made the resolution to visit every park in Springfield as a way to bring some excited to our week and force me to get us out and about! I planned to visit one new park a week, roughly.

James Park is one that surprised us! Check out my review here! Page Park pictured on the right.

It wasn't until April 2025 when my little guy turned one that I felt like...I felt like I woke up!!! 😀 It was so strange and there was still a lot of blurriness ahead but, that one year mark was a game changer for me. So if you're in it, hang in there mama, it gets better - I promise! 🫶🏼That's when the Park Bingo Card came to life and Springfield [Crunchy-ish] Mamas was born. We had already started visting parks but decided to start over to collect pictures for reviews and check the parks off our new Park Bingo Card as we went! This meant we really had to be diligent about visiting one park a week if we were going to hit our goal! Creating our Springfield [Crunchy-ish] Mamas meet-ups helped! I needed motivation to get up, get out and get connecting with other mamas!!! And it seriously changed the trajectory of our year. Now, not only were we excited to visit some place new, we were looking forward to meeting new friends every week!

Tyson Park is one of our favorite tot spots! Check out my full review here. And the plans for the NEW Tyson Park here. Robin Park, pictured on the right, is a little secret cove bursting with a sense of community and peacefulness.

Did you know that incorporating new things into your routine is good for your brain? 🤯

It's true and scientifically backed! And it can be hard to do as a stay at home mom with little babes. Routine, routine, routine. It's great and I love it - don't get my OCD, controlling-ass-self wrong- but, finding ways to keep our days exciting and stimulating for mama too, is important albeit, challenging! Short, novel experiences boost dopamine and improved mood. 😊 Park Bingo days quickly became my favorite days. And when particularly rad connections were made, man, I was loving this! 💗 It's no secret, the science behind connection. It's just finding it. How do we access it? Well, I didn't know, so I just created an opportunity for it to show up and it did!!!

Our COMPLETED 2025 Springfield Park Bingo Card

Through these meet-ups we've made some really great friends and found such joy right here, in our own "back yard". Rain or shine, friends or no friends we slowly but surely checked off every single one of the parks on our Park Bingo Card. We hosted 20 park meet-ups and visited all 27 playgrounds, 7 walking paths and 2 look outs on our Park Bingo Card. We checked off our last box on the Bingo Card, Page Park, with our two most active participating friends to help us celebrate 💕 on December 23rd and boy, did we feel ACCOMPLISHED!!! 🎉

What an amazing, fun, and exciting thing we did! How cool that a fun little idea turned into this amazing passion project for me to share and connect with other mamas in our community. How awesome that we have made such awesome friends this last year and met some really amazing people through this little resolution we set.

Douglas Gardens Park is more than just a playground! We fell in love with the walking path and "forest". What beautiful giant trees here!!! 🌳 Good vibes and cool history! Check out my full review here! Arrow Park 🚲 seems to be everyone's favorite and easy to see why, read more here!

When I reflect on what has blossomed 🌸 from this little idea, to visit all of our Springfield parks, I feel overwhelmed with gratitude and accomplishment. I am proud that we stuck to this, I am proud that we are putting ourselves out there, I am humbled by the mamas excited to join us who share with me their gratitude for the Bingo Card and park reviews that I've SO poured my heart into. 💗 😭 I am not crying!!! I am really so glad that you are here!

Volunteer Park is pretty epic and even has a "wetlands" area! Full review, here! Nature scavenger hunt at Willamette Heights Park was so fun and beautiful in the rain!

Thank you. 🙌

I don't want to stop. And I am no where near done reviewing all these dang parks! 🤣 That part will take a while longer! Hey, reviews were never part of the resoultion!!! 🦆 I've updated the Springfield Park Bingo Card and am ready to go again!!!! Are you?

Keep an eye out for the official 2026 Springfield Park Bingo Card, two new ways to WIN and updated PRIZES!!!

Let's do this thing together. 💚

Feb. 2, 2026