Family days in Surprise, from festival season to splash pad season

Raising kids in Surprise means learning two calendars. From November to April, the city is one big backyard: parks, festivals and ballgames, most of them clustered around the civic center on Bullard Avenue. From May to September, families plan around the heat, and the libraries, pools and splash pads carry the load. Here is how a year of family days in Surprise can look.

Winter: the city's outdoor season

The cool months are when the City schedules its biggest free family events. The Surprise SciTech Festival on November 21 fills the Surprise Recreation Campus with robots, solar telescopes, a live science stage and police and fire trucks to climb around, and there is a sensory-friendly area for kids who need a break from the noise. The Surprise Party on December 4 and 5 brings a tree lighting, a roller rink, a kids zone and Santa, and Sparkling Surprise lights up Community Park every night from December 4 to 27; it is free, and this year the lights nearly circle the lake.

For children and adults with special needs and their families, Parks & Recreation hosts its fifth Sensitive Santa on December 12 at Surprise Stadium with the Autism Society of Greater Phoenix and T.E.A.M. 4 Kids: games, crafts and a private, one-on-one photo with Santa, without long lines, bright lights or loud noise. Cookies & Crafts with Santa follows at the stadium on December 13. Families who like a little competition can enter a team in the Family Kickball Tournament at Dick McComb Park on November 14.

Winter is also playground season. Asante Community Park has two playgrounds and a nine-basket disc golf course. Dick McComb City Park has a fenced skate park on its east side and a pond on its west side where children can sail remote-control boats. Rescue Oasis Park on Perryville Road has swings, slides and spring riders for the youngest. And the free Outdoor Art Sketching Tours, open to all ages with an adult, hand out sketchbooks and walk families through the public art at City Hall and Community Park on set mornings from October through April.

Spring: baseball and the last cool weekends

On February 19, Surprise Stadium opens its 25th season of spring training, with the Texas Rangers and Kansas City Royals sharing the ballpark through March 20. Even without tickets, kids can stand under Swing, the canopy of more than 200 baseball bats at the third-base entrance, and Bounce, which traces the path of a home run at first base. Both can be seen year-round. The Sunday Market on Elm, which runs Sunday mornings from October through April on Elm Street, is a relaxed outing for families with strollers.

Summer: pools, splash pads and the library

When the heat arrives, Surprise's three public pools become the center of family life. Oasis Swim Center on Perryville Road has six water slides, a zero-depth play area, a rope swing and a climbing wall over the water. The Surprise Aquatic Center on Bullard Avenue has a toddler slide and a whale-tail spray feature, and Hollyhock Pool on Hollyhock Street has a spray pad and a slide. Splash pads at Dick McComb, Marley Park, Rescue Oasis and Veramonte run from April 1 through October 31, an easy early outing before the day warms up.

The library is the other summer anchor, and it has grown this year. The new Hollyhock Library opened inside the Surprise Community & Resource Center on Santa Fe Drive on September 3. Across the system, Asante, Hollyhock and Surprise Regional libraries run baby time, toddler time and preschool storytime through the week, plus after-school LEGO builders, maker sessions and gamers lounges for older kids. The libraries also serve as free cooling and hydration stops from May through September.

Sierra Montana Recreation Center runs Fun Friday Jam, a Friday day program of crafts, games and outdoor play for ages 5 to 11, and Youth Rec Nights give ages 10 to 14 a supervised evening with friends.

Local stops for hungry kids

A family day usually ends with food. The Boyer Bakery on Litchfield Road bakes a rotating case of nostalgic pastries, including its footlong pop tarts, and has a drive-thru on Cotton Lane for mornings on the go. Bonfire Craft Kitchen & Tap House on Bell Road cooks from scratch and calls itself a place for all ages. Saigon Kitchen, also on Bell Road, serves pho and other Vietnamese dishes. And Spencer's Place on Waddell Road, a coffee shop and bistro that trains and employs adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities, pairs a snack with a mission worth explaining to kids.

Traditions to mark on the calendar

Some events come around every year: the Veterans Day Parade on Bullard Avenue each November 11, the Surprise Party and Sparkling Surprise in December, and the MLK Day of Celebration & Service at The Vista Center for the Arts each January, where families can join service projects together. Program dates change from year to year, so check the City's recreation pages and the library calendar before you go.