Road Trip 2013: Valley Forge

The day following Tyler Arboretum, we headed out as early as we could manage with 6 children in tow (still staying with my brother and his family) to Valley Forge National Park. The kids were immediately enamored with the cannon and might have stayed there playing with it all day if we hadn't prodded them along.

I was amazed to see the cabins that held 12 men per cabin in a roughly 14 ft x 16 ft space. It's amazing how they survived in such cramped conditions with little food, inadequate clothing, and no medicine.

Finn thought the bunks were fun to climb on, but I bet he would have changed his tune if he had to sleep on one of those rough, hard beds!

The National Memorial Arch was quite a sight to behold.  I'm always fascinated with the architecture, and especially the carvings and pictures, the designers choose.

(These faces protruding from the four pillars of the monument were...um, interesting.)

Washington's Headquarters might have been my favorite part of the Valley Forge experience. The headquarter's has been restored and most of the original wood, windows, and doors are still intact.

They don't have original furniture or period pieces, understandably as the climate would destroy them, but reproductions in the various rooms that help us understand how things might have looked back then.  The kids were thrilled when the tour guide told them to touch the handrail going upstairs as it's original and guaranteed that they were touching wood that George Washington touched many years ago.

The kids discovered that a small creek ran into this "little cabin" and Finn was obsessed with discussing why they might have needed that to happen.

But mostly the kids were just happy to plunge their hands into the cold stream at the end of a hot day of walking in the sun.

I'm so glad we included Valley Forge on our tour.  Even though my brother lives nearby, we hadn't made time for it yet, and it's a sight worth seeing!

Road Trip 2013: Tyler Arboretum - suburban Philadelphia

For the second leg of our road trip, we headed north from Monticello toward my brother's house in suburban Philadelphia.  On previous trips, we've seen some of the more prominent Philly sights, so this time we went off the beaten track. My sister-in-law recommended the Tyler Arboretum, and while I was suspicious that the kids would enjoy an entire day at the arboretum, it turned out to be a perfect choice.

This 650-acre arboretum is full of flowers, shrubs, and trees worth noting, but also, scattered along the walking path, are nearly a dozen tree houses and play houses.  The kids really enjoy racing from house to house, and I'm not sure they really noticed much of the greenery!

My personal favorite section of the arboretum was the fairy forest.  There were flower fairies, gnomes, elves and other magical folk sprinkled among the flowers, trees, and fallen logs.

These little flower fairies were so enchanting.  It makes me want to sprinkle a few throughout my gardens.

A slew of hammocks appeared just as the kids were in need of a rest.

Tyler Arboretum was well worth the time and addition to our road trip.  What a magical place for children to interact with nature.  I'll bet it's a different experience with each season.

Road Trip 2013: Monticello

Now that the kids are all finished with school for the summer, we headed out Friday afternoon for a summer road trip to see a few sights that have been on my bucket list for a few years.  First stop on the agenda: Monticello. I've wanted to bring the kids here to visit for years, but I knew that we should wait until Finn was old enough to participate in the tour without Paul and I having to stress over his touching the artifacts. They really are now the perfect ages to enjoy the Monticello.

I didn't realize until we started the tour that the entrance to Monticello is not the typical Monticello picture (like the shot on the nickel).

We weren't allowed to take photographs inside the Monticello, but I thought this compass was an interesting shot. It hung on the ceiling of front porch, connected to the weather vane (that you can see in the first picture), and indicated the weather direction. Thomas Jefferson had so many interesting inventions.  I wish I could have photographed more of them!

Some of the glass in the house was original, some, like this front window, was replace about 150 years ago and still has the wavy, bubbly texture of the fabulous original glass.

Here is the view you typically think of as the Monticello look: taken from the rear of the house. I really had no idea!

The kids enjoyed a few of the activities geared toward children.  They learned how to write with a quill and inkwell.

Paulie got the hang of quill-writing quite quickly.

The slave quarters and other cellar rooms, like the kitchen, were quite interesting to wander through.  I wish we would have planned more time here.  We really could have spent more time here and doing the children's activities.

Another area that I really didn't have time to explore were the gardens.  They were lovely to wander by on our way down the path to Jefferson's graveyard, but that was all I saw of them.

The Jefferson graveyard is still in use by his descendants.  His grave is, of course, prominently displayed by one of the gates, and visitors can really only wander around the outside of the gate.

In all, I would highly recommend Monticello as a road trip experience.  I would plan a full-day though instead of the 2/3 day that we spent here.  Nearby Charlottesville has a cute downtown area with lovely restaurants along a foot path Main Street that makes for a nice break at the end of the day.

Yarn Along

For this week's Yarn Along I've started a new knit and a new book.  I finished the January Girl socks I've been slowly working for the last month, and I've been spending most of my crafting time quilting. I just began this Vent d'est vent d'ouest cowl as I don't have much in the way of pressing knitting to be working on, and this fingering weight locally-spun alpaca has been sitting in my basket for far too long. I've been reading The Story of Doctor Dolittle aloud to the kids for the last several days.  We've been reading 3-4 chapters a day for the last couple of days trying to finish it so the kids can watch the movie before we head out on a road trip this weekend.

summer creativity

Summer break is officially here with school ending late last week.  The first day or two after school ends, the kids crash from the excitement of it all and seem a bit antsy and unsure what to do with themselves.  By the third or fourth day of no school, they seem to hit their groove and find creative ways to fill their time. I showed them an idea I found on Pinterest, and their little brains immediately took off with variations of it. Philip made a farmer and cow; Elizabeth, a farmer's wife; Paulie, a UFO; and Finn, a fat cow (which he apparently copied from google images as I noticed a tab on my web browser titled "how to draw a fat cow").

{Philip with the farmer and cow}

{Paulie's UFO abducting Elizabeth's farmer's wife}

{Finn's cow named Fatty Patty}

When the kids were done with their finger puppets, they made a little script and story then filmed it.  What started as an idea from Pinterest blossomed into a 4 hour project complete with collaboration, illustration, writing, and film editing. A fine beginning to a creative summer.

weekending

After a week full of rain and busy end-of-the-school-year activities, this weekend was full of sunshine, slow days, crafting, loveliness in the mail, gardening, and Finn's first time pedaling a bike!

{Snuggly Bricks ready to quilt in Cherry Christmas}

{The Enchanted Wood by Enid Blyton}

{sauteed green beans with caramelized garlic}

{completed January Girl socks}