Summer Outings

Believe it or not, we have done some other things this summer other than go to the beach.  Not that that is a bad thing because we love our beach.

Strawberry Picking
A few moms and their kids that we know from our church all met up at a farm in Wisconsin.   I had never been before.  The girls really enjoyed eating picking the strawberries.  Isaiah enjoyed playing with the straw, forget the berries. And me?  Well, I was surprised that the berries were not HUGE like the ones from Sam's Club.  They were still very yummy.

We filled our four quart basket and used our pickings to make homemade strawberry shortcake for our small group.

Drive-in movie theater

This was an interesting outing.  We thought it might be fun to see Cars 2 at the drive-in.  Last summer we found one up in Kenosha.  Tuesday nights they charge only $12 for the entire car.  The website stated the movie began at 8:30 p.m.  So being a good mom, I had the kids take a late nap so they could stay up late.

We arrived at the drive-in around 8:15 p.m. with our popcorn and bag of treats.  We backed in to our space, put the middle van seats into the stow-away, put big pillows all around and waited for the movie to begin.  And wait we did.  Around 9:05 the previews began.  And finally at 9:30 (when it was dark) the feature came on.

This is the only pic I took.  They were patiently waiting at this time.

Needless to say, by this time mommy and daddy were wiped out.  We had stayed in the van because of the mosquitos.  Isaiah had crawled around and on top of everyone and everything and had worn himself out.  But of course he did not want to just sit in his car seat and go to sleep.  Around 10 Selah began to whine about wanting to go home and go to bed. We gave in at 10:15 and left.  Thankfully Sofia was a good sport about it.

Old World Wisconsin

This is a historic site in Eagle, WI that allows you to experience life as it was in the mid 1800s.  Sofia, Selah and I along with our neighbour Ami and her two girls Hope and Alexis, enjoyed experiencing and learning about life back then.  Costumed workers helped to make this a fun outing as they not only shared stories of how things were but were actually "living" like it was.

The girls told me the schoolhouse was their favourite part of the day.  They sat in desk with readers and a slate board for them to write.  I loved how the Welcome sign was actually made by a graduating 8th grader in 1914.

 We peeked into barns...

 And learned why that pot was under the bed.  HA!

We smelled the fresh baked berry pies in many of the homes we visited.  Here are some cookies and a berry pie that had just been baked on a real working stove.

 And met this young lady who was the cook for the town inn.  Gotta love her bustle.

We took a rest at Harmony Town Hall and played some games.  Sofia challenged me to a game of checkers and Selah must have played with that trick dog (put a penny in the mouth, push a button and watch it go into the barrel) for a good 10 minutes.

 We went shopping at the General Store.  Nellie wasn't there but this nice man made sure we knew what goods were available to us.

  Then ended our day at the town church.  Being that we were in the north, it was a catholic church.  The church organist was very gracious and after playing "Amazing Grace" for us, she allowed the girls to play showing them how it didn't work unless she was pumping the pedals.

I was so glad the girls enjoyed this place.  It will give them a visual when they begin reading the "Little House on the Prairie" series.   Actually, in a couple of weeks, Old World will be having a "Laura Ingalls Wilder" Festival.  Hmmmm....

But for now we will continue to enjoy our summer outings whether at the beach or .....in Wisconsin.  Okay, I need to look for things to do in Illinois.  HA!