A Romp

What a marvelous morning we had after what looked like an unpromising beginning when our plans fell through. We went to the special park at the last-minute invitation of another friend.

Though drops threatened as we got out of the car, we headed to the playground (where a little friend had broken her arm last week). After finishing off our snack, the kiddos ran around on all the equipment, especially enjoying the slides and uneven bridge as they pretended to be on a ship looking for dolphins.

It was then that I spotted the bunny. Amazingly, we made it all the way across the field to the little rabbit, without its being frightened away. For about 5 minutes, we followed as it skirted the edges of the bushes. Sis was especially quiet and interested; Bud just kept talking about it (is that the cat-dog thing again?). Then we noticed the chipmunk dashing all about--we didn't have much luck following it, though. On the way back, we found lots of mushrooms. And had to have a mini-mycology lesson, i.e. never eat any mushroom that you find, only the ones Mommy gives you from the store (how's that for 21st-century eating habits??). We also had a little folklore lesson about fairies and mushrooms. It was a very successful walk.

But the adventure didn't end there. We headed to some of the nearby buildings and farm, which have (I thought) sheep, chickens, and pigs. They were excited about the pigs. About which I was completely wrong. And so, Sis suggested that we just had to go back to the beginning and start all over without mentioning the pigs. In other words, rewind. And she started to walk backwards to affect this transformation. Oddly, it worked, we saw all the animals again, didn't mention pigs, and no one seemed to care.

Especially because they were entranced by the clocktower, complete with flower stained glass. We kept going inside and out to see how it looked different from different places. We even picked up a map so we could later color it in--and we might make our own tissue paper windows later today.

More fun: we played mill on the old mill site. There were stones and the area where the horse must have walked, so one of us played the horse, one was the millstone, and one was the miller gathering the flour in sacks. Strange, I know, but fun. We went back later on our way to the car and played all over again.

My favorite part was the homestead, which had never been opened before on our visits. It was the kiddos' first house museum tour (with a high school guide who followed us around and offered tidbits to me when the kids were distracted. One of these days I will tell you about Mama's standard house museum tour, which you could give at probably any 19th-century house museum in this country without being wrong at all. She honed it in New Orleans after two townhouse tours and 6 plantations.). We saw the nursery with the old-fashioned potty, and the mommy's room (with her potty--potties are big), and the kitchen, and the parlor with the tea set and old Victrola and piano. The kids were great, liking the model of the park best because they could point out the farm and the mill and the clocktower, but they paid attention in the other rooms too, without even trying to touch a thing. SUCCESS! That's a good thing because I love house museums, having been taking to several from a young age myself (thank heavens, though, there are no mandatory-stop historical markers here in CT. Is TX the only state that has those? Everywhere.) And they got shells--a family custom among the people who used to live there--and a few postcards and I got a little cookbook about pies, to help support the free admission.

The visit ended with us retracing our steps and activities, with a detour through the flower garden and then hopping in the car to head for chicken nuggets.

I think we'll go back tomorrow so they can show Mama all they found. And to see the model railroad exhibit, which is only open on weekends.

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Paper Stained Glass Windows

black construction paper
various colored tissue papers
scissors
glue

Fold black paper in half and cut out holes, much like a snowflake, but leaving a thicker border. Unfold and flatten paper.

Glue pieces of torn or cut tissue paper over the holes. Let dry.

Hang in window.