Civil War

Gabi loves to read things that are stories using real information... books like Magic School Bus, Magic Tree House, Laura Ingalls, and many others. For her birthday a few months back she received some books from the Sisters in Time series and she really enjoys them. They are all history stories about little girls and the effects of the world in their lives depending on the era.

Well, not long ago Gabi read Janie's Freedom... a story about young African-Americans at the end of the Civil War. This, of course, led to many discussions about the war and the after math.

Then we heard that Norlands was hosting a Civil War weekend... so we made arrangements to go. It was a very, very, very small re-enactment, but it was fun to walk through the camps. We didn't go through all of them... after all, it was me and a friend and our 10 kids collectively. Many of whom were really too small to fully enjoy the event. But we did get around to seeing most of everything.

Our little family, on our way to meet our friends, talked about the Civil War and several of the facts relating to it. Gabi had a good deal of knowledge from before, but Beth and Jeremy didn't know anything about it (and Peter was asleep). So it was a great way to get them ready for the event we were to see.

All the kids agreed that the battle was the best part (even if it was only 15 minutes and so small it was almost silly)... though they enjoyed watching the blacksmith and getting an "old fashioned" picture done. At the end, they "played army" in the field and tall grass around.

To cap off our day, we gathered for dinner at our friends' where play continued in and among the trees. Then off to Giffords for a wonderful cold treat! The perfect way to top off a wonderful day!

To see more pictures go here. I had limited space since I'd had trouble getting the dance pictures off the camera before hand.