A little over a year ago I started reading the Little House books by Laura Ingalls Wilder to the kids. We needed something to do while we waited for Lance to come home from work. I have fond memories of all of us piled on the couch around my Dad reading those same books. As I hoped my children loved them, especially the girls. I'm not sure Benjamin ever understood what was going on and we lost Joshua around the time Laura reached 11 or so. Rebekah and Katelyn enjoyed just about every minute. What started as a fun activity to wile away the after dinner before bedtime hour turned into our favorite pastime. When we would drive in the car for an extended period of time (Lance driving of course) I would read to them. There were times when I would have to strain my voice to be heard in the far back row of the van, and they couldn't always see the pictures but it passed away many a long mile.
Of course when we started Lance was not home so he missed Laura and her family living in the big woods of Wisconsin. The excitement of Ma slapping a bear, Laura's birthday and Charlotte the doll. However on those rides in the car he would hear the stories and be just as engrossed as the kids. By the time we hit about the fourth book we couldn't read unless he was present. It slowed down our progress a bit and we had to find other things to do while waiting for him to come home, but it started a great Saturday evening and Sunday afternoon tradition. We all eagerly cheered Laura on as she took her teachers examinations, held our breath as Almanzo and Cap raced a blizzard to bring in the wheat to save a starving town.
Laura's story became important to our family and we were sad as it came to an end. We read the final book and on the last page was a picture of a bread plate and a caption reading that it and other artifacts were housed in the Laura Ingalls Wilder Museum in Mansfield Missouri.
Missouri!! Are you kidding?!
I have read that series I don't have know how many times and I guess I just never thought about it. But now we live in Missouri! Where is a map!! Can you believe it Mansfield is only about an hour away from us! If we had known that we could have taken my parents and Lance's Mom (who read that series to her fourth grade class for years) when they came out a couple of years ago! What are we waiting for? The next nice weekend that Lance had off we went; reading of course. What did we read? the book On The Way Home, Laura's journal entries of their trip from South Dakota to Missouri.
We get to the museum and they have so many things from the books. Pa's Fiddle, Mary's braille slate, dresses that Laura made the writing desk where the hundred dollar bill was lost, numerous pictures and artifacts. Then you get a tour of the house that Almanzo built, unfortunately no picture taking is allowed inside the home. After you tour that home you drive down the road a short way and tour the home that Rose had built for her aging parents. You hear the story of how Rose tried to teach Almanzo how to drive and he crashed into a tree while pulling back on the steering wheel and shouting "Whoa!"
Lance and I had a great time looking at everything. Unfortunately this home is where the adult Laura lived I think the girls wanted to see some of the places where the child Laura lived. Add to that the fact that you can't touch or handle a lot of things and that makes it a little more boring for the younger set. However, they enjoyed seeing some of the things they had read about so frequently. And Rebekah realized she is already taller than Laura was as an adult. Lance and I felt it would have been fun to spend a little more time there if the boys had been older, most of it was lost on them and they began to get very wiggly.
The only pictures we could get were of us sitting on the steps of the porch.
So what are we reading now that we've finished the series? Well Rose's adopted grandson Roger Lea MacBride who had heard all of Rose's stories and had all of her journals and letters has taken a try at writing about Rose's life in the style of her mother. We are only on the first book, and I had to ask how many times we're allowed to renew a book from the library (as long as there is no hold on the title, unlimited), but so far we are enjoying it.
Now you all know what we do for fun. Read together, learn a little history and drag the kids to historical sites (hopefully someday they won't think it's so boring).
Often while getting ready for school or church and it's time to get their hair done the girls will ask for braids. Then they say they plan on sleeping with their braids in so they can have "poodle hair" the next morning. We'll even braid their hair after a bath or shower when it's still wet and the curl stays in longer. There seems to be a problem though. Every time we take the braids out there is one section that is curl free. We have tried french braiding and regular braids (the only two I know how to do). We have tried just one and also one on either side of their heads. We have even tried some strange twisting their hair into little knobs all over their heads thing. Then one night Rebekah came to me with her solution. "Mom, I want
6 braids." I had my doubts about her actually keeping them in to sleep in but I gave it a try. She ended up with 8 braids all over her head. Katelyn came out, took one look and requested the same thing. I had even more doubts about her keeping them in all night but she also ended up with 8. Of course we had to take pictures.
Amazingly enough they both slept all night with 8 braids each and the next morning had the curliest of curly "Poodle Hair". And we still found sections without curl, but they were still happy and evidently got some comments at school (nice ones).
Hey, my hair is just naturally this cool!
