History in the Making...

The highlight was a horse pulled wagon ride!

My husband took yesterday off so that we could do a family day trip. At the last minute, I decided that I did not have it in me to make the 1-1/2 hour trip to Baltimore as we had originally planned (we can use a current museum membership to get into a great science center there). Our LONG trip to Ohio was still too fresh in my mind :).

I decided on Lancaster, PA as it is only about 40 minutes away. And, it feels so "different" from Harrisburg as we don't have Amish horse and buggies around here!

I knew that we could get into a museum called the Landis Valley Museum for free. It is a museum which features an old village from around 1900 or so. You walk from building to building talking to people dressed in costumes and you get to see what life was like back then. There are lots of animals, gardens, etc. It is a VERY cool museum...if only my children thought so :).

The biggest problem is that the Landis Valley Museum shares a parking lot with Hands On House, a children's museum that my children absolutely adore. They ask to go there all year (we used to have a family membership, but it expired). Imagine their disappointment when we pulled into the parking lot and told them that we were not going to Hands On House, but rather a historical museum. Can you hear the whines of disappointment?!?

Turkey Hill ice cream is made in Lancaster, PA :)

Everyone but Joseph soon forgot about Hands On House and started to enjoy themselves (after they understood that there was no place to play!). I loved imagining what my life would've been like if I lived back then. I know a lot of things would've been harder (we went into the general store and were shown all the fabric...the women had to make clothes for the whole family!). But, I think it was also probably much simpler with more quiet moments and a greater focus on what is truly important in life. My girls said they would love to play with the colorful marbles which was the most popular children's game back then.

Our favorite part was seeing where a family like ours would have lived. There was one bedroom. The guide explained that the parents slept in the one bed, anyone over 6 slept on a mattress in the attic,  anyone 5 and under slept on a bed attached to the parents, and babies were in cradles. The kids had fun exploring where they would have slept. For a moment it sounded so cozy...to have the whole family safe and warm snuggled together. And then I remembered what it was like a few weeks ago when all 8 of us were in a single hotel room...lol!

Joseph made my favorite observation of the day, "I'm glad that I'm not a 100-year boy!"

I took the kids to the State Museum of PA on Wednesday!
 

Overall, it was a fun day and I think the kids enjoyed it. There is so much that I want to teach my children and/or expose them too, and I think trips like this provide valuable lessons and precious memories.  I think our next family day trip will be more age appropriate for our young crowd though :).

Teresa would love to get down and play, but she'll have stick to my arms for a few more months!