Trip to Sturbridge

This past Tuesday the boys were out of school for election day (a unique Rhode Island tradition, which once made sense, but now is just an extra day off for no apparent reason).  For once I realized back in August that this was going to come about and I began thinking about what we could do.  We had a gift certificate for the family to go to Old Sturbridge Village in Massachusetts and I figured if the weather was nice it would be a great day for it.  I asked Kevin to take the day off and we were blessed to wake to one of those perfect September days and so we went off to the 1830s right after breakfast.

I remember fondly our visits to Sturbridge Village as a child.  My boys are not as interested in history as I was as a child.  Here they are playing with the tiles on the quilt table.  For them it was making patterns, the fact that sewing is eventually involved did not really enter their minds.

Playing with an interactive game in one of the barns

There are many more hands on things for the children to do than when I was a child - it was hard to get Robert away from some places, but he came eventually holding onto Dad's hand

Here are the boys in the school house.  This fascinated us as children and fascinates our children too.  The classrooms of today are so far removed and changed from those of the 1800s.  My children's classrooms are so different from my classroom.  Computers were brand new and seldom in classrooms and typing class was still on an old fashioned typewriter.  It wasn't until college that I used a word processor.

stilts and jump ropes were out in the playground by the school house. Harry gamely gave it a try.  I tried for a few seconds and decided that I didn't need to sprain my ankle again this fall :-)

Offering some love to the calf on the farm

We took the 15 minute or so river cruise.  The boys were very talkative and didn't give the gentleman much of a chance to tell us his usual spiel.  It was one of those interesting moments as a parent when I couldn't decide if I should reprimand my children for interrupting or respond to them about the observations and questions they had about what we were doing.  As is normal, I think (and hope), for a 4 year old, Robert was still interested in whatever he had on his mind.  It is sometimes a dilemma to me about where to draw lines and how to deal with people who aren't comfortable with children or sometimes of a generation that thinks children should be seen and not heard.  I recognize the need for this in some situations, but we were the only people on the boat besides the driver so we weren't disturbing anybody.  It was a nice ride though and we saw, fish and water lilies and a great blue heron.  We really couldn't ask for a nicer day.  Also despite attempts otherwise we managed to keep both boys inside the boat.  That was a relief because it was nice out but it would have been a cold afternoon if we'd had a wet boy.

The last stop of the day was the children's playground.  I think this was Robert's favorite part.  Harry spent a fair amount of time climbing and running around too.

It was a lovely day out of time.  Sometimes the days we don't plan too much and just let things fall as they will are the best ones of all.  I was hoping our trip would be more successful than our first trip to Sturbridge which was an overnight in the winter when the highlight was the hotel pool.  It was and I think Harry even learned a few things.  His favorite part was the blacksmith shop.  I missed much of that because I was outside with Robert blowing bubbles, but there was plenty to see and do and just being in the beautiful weather with happy children (most of the time) was worth it all :-)