Other Field Trips – Science and the Theatre

It seems like the Shaker Village was our first field trip in a while, but we have been keeping ourselves busy…

We went back to the Kentucky Science Center.  We saw an amazing display about the human body.  Maybe some of you have heard of this, as I have heard there are several traveling exhibits around.  The exhibit uses real human cadavors to teach about the body systems.  The girls had to be reminded that ALL body parts were made by God, and that it is okay to view them in this situation, though modesty is the general rule at all other times!
We went to see a musical – Disney’s Mulan – at a local performing arts school.  Ok, it was put on my children about Rachel and Ruthie’s age, so it was not a flawless production, but the kids loved it.
We also went to a ballet, Hansel and Gretel.  Put on by the same performing arts school but with high school students playing the main roles, it reminded us a lot of the ballet shows back home, with each class having their own small part, from 5 year old skunks to junior and senior angels.

Shaker Village and Riverboat Ride

There are so many interesting things to explore here in Kentucky!  Actually, I am spurred on to go back to Ohio and find the many interesting things around us there that I have been missing.  But for now, we are continuing to discover the treasures around Louisville.

Today we travelled a little over an hour to visit the Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill.  It was a Shaker Village until about a hundred years ago, when the last of its members eventually died (celibacy is one of their beliefs, and that just doesn’t help a religious movement grow, does it?).  The village was filled with reenactors who taught us about the Shaker lifestyle.  We saw typical things from the time period, such as wool spinning and weaving and sheep-shearing.  We also learned about Shaker-specific things, such as their worship meetings and their homes.

Their homes had two almost mirror-image sides for the men and the women, housing up to 70-80 people as one “family”  - huge!   Note the two doors going in – one for the women and one for the men.  That is the set-up for all of the buildings, unless it is a building that only men or women go into (like the laundry house or the woodworking house).

IMG_2054

 

 

 

 

There was a special room for hand-on kids’ play.  What a cutie!

IMG_2024

 

And here is Ellie in a Shaker outfit.  She’s kinda cute too!

IMG_2027

Associated with the village, in a spot along the Kentucky River where the Shakers used to operate a ferry, is a riverboat cruise.  After several hours of walking around the village, we relaxed on the Dixie Belle for about an hour and learned about the Kentucky River, which feeds into the Ohio River.

IMG_2073

Such a fun day with the kids!

Ruthie is now “truly double digits”! by Rachel

Ruthie said the other day that when she turned 11, she would really be double digits. Now she is!  Ruthie celebrated her 11th birthday today (okay, fine, we celebrated too).  A couple of the things that she has wanted for a long, long time are an Amish kapp and outfit.  Here she is:

She also has been horse-crazy for the last few months, so she got a horse breed book from Aunt Kelly, and Mom made a horse cake.

IMG_1873

Happy 11th birthday, Ruthie!

My Good Knight

Grandma Tyrrell often sews the girls dresses and such.  Her most recent project was to sew them all play dresses.  She made Ruthie a wedding dress and the other three medieval-type dresses.  I wish this was a better picture, but you get the idea…IMG_1622

Well, Jake was getting a bit tired of seeing our little boy continually dressed up in princess dresses, so we asked Grandma if she could just make Isaac a cape of some kind.  And this is what he got:

IMG_1741Yep.  A full knight costume!  What a cutie pie!  (Am I allowed to say that about a manly knight??)

 

National Corvette Museum

Jake had a break in classes the week before Easter, so we were able to make a trip into PA to visit my family.  Before we left, though, we made a trip down to Bowling Green, KY, to see the National Corvette Museum.  Although this could have been a day trip, we wanted to bless the girls with a trip to a hotel, which always means fun, especially when a swimming pool is involved!

The next day, we went to the Corvette Museum – a field trip for Daddy!

IMG_1694

The girls (and their mom) where not all that interested in the museum.  We had high hopes for it, but in the end, it was about cars, and, well, enough said!  There was a fun kids’ room, though, that all the kids enjoyed.  Here they are running an auto repair shop.

IMG_1699

A really fun part about this trip was that Jake’s dad was able to join us.  He used to have a ’69 Corvette, so it was neat to hear about the love he had for Corvettes when he was younger and his excitement about having one as a young man.  Made the museum a bit more interesting for the gals in the group!

The Mayflower

Can someone please explain to me why I bothered to drag all of our beds from Ohio?  For the past month now, two of my girls have been sleeping in a closet in the basement!  Meanwhile, there is a double bed going completely unused.

Our basement here in Louisville is half-finished, and in the laundry room side there is a large storage closet which sliding doors.  One Saturday morning, our girls discovered this closet.  A few days before, we had learned about the Pilgrims.  Before I knew what was going on, they had decked out this closet to be the Mayflower.  There are shelves on both ends of the closet, which they used as the ship’s bunks.

IMG_1655

They had great fun playing in the closet for several days, but the adventure eventually wore off, and they left that game behind.  BUT, Ruthie and Suzie thought it would be a great place to sleep, so that is where they sleep every night.  I won’t let them sleep on the shelves, so Suzie sleeps on the bottom shelf, and Ruthie sleeps on the floor.  There is not even room to stretch out their legs, but they love it all the same.  Silly girls!

IMG_1656

Kentucky Derby Museum

IMG_1629

I think this field trip was our favorite so far.  We went to the Kentucky Derby Museum, which showcases all sorts of memorabilia surrounding the Kentucky Derby.  As well as the displays of fancy hats, trophies, and Triple Crown winners, there is an area where you can dress up like a jockey, a recording booth where you can call a race, and a virtual racing game.  Since the museum is physically connected to Churchill Downs, we were able to take a tour of the track.

IMG_1636

Ruthie, especially, was bit by the horse bug.  She now says she wants to be a jockey (actually, wanting to be the first woman to win the Triple Crown).  It would probably be good if she actually knew how to ride a horse!  She may need to find a new dream, but we’ll let her dream this one a little while longer!

IMG_1642

Locust Grove

On Tuesday the girls and I went to Locust Grove here in Louisville.  It was the home, for a time, of George Roger Clark, the founder of Louisville.  He was also a general who led troops into Indiana to push the British back up into Canada (“back where they belonged,” as our feisty, little 80-year-old tour guide put it!), securing the area of Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, etc. for the United States.  Clark was the older brother of William Clark, of Lewis and Clark.  The explorers dined here together, giving it another “claim to fame.”

Locust Grove2

Most impressive about Locust Grove is its museum.  It is a great place for kids.  Throughout the museum there are clothes hanging on the walls, with signs saying “Try me on.”  My ever-obedient children (who??) tried everything on, again and again.  There were other interactive things for them to do as well, such as playing with a butter churn and a surveyors compass.

Locust Grove

They seriously thought it was the best museum ever (one said the only way it could get better is if, when you walk into the museum you actually go back in time!).  I think it helped that it was small, so they didn’t have to stay their forever.

Newport Aquarium in Cincinnati

This past Sunday we took a spontaneous field trip.  Plans for the day had fallen through, and since Jake takes Sundays off from school work, we thought it would be the perfect day to make a trip up to Cincinnati to visit their aquarium.  Add in the detail that for the month of Feb. they offer two free kids per adult!  A great time for, well, at least less than it could have been (aquariums are so expensive!).

This is their huge alligator, of which they are quite proud.  He looks like a lazy alligator to me!

IMG_0710

That is a shark tank behind the girls.  The way they have set it up is really neat – you walk through a tunnel, with the tank all around you.  You can look all around – right, left, up, down – and see sharks.

IMG_0711

We were especially thankful that Daddy could join us for this trip!  Everything is more fun when Daddy is around (plus, he took us to Gold Star for dinner!).

Louisville Zoo

 

 

 

 

You wouldn’t know it from the picture, but this week we went to the Louisville Zoo, taking advantage of one of the weird warmer days.  It is a great zoo – a good size between Cleveland and Akron.  We went with our new friends, the Mayfields, from the PC.  They have two little boys, ages 3 and 5, who have become little buddies with our girls.  And one of the best parts - walking right in for free using our Akron Zoo membership!  It will be a lot of fun to spend nice spring days there, exploring a bit more and picnicing – fir FREE!

IMG_1560

« Older entries

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.