What An Amazing Museum!
Last Friday we had the double joy of getting to have Cousin O spend his day with us since he didn’t have school, and Loo Loo Magoo didn’t have school either, so Ms. Jenny and I packed all the kids into our cars and took them to the Loudoun Heritage Farm Museum: http://www.heritagefarmmuseum.org/index.htm
It was so incredibly cool! Half of it is set up as a completely hands-on, old-fashioned, play area for the children, and half is displays with lots of interesting information. There is a general store with the wood-burning stove in the center, the little post office on one side, bolts of fabric hanging from the walls, and bins of plastic food and a scale for the children to play shopkeeper. There is a barn with a cow for the children to practice milking. (The cow “gives” water, which could be confusing for kids. They could at least tint the water white.) There is a horse racing section with ride-on horses, and then, at the opposite end of the museum is a kitchen just like Ma Ingalls, well, actually, Ma Wilder would have had in her kitchen. It had a pump in the sink, and I don’t think the Ingalls family had “indoor plumbing,” unlike Laura’s richer in-laws. Anyway, the kitchen was so wonderful. It was just like being in Little House On The Prairie!
The kids played happily for several hours. Cousin O and Zoe and LooLoo had a hilarious game going where he would trot in Cousin O style from the general store down to the kitchen, holding a chicken under each arm, and talking about “I’m going to make chicken soup.” Then the girls would come trotting back the other direction, with a chicken under each arm, talking about “gots to save the chickens.” They were cracking each other up.
On the way out we stopped to peek at the gift shop, as we always do. Despite hating to hear my grandmother’s words coming out of my mouth, I told the children, “Don’t touch anything. We are just looking. Don’t touch anything.”
Poor Zachary picked up a green pepper shaped salt shaker to “look” at it, and it slid out of his hand. I heard the crockery breaking sound, turned and said, “Oh, Zachary,” in that disappointed tone of voice, and the sweet little guy just melted. I tried to redeem myself by quickly reassuring him it was no big deal, but he was just heartbroken. So, now we have a pepper-shaped pepper shaker sitting on the bag of the stove to remind me hurt spirits are much tougher to mend than broken salt shakers, and the spirit is much more valuable.
Overall, what a wonderful day! Thanks to Michelle for suggesting we try out the museum.
