Friday, June 28, 2013

Little House Afternoon


As a child, I had visited several of the Laura Ingalls Wilder homes! My Mom read the books aloud to us and I've reread them a bunch of times since and then enjoyed reading them aloud to my children. This summer, we completed our reading of the entire series together! What fun we've had and I wanted to cap it off with a trip to one of the homes on our "way" home. It isn't technically on the way but I sort of made it on the way!

We enjoyed a nice afternoon stop in quiet Mansfield, Missouri. Beginning with a picnic lunch - thanks to my Mom and Grandma for the picnic fare and sweet Katie for the plates!


Here's a funny story from our picnic! During one of our road trips, my Dad was filling the car with gas and washing the windows. He saw a bright green bug and picked it up to move it off the car and it made a loud funny noise at him. Of course, then he picked it up again and showed it all around - we've had fun mimicking the noise ever since. Well, one hopped onto my plate during lunch. Can you believe I took a picture of a bug? Me neither - only for you Dad!


Ewww - ok, I have the creepy crawlies feelings now - gotta change the subject!

You can't take any pictures of anything inside - but here are a few pictures of our fun times!






Of course, none of the Little House series actually takes place at this home site - but it was still neat to see where she wrote so many of her books! We loved seeing Pa's fiddle and Emily loved seeing some of Mary's handcrafts that she made after she was blind. We saw the plate and some of the silverware that were saved from the fire and the clock that Almonzo had bought for their Christmas present.

When our family came in my childhood, this was the only home you could visit. They have since purchased back the home that Rose {their daughter} had built for them just over the ridge. Again, no interior pictures allowed, but wow - was it quiet and peaceful there!



What a fun ending to our reading of the series and a great break in our day of driving!