Old Sturbridge Village

Hey, it's been a few days! How did that happen??

On Wednesday, we drove down to the zoo in Rhode Island. It was pretty hot and humid, and we had thunderstorms in the afternoon. Quite a change from the last time we went in May, when the kids fought over who got to be wrapped up in the one blanket we had! It was cold! Definitely not so much this time!

Then, yesterday, we mostly stuck close to home and did exciting things like laundry. We went out to lunch at Friendly's, which is always a big hit with the kids, but that was the extent of our exciting Thursday!

Today, however, we did something completely different! We live about half an hour from Old Sturbridge Village (OSV). I had never been before. A few days ago, I Googled "life in Massachusetts in 1830," just to see what life was like when our house was built. OSV popped up in the search results. It surprised me, because I knew it was a living history place, but I thought it would be set in the 1600s (Pilgrims and all that-- with it being Massachusetts and all!). But it's not! It's set right around 1830! And, it's normally a pretty pricey place to visit. But today (and a few other Fridays this summer), all tickets were $5/each. It was destiny! So, we decided to check it out!

The weather started out looking pretty threatening-- the forecast said we were supposed to have showers all morning and thunderstorms in the afternoon. We took our chances, and lucked out! It was perfect! And, I think it worked to our advantage-- The "$5 Friday" event had the potential to be super crowded, but I think the scary forecast might have kept some people away. Really, it wasn't bad at all! I really enjoyed it, and am looking forward to going again and bringing Gus! Maybe next month! :)

Anyway... we saw all sorts of things. Every single building/shop had someone inside demonstrating an aspect of life during the time period. We saw people hammering tin, spinning/dying yarn, forging hooks out of iron, making shoes, operating a printing press, running a store, and much more! The kids' favorite house was the one where they could touch everything-- mostly the wooden toys from the era. Maya liked dressing up in the period clothing (Niko refused).

We also rode in a horse-drawn wagon, which was Maya's favorite part by FAR. She loved it!

There were also some fun areas where games of the time were set up... the kids played jump rope, tried to walk on stilts, played a version of badminton, and then chased a wooden hoop around with a stick. It was really a lot of fun! Niko got a little upset because of the mosquitoes, which set him off on a whiny rampage, but lunchtime seemed to hit his reset switch. All in all, it was very interesting. And, shortly after we left, it began to POUR! So that worked out pretty well, haha!

Tomorrow is a crazy busy day. I am running the Warrior Dash in the morning, so here's hoping I don't die or become dismembered in any way. Then we have the 4th of July bike parade for the kiddos, and then Gus and I are going away for the night to celebrate our anniversary. Busy times! But I should have lots of blog about on Sunday, if I'm awake enough to do it!