Old Sturbridge Village

We took a trip up to Massachusetts this past weekend to see the extended Sooy family. While Daddy was at a wedding, Mommy took the kids for an outing to Old Sturbridge Village. OSV is modeled after an 1830's New England village and had lots of activities to do and opportunities for the Sooy Babies to learn new things.

First stop was the honeybee exhibit - we learned all about bees and beekeeping. Sean was really into learning about beekeeping - he remembered about the smoke that gets blown on the bees to make them sleepy and the type of mask and "costume" the beekeepers wear to so they can get the bees' honey without getting stung.

Say BEES!

Next up was the one-room schoolhouse. Sean took the role as tourguide to tell us about how all the kids would get in this one room "so they could do their exercises and watch videos and take their naps."

Clare agreed.

We played at the kids' play area - Clare tried to drive these oxen to take her to get a snack:

We stopped by the cider mill to watch this ox help operate the apple press:

We walked over to the common and the kids ran around for awhile, kicking up the crunchy leaves:

I got the kids back into the coach and our next stop was the blacksmith's shop, which Sean and Clare LOVED!  They liked seeing the blacksmith puff up the fire with the bellows and smash the glowing metal with the hammer.

Then we went over to farm - Clare's favorite part - to see the new baby calf!  And the sheep and the piggies and the chickens!

We walked down a big hill to go see the brown cows (Sean wanted them to give us some chocolate milk!) and as we walked over the little bridge to cross the creek, Clare dropped one of her gackies (pacifiers) in the creek!  Oh no!  Clare was very upset and while Mommy tried to figure out what to do, the gacki was swept downstream. We were able to smooth things over with Clare by giving her another gacki and explaining that a baby fishy now has her gacki and is a happy little fishy now that Clare shared with him.

After Sean sang a very nice song about Clare's gacki, Mommy broke out some snacks and we enjoyed our surroundings and chatted with the cows:

Feeling much better after the snacks, the kids led me up towards the giant waterwheel at the gristmill:

Then we had another snack - OSV apple raisin cake!

Next the kids wanted to go on a wagon ride.  While waiting for the wagon to come around again, the kids played with these hoops:

We had to take a potty break and we missed the wagon.  So while we waited for it to come around again, we watched this Old Sturbridge Villager show us science - 1830's style!  She launched five or six mini hot air balloons and the kids were so thrilled to watch the balloons float up up up in the sky and then down down down to the ground.

Finally we got to get on the wagon ride!

After the wagon ride, it was time for OSV to close - in fact, they were getting set up for a wedding that was set to take place that evening.  During the short walk out to the parking lot, Clare passed out and Sean tried his best to get comfy, which is a sure sign of a good day out.

Corn maze

We took the kids for another fall fun activity - a corn maze!

Sean was a great leader and was very helpful checking out potential paths!

After we wound our way successfully through the maze, we took an apple cider doughnut break with our pal, Johnny Appleseed:

The kids burned off some of that doughnut-powered energy on the playground:

Next we took a hayride out to the apple orchard and pumpkin patch...

... and we quickly got down to business looking for a BIG pumpkin that we can carve later on:

**Flashback to the Sooy Babies' first pumpkin-picking excursion**

Yup, this is a picture of a picture :-)

While waiting for the hayride back to the farm, we sipped some apple cider:

 

And here's a cool photo of us heading back to the farm to pack up our new apples and pumpkin and head home :-)

Crabbing

Over Labor Day weekend, we took a trip to St. Michaels on the Eastern Shore of Maryland.  We stayed a really nice house with its own dock and...

a crab trap!

 

We decided to try our hands at crabbing:

We got a package of (questionable) chicken from the grocery store and put some in the trap:

With our two helpful helpers on hand, we got the trap into the water:

We waited patiently and checked the trap a few times with no results.  Finally, on Labor Day morning, we crabwalked our way down the dock with high hopes for a full trap...

And we had a crab!!!!

Ooooh, he was a mean old crab with only one claw that he kept snapping while he spit at us!

We let Mr. Crab go, of course, and Sean had a lot of fun telling his friends all about the crab we caught in Maryland :-)