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Prairie Days!





I may have mentioned that I'm kind of obsessed with the Little House books by Laura Ingalls Wilder.  They are one of my childhood favorites, I've read all the books more times than I can count.  I grew up mostly in Southern California so visiting a Little House museum wasn't really an option.  I know live in the Midwest and all of the museums are within 8 hours (driving distance) from where I live.  
 
The Little House on the Prairie museum is only 2 1/2 hours from my house and I've been dying to go visit.  Every June they have a festival called 'Prairie Days' and this year we were finally able to go!  I've been reading the 'My First Little House' books with her so she's familiar with Laura and Mary and their stories so she was super excited too.




The property has an old original schoolhouse, an old original post office and a replica of the cabin Pa built in the Little House on the Prairie book.  I wish I had taken pictures of all of these buildings because they were really neat.  While we were there, a teacher gave lessons in the old schoolhouse, slates and all.  We couldn't go in the cabin because it's not in very good shape right now.  They are saving to build a new one because it's been severely damaged by storms and age.  However, we could look inside and it was really neat.  We also got to see the well Pa dug on the property.  Pa's well is actually how they were able to locate the land where the Ingalls family had family had lived in southern Kansas.



The festival was really fun!  They had all kinds of demonstrations and hands on activities for kids.  Julia got to make a rope, pump water and shuck corn.  You could also make corn husk dolls, tiny bales of hay and there was a costume contest and parade.  It was fun and laid back and we had a good time.  Of course, I bought Julia a sunbonnet and she actually enjoyed wearing it. : )

Julia keeps asking when we can go back and visit.  I don't know if we'll make a trip back this year but I would definitely visit again.  We also live about 4 hours from the Laura Ingalls Wilder museum in Mansfield, MO so we're going to take a long weekend and visit sometime in the fall.  Eventually, I would like to visit all of the museums but the rest of them are little bit farther away.


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