Little Town on the Prairie

Thursday we stopped just outside De Smet, SD at the Ingalls homestead site. No one was particularly excited about this stop, which made me feel slightly guilty for taking us an hour out of the way, but it didn't stop me from wanting to go! I think my mom read "Little House in the Big Woods" to me when I was in 3rd grade and I then started reading the rest of the series on my own. I haven't been able to get any of my own kids super excited about Little House on the Prairie, but I continue to re-read the books even now as an adult. It brings back such great memories. We ended up spending much longer than we expected at the homestead. We got to see a dugout and claim shanty--and vote on which we'd rather have lived in :o) We pumped water at Pa's well, saw the house that Pa built for Ma and the girls, take a buggy ride, ride a horse, make a corncob doll, make rope, watch and try grinding wheat and twisting hay (like the Ingalls family had to do to make it through the Long Winter), and take a covered wagon ride out to the schoolhouse where we had a short lesson. The kids all had a fabulous time (we did, too!) I took some video of the spelling bee in the schoolhouse. Zane cracked us up!!