Colonial Williamsburg {On Tour With the Founding Fathers}

We spent a full day exploring Colonial Williamsburg.  If you ask the girls, they'd tell you that the best part of that day was getting to dress as a colonial girl!  You can rent costumes at the visitors center for a fee (and a hefty deposit) and they can spend the day wearing the cute costumes and interacting with the actors in the town.

Grinding something...  I'm not sure what. 

A Yoke of Oxen.

Print shop.

Jail.

And here is how you go potty in jail.  Ewww!

Maggie is shackled.

In the stocks...Maggie was a little to short and needed some help.

Poor Grandma and Papa.

Ok girls, we'll pick you up at 5 o'clock!

The armory.

Getting tired.

The gardens.

They gave the kids an adventure map and after they visited several places they earned a pin!

Sitting on the steps of George Wythe's house.  

He was a mentor to Thomas Jefferson and a lawyer who lived in Williamsburg.

Exhausted is setting in!

Look!  I was there too.  LOL.

We finished the night by eating at Huzzah's.  

They have a great kids menu where the kids can assemble their own pizzas!

I would highly recommend a day at Colonial Williamsburg.  

It was a bit pricey, but worth every penny!

Stratford Hall & George Washington's Birthplace {On Tour With the Founding Fathers}

So, to continue our cool tour with the founding fathers we went to Stratford Hall.  This is the birthplace of Robert E. Lee, but before Civil War this was home to the Lee's of Virginia, 2 signers of the constitution!  They lived in a schmancy plantation with a beach that opened up to the Potomac river.  Now, this place was super cool because you could walk right out onto the beach and after a little searching you could find fossilized shark teeth!

Shark Teeth!

Kayley found this dead (we think) jellyfish!

Stratford Hall

We would Not have been good Coopers.  Barrel building was tough!

Carding wool was a little bit easier...

George Washington's Birthplace National Park.

The foundation of the Washington House

Walking the foundation of Washington House. 

Ferry Farm {On Tour With the Founding Fathers}

On our field trip we went "on tour" with the Founding Fathers.  We started with a visit to George Washington's boyhood home Ferry Farm in Fredericksburg, VA.  Here the girls are sitting on rocks that mark the corner of Mary Washington's home....

Ferry Farm is the place where the young George would've tossed that "Silver Dollar across the Potomac" (only that is a myth, he would've most likely skipped stones across the Rappahannock) and supposedly chopped down the famous "I cannot tell a lie" Cherry Tree!

  

The museum was cool, packed with artifacts that they have found on Ferry Farm.  They also gave the kids a scavenger hunt that sent them on an educational adventure examining what life was like in George's day and how archeologists find and process their findings!

Cahokia Indian Mounds {On Tour With the Founding Fathers}

We had a chance to go on vacation!  I know right!?  How exciting!

My parents live in Virginia and we have been studying American History this year so I had wanted to go out there to really see some history first hand.  So far we have Indians, Columbus, Jamestown, Pilgrims, and up through the Revolutionary War and we wanted to learn more about the Founding Fathers, colonial days and so, our vacation was really a lot more like an Ultimate Homeschool Field Trip!  

We left on a sunny Saturday morning, pretty early because we wanted to stop at Cahokia Indian Mounds just east of St. Louis.  

It was pretty interesting.  We watched a video about the native people who settled Cahokia, learned about how they lived, what they wore (which wasn't much!), even what kinds of things they did for fun!  

The girls got an Ocarina as a cool souvenir!

A mound in the distance.

Indian Village.

From here we drove through the rest of the weekend until we made it to Grandma and Papa's house!  Here Maggie is enjoying eating her "Prinkles."  (Pringles are the ultimate field trip travel food!)