Saturday, August 13, 2011

Walking through history . . .

We had a fabulous field trip yesterday to the Goschenhoppen Folk Festival - what a wonderful experience!  Here are a few photos (which don't at all do this event justice) . . . it was literally like a walk through the 18th and 19th century lives of Pennsylvania Germans.

Noah is "strollered" and ready to go!
 All three kids excited about the Festival
 Visiting the blacksmith
 Wheelwrights
 Trying some colonial games

 Noah providing some comic relief :)
 Jaden needed a quick break ;) - loved the rocking chair
 The ice wagon - we saw a picture of it on the festival's website so Jaden wanted me to take a picture for us to have too!
 19th century quilting bee
 Making apple fritters over an open fire (18th century style)
 This gentleman showed us what a soldier might carry with him - fascinating for my seven-year-old especially!
 Threshing grain by hand - no machines here!
 Lael got to help make candles - each row of candles would need to be dipped at least 25 times!
 Jaden enjoyed the view from this stone wall . . .
 . . . so much that he convinced his sister to join him!
 Churning butter
 This churning will yield about 5 pounds of butter!
 Now it's time to do the laundry
 If only they were that quick to do laundry at home! ;)

 Lael had a lesson in making sauerkraut

 Another favorite - seeing the militia fire their muskets

 The Goschenhoppen Festival parade



 Wagon ride - with several of our homeschool friends
 Jaden "warming up" by the fire while waiting for Lael to finish her cornhusk doll
 Lael made a wonderful cornhusk doll - complete with bonnet and apron!
 Jaden got the hang of this game quite quickly :)
We also tasted some yummy treats like apple butter, potato candy, funnel cake, watermelon, corn pie, apple fritters, faschnaughts, apple cider and freshly made peach ice cream!  It was an absolutely marvelous day!

1 comment:

Grandma Betty said...

Wow, that certainly does look like a great learning experience and a fun day all rolled into one! I enjoyed the "tour"!