The Homestead...

 We ventured to the Chippewa Nature Center at the end of June for some fun family entertainment.  On Sunday afternoons, they host 'homestead days'.  After church, we set out to check it out.

The first thing we got to do was see some sheep and explore a homestead.  The kids played with some 'toys' and checked out the home.

Then, E got to make some rope.  She thought that was pretty cool.  It took three people to make rope.  She even got to keep some and bring home.

C loved all the animals.  There were sheep, pigs, chickens and a cow and calf.  He could have stayed with the animals all day.  I think he would have even jumped into the pig pen...the pigs looked like they were having so much fun in the mud and splashing in their water troughs.
The cow didn't like C however.  She kept loudly 'mooing' at him.  She sounded very angry.  We later found out that cows think that anything under 3 feet is a predator.  So, she thought her baby was in danger...and she probably was angry.  Oops.  We'll keep C further away next time.

They had a beautiful garden.  If my garden could look like that, I'd be so impressed.  They also take all the produce to the local homeless shelters or food pantries in Midland.  Last year they donated 60+ lbs of produce.  I thought that was pretty cool.

E's favorite part of the experience was the schoolhouse.  She loved the lady that was the teacher and seeing all the McGruffy reading books.  She told me that she was glad that she didn't have to memorize all those things in there like 'Laura' did.  After the 'lesson' (learning about the school), they went outside and played games.  It took E a bit to catch on to the games, but she did great once she figured them out.

X had fun playing the games too.  He especially liked the ring toss.  Both kids liked trying the stilts, but that was a skill neither mastered...nor did I for that matter.  They are tricky!

C just enjoyed tooling around as always.  He goes with the flow pretty well.  He was checking out the cow again.

To end our excursion, we took Jut to the main building and showed him the museum inside and did a few of the activities set out in the classroom.  Then, we walked a bit down the river and found a nice bench at the intersection of the Chippewa and Pine Rivers to have a bit of a snack.  It was a fun afternoon.