Little House in the Big Woods

One of the many parenting highlights for me with Olivia at the age she is at has been reading the Little House on the Prairie books. I never read them as a child, so I am experiencing them for the first time with her. We started about a year ago, unsure if she would be at a good age yet for read-alouds without many pictures. Turns out, she was ready! We have read each book in the series through The Long Winter. We read about a chapter a night, or half a chapter if it's a longer one. Our friends Bethany and Abby are also reading the books, and are at almost the same spot in the series. When we realized how close Pepin, WI is we knew we had to take a road trip with the girls to see where Laura was born, and where the first book of the series takes place. 

The site itself isn't much. The log cabin is a replica of what the original would have looked like. It's amazing to think a family could live in such a bare-bone structure, especially through a mid-west winter! The girls had fun doing what they do best... playing pretend with their babies. We enjoyed a picnic lunch on the grounds too.

Then we set off for town, where there is a Laura Ingalls Museum. They had all kinds of artifacts from that time period, even a few that were owned by the Ingalls family. For me it was fun seeing items that were mentioned in the book, getting a better visual for what they actually looked like. The girls again enjoyed pretend play as there was a little school house set up where they took turns teaching. Of all things, here Olivia is teaching how to change a baby's diaper.

Finally, on our way home we made a stop at an ice cream shop in Red Wing. Then we ventured across the street to check out some water fountains, the river, and run around the park.

It was a perfect day! Perfect weather, activities, company... everything! We would love to try this again, especially to see the homestead in DeSmet SD. Maybe next summer!