Laura Ingalls Wilder Road Trip!

While my husband was off on a Guys Weekend, the girls and I decided to have an adventure of our own. We chose to do a Laura Ingalls Wilder road trip, hitting up 8 states and covering thousands of miles!

Yes! Let’s hit all of these sites!

We started off in our very own state first – kicking it to Pepin, WI for the Little House on the Big Woods. This site is a wayside off of the highway, so you really don’t ever have to worry about the hours of the house. We’ve visited before, but it was a great spot to kick off the trip! We had not been to the Laura Ingalls Wilder Museum in town, though, and that was the perfect place to buy some bonnets to carry us through our trip, and look at some artifacts from Laura and her family.

Reading “Little House on the Big Woods” at the Little House on the Big Woods!
Playing a game at the Laura Ingalls Wilder Museum

Our next stop was all the way in Deborah, IA, but it was a pretty drive along the Mississippi into Minnesota and down to Iowa. It also didn’t feel like a long drive, as it was a little less than 2 hours from Pepin. We got to see Laura Ingalls Wilder’s real height and try hard tack. You can see it was a real hit….

My fourth grader is almost as tall as Laura Ingalls Wilder was
Can you tell she LOVES hardtack?

Next it was off to Almanzo’s church in Spring Valley, MN, where we just made the last tour of the day.

There was a museum inside the church, and through the tour, we got to take part in a bucket brigade. Seems like a crazy way to have to put out a fire!

We drove past the Jolly Green Giant statue in Blue Earth, MN and then off to Sanborn, MN for the Sod House on the Prairie. This was really interesting to see, as you could see the layers and layers of sod. We definitely got the prairie vibes at this stop, which was actually at a farm. When we pulled in, we felt like we were visiting someone’s house!

Very prairie!

Our final spot of the day was in Walnut Grove, MN, where we stopped at the Laura Ingalls Dugout Spot. This stop was beautiful! It also is Plum Creek, from the book “On the Banks of Plum Creek.”

Reading “On the Banks of Plum Creek” while actually on the banks of Plum Creek!
Crazy to stand in this spot!

The next morning, we got up and hit the Laura Ingalls Wilder Museum in Walnut Grove, MN. This museum was really fun, as it was set up like a town, with a lot of areas for the girls to explore their imaginations. We went for lunch in Nellie’s Cafe, which was across the street.

Playing in the kitchen, while wearing the dress up clothes
They were excited to play the pump organ!
Shopping at the General Store

Then we drove to De Smet, SD for the Laura Ingalls Wilder Historic Homes Tour. We also visited the DeSmet Cemetery to pay our respects to the Wilder family. We then visited the Laura Ingalls Wilder Homestead also in DeSmet, which was a very fun place to visit, as well, as you could learn to do laundry the way people did during this time period, go to school to see what that was like, and make your own corn dolls and jump ropes. We stayed overnight at the Homestead, getting a covered a wagon as our lodging for the night.We even got an intense prairie storm featuring hail and hefty winds. We took shelter in the bathroom because we weren’t sure how the canvas of a covered wagon holds up to hail, but it turns out we were the only ones concerned!

Someone didn’t like her pretend teacher (me)!
At the school in the Historic Homes Tour
Ringing the school bell!
Grinding the wheat on the Historic Homes Tour
Playing a fiddle similar to Pa’s on the Historic Homes Tour
At the Ingalls’ gravesites
Cart ride! At the Laura Ingalls Homestead
Making a jump rope
Laundry time
Driving the horses and cart for our ride to the schoolhouse!
Now it’s her turn to tell the horses where to go!
Living the prairie life!
Home, sweet home for the night!
That’s some big hail!
Check out the mammatus clouds!
Inside our wagon, ready for bed!

Our next day did not feature any Laura Ingalls Wilder sites, as we had to drive all the way down to Independence, Kansas. However, we did stop to see things because I don’t like driving that long without some fun stops. We went to the Oz Museum in Wamego, as both of my girls are fans. We also stopped at the Tallgrass National Prairie Reserve to imagine what the prairie looked like during Laura’s life. We saw the biggest grasshoppers, and felt the intense summer heat.

We followed the Yellow Brick Road in Wamego, KS
Tallgrass National Prairie Reserve
We saw the biggest grasshoppers here!!!

The next morning, we were back at it, checking out the Laura Ingalls Wilder sites in Independence, KS. We also jumped over the state line into Oklahoma to visit the Mickey Mantle childhood home. This whole day was an interesting collection of dirt road driving. Good thing I got a rental car!!! We then went on to Mansfield, MO, where we visited Laura Ingalls Wilder Home. After that, we drove to the Missouri Botanical Gardens in St. Louis to view the special nighttime showing of the Chihuahua sculptures.

Little House on the Prairie in Independence, KS
More spots to explore at the Laura Ingalls Wilder sites in Independence, KS
Petting the donkeys at Laura’s sites in Kansas
Laura’s house in Mansfield, MO
Standing next to a full-size replica of Laura Ingalls Wilder
Laura’s favorite house in Mansfield, MO.
Missouri Botanical Gardens

Our final day of our trip was spent in the City Museum in St. Louis – a favorite of our family’s. It was fun to climb and jump and frolic after so many days in the car. We then drove all the way home to WI again. It was a great car trip, and the girls read the Laura Ingalls books in the car throughout the trip. It was a very fun road trip that was fun to do just as us girls! ❤

These fish tickle! (At the City Museum in St. Louis)
Lots of fun to be had at the City Museum
Climbing on the roof at the City Museum!
These bugs made it all the way from Kansas to WI on the front of our rental car, surviving a rainstorm between St. Louis and WI!

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Community Project…Come to Life!

I have to brag a little about Squid. Both of my girls have big hearts, but Squid is now to the age to show hers on a bigger scale.

It all started with her school’s “One School, One Book” program. Squid’s elementary school has K-6 in it, and every student gets a copy of the same book. They read it in class and do various activities that are linked to the book. The program started in January, and this year’s book was K. A. Applegate’s “The Wishtree.” Squid loved this book, and from a few pages into it, she had decided she wanted to create her own wish tree.

As her mom, I am used to ideas she has. She is sometimes like me, in that she comes up with many ideas, but not all of them ever make it past the idea phase. I wasn’t sure how serious she was until she mentioned it more frequently.

Then, coronavirus entered the picture. With how different things were, and how much the girls missed their friends and school, Squid decided this Wish tree was exactly what needed to happen.

Around the same time, a friend of mine posted on facebook that she had seen a wish tree on a walk in a nearby town. Squid, Wormy, and I took a field trip during an online learning day to check it out. It was so exciting to see someone else sharing the same idea Squid had. We took note of how they did things, and Squid made modifications based off of making things a little more environmentally friendly for the area around the tree. The tree we visited had wishes attached to it that were made of paper. And, although some people tried to place them in bags to protect them a bit more from the weather, the wishes still weren’t holding up as well as Squid was hoping. We liked how the organizers had left out supplies so people could create their wishes onsite, but we got there after a rain, so the crate of supplies were wet.

It was so exciting to see a real wish tree! Now I understood Squid’s mission!

After seeing the wish tree in action, I understood a bit more about Squid’s idea. We talked through what we saw and how she wanted hers to be. She did not want the wishes to fall off of the tree, so she suggested doing what the characters in the book had done – using ribbons and scraps of fabric to make the wishes hold up against the elements. My husband thought we should have a collection of supplies out for people to make their own items, but with the virus around, Squid didn’t think that was a good idea. We got to pick up Squid’s book from school, and I read it. Now Squid’s idea made even more sense to me. I suggested we tie a rope around the tree to make it easier to take the wishes down when we get to winter, and to hopefully not hurt the tree from growing or cover up any of its leaves for photosynthesis.

I encouraged Squid to go about this the right way. I had her draft an email to the town supervisor asking permission for her idea. I told her that otherwise we did not truly have permission to take over a tree on public land (she picked a nearby park for her tree, as it is used for a lot of summer events). And, I didn’t want anyone to think her work was vandalism. The town supervisor liked the idea and passed it on to the director of Parks and Rec. He met with Squid and talked over what he could offer as far as taking care of the area (mowing, trimming, etc) and getting the local newspaper involved. Squid then said we could share the news on the school’s facebook page as well. She also said we can put it up and take it down each year, as the Parks and Rec Director suggested this could be a reoccurring event.

After my husband and I helped her put the rope up, we put our family wishes on. Squid visited the tree every single day watching for people to put wishes on. She was getting pretty bummed out, because people weren’t visiting it. However, we started it on a very rainy week, and it was on a weekday that I advertised it on the facebook page. Since then, luckily, it has really taken off. We counted about 2 weeks ago (before she was the front page story in the local newspaper, and a feature section in the area newspapers), and there were 38 wishes on the tree. We can’t wait to get over to the park again and count now that she’s been in the news!

Squid’s tree, in all its glory!

I am so ridiculously proud of this girl. She did such a cool thing from start to finish and she didn’t cut any corners along the way. I hope her tree really takes off for years to come!

Lisa WernerLeave a comment

How to Have a Weekend In When You’re Used to Being on the Run!

Today was weird in that it was hard to make a ‘weekend’ happen when you’ve already been home all week. We obviously were taking a break from schoolwork, since it is a weekend. But how do you make it seem different when our weekends are usually so busy?

We normally have dance class on Saturday mornings, so I attempted to recreate that for my girls. Squid absolutely LOVES dance class, so much so that she says she wants to be a dance teacher when she grows up. She was getting a little teary-eyed thinking of not having class. I asked the girls to get into their tutus, and meet me in the living room. I had Squid lead us in work on the barre (aka the back of the couch!) and Wormy led the stretches (and boy, is she bendy!!!). Then we practiced their dance class recital songs through the YouTube videos that their teachers have uploaded. I even wore a tutu, which made them laugh.

In the afternoon, we set up a FaceTime with my brother and sister-in-law. We usually do Game Nights with them, and we tried to set up a virtual game afternoon. We had two different versions of Apples to Apples and played that for almost 2 hours. It worked out really well to have different versions, as we couldn’t end up playing duplicate cards then, though I am sure that probability is pretty low with the quantity of cards in the game! It was a lot of fun, and we definitely had as many laughs as we usually do. My favorite part was when my bro & sis needed a snack, so they brought in some chips and salsa. I went to our pantry and did the same! Hahaha. I couldn’t just watch them eat chips & salsa!

After the gaming fun, we went for a short walk. It was cold and breezy out, but it was sunny, so we needed to get out anyway. It started off way colder than we wanted, but by the time we returned, we had worked up enough heat to feel a bit better.

The day actually went pretty quickly. We ended up watching some shows about Log Cabins before bed. We haven’t done much TV watching, so it was nice to cuddle and relax together. How did everyone else do today?

Lisa WernerLeave a comment

Coronavirus Break – Day 1

It’s day 1 of being stuck home due to the Coronavirus outbreak. Things are looking good. The kids are playing well together, you’ve started the dishes…you’ve got this under control. All of the sudden, you all start feeling restless. The kids start bickering. You are all getting tired of each other. You look at the clock – it’s only 8:30 am! What ARE you going to do?

I’m here to help. I will be posting the plans for the day that my kiddos and I are going to be doing. We will get through this together! Be sure to subscribe to the blog to get each post.

Lisa WernerLeave a comment