Mother's Day~

Oh, how blessed I am!

 

 

We spent Mother's Day at the Carl Sandburg home, which just so happens to be a National Park! And you know what that means....more Jr. Ranger badges!

 

Since Emily was with, I've got plenty of pictures to post! 

We arrived at lunch time and enjoyed a picnic  by the creek.  The kids enjoyed playing by the creek a little bit, while Emily took some photos. We also saw 3 water snakes, which the children LOVED watching!



 

Mrs. Sandburg kept goats and had a thriving goat milk business, and ancestors of her goats are still on the farm.  There were quite a few baby goats, too, which was fun for the kids, though we didn't end up with any photos of them.

The kids loved the goats (all except for Ellie) and they were very tame, so we stayed for quite a while.  The children were able to help feed the goats in the barn and also watch a goat being milked.

I had to include this because I LOVE old barns~  and the sky was so blue!

 

Bill, working with AnnaClaire on her ranger badge requirements.

 



And I LOVE stone walls....especially with cute little girls walking on them!

 

So happy to have spent such a beautiful day with my youngest 6!  And the boys both happened to call while we were there, so I felt like we were all together for part of the time.

The kids showing off their ranger badges in front of the house.

It's hard to tell from this photo, but the house sits up high on a hill, overlooking 245 acres of beautiful property, including a small lake. We toured the home, and the inside has all the original furnishings and household items left in place as they were on the day of Sandburg's death. The home inside is very lived in and unpretentious and of course it is just FILLED with books.  Every single room had floor to ceiling bookshelves.  And I just LOVE a book filled home!



Littlest girl is such a trooper~ she was happy all day!  She wasn't a fan of the goats, though, hence no goat photos of Ellie!
 

 

If you look closely toward the right, you can see a glimpse of the house on the hill, overlooking this beautiful lake.
   



 It's so much more  fun to ride on Gracie than in the stroller at the end of the day! 

As you can see from the photos, the weather was beautiful, and this was the perfect place to spend Mother's Day TOGETHER, which is just what I had wanted! 

 

Of course Carl Sandburg is best known for his books on Lincoln, but here's a shout out to this silly story, which is a favorite of my kids and also by Sandburg. We had checked it out from the library so often, that we now own our own copy. 

Yep, that "one click" button again!