Olden Days

Lauren had "Olden Days" at school today.  She was really excited about it, and, in fact, has been talking about it for weeks building up to it.   In their talks about "Olden Days" things, Lauren has had a lot of questions for me, such as "Did you shake up the cream to make your butter when you were little or did you have the wood thing that you push up and down?"  "Did you have tv when you were little?"  Around the same time, I got a cd of 80's music from a party we went to and the kids actually liked the music quite a bit.  In fact, Lauren requested that I play it.  Of course, the term she used was, "Can you play the Olden Days music?"  HMMM, seriously let's firm up the timeframe of "Olden Days" shall we?.

Anyway, her Nani (Robie's mom) made her a little pioneer dress and bonnet to wear.  In fact, she made them for Abby and Sofia, too! 

This is the only day they can dress up at school (no Halloween costumes) so this was their big chance.   They sang a few songs, and since Lauren is a performer at heart, she nailed all the actions and the words :)

One of the other  things they have been talking about are olden days games.  Apparently, checkers is included in that.  Luckily, we had a Toy Story checkers laying around (admittedly, not really authentic).  She needs some work on her technique, but I think I was finally able to effectively throw the game - and trust me, it was hard.  Then Ashley came in and we played for real - how does the game of checkers ever end if you both know what you are doing? 

 The other day I was talking to a friend and was laughing at how Lauren would be a horrible pioneer because she is usually crying when we go hiking, or choosing not to eat any dinner because she doesn't like it.  I realized towards the end of the day that she might have liked it, though.  Lauren actually ended up wearing her costume all day.   When she came in with her dirty, chocolate milk face, and ragamuffin hair, I couldn't help but think that's what she would have looked like as a real pioneer - she was giving her ALL to this costume!