POW WOW

What fun we had today at the Native American Pow Wow in Prescott. Kayla had just finished reading one of her "Magic Tree House" books about the first Thanksgiving and Squanto. I guess us "adults" don't always think of these things but she asked me ................ "Are Indians still around?" As if they were dinosaurs and extinct. So, how perfect that the pow wow was this weekend and the girls got to see "real indians" in their traditional clothing. They blessed the ground and did sacred dances.

Most important to them was the HUGE Tee Pee. Inside was where the children learned about native american culture. They got a taste of the sweet and yummy fire roasted corn on the cob and it was a first for them to have indian fried bread.

Here is a short video clip of the gourd dancers drumming/honoring the Native American Military Veterans.

We ended the day with a verification that "yes, indians are still around".

Happy Father's Day

Father's Day is always a tough one to figure out for us. The kids love their dad and want to do something for him .......... but what?


This year I found a great idea in a magazine that the kids can do and get a laugh out of it as well. What child doesn't like to bake and especially a "SURPRISE" for dad?

What is a dads most prized possession? Our dads is the T.V. remote control.

So, he got a T.V. remote cake to match his very own.
The girls laughed while making it and were so excited to give it to dad in the end.

Learning a little about HISTORY

This past weekend Tom and I took the girls to the 35th annual Folk Arts Fair at the historical Sharlot Hall Museum in Prescott.

What fun we had! We first learned a little about candle making and the girls made their very own candle through the dipping process.

Then they stopped at the Arizona Rough Riders "A" Troop Encampment. Here they learned about the tents and camp set up that the toops spent the night in. And in fact the night prior a couple of the troop volunteers stayed the night in the tentts and were busy chasing off some Raccoons for most of their night.

The Fremont House was a nice tour as John C. Fremont who was Arizona's first territorial governor. He lived in this house while he was Governor. The interesting thing about the house was that there was a exit door in every room. People belived he was afraid of fire and wanted to make sure he could get out. The girls were grossed out about the "Chamber Pots" in each room. As those were used at night to go potty in since there was no bathroom in the house. The following morning they were emptied in the out house.

They got to try out a little "tin punching" as tin was used as decoration in the doors of furniture but the purpose was for better air circulation.

The children didn't have Toys R Us to go get their dolls. So they were creative and soaked corn husks for hours and used them along with string to create "corn husk dolls". So, Kayla and Shae got to experience that process as well with our help. They had to dry overnight to harden to stay in their positions and they are now ready to put a face and clothes on.

On the way to the Governor's Mansion Shae did a little gold panning and could of stay there all afternoon. She

managed to find a few flecks of gold. Unfortuantely, not enough for college tuition. In the mansion was a museum of old safes, guns, clothes, a piano and much more. The girls really enjoyed the "hang crank" movie.

Then on to the rug making. The girls first got to see the sheep being sheered and then teeh ladies were at their spinning wheels spinning the wool into yard. The girls got to weave their very own tiny run with yarn. That took quite a while and they could not imagine making a large one.

We enjoyed a nice Bar B Q lunch and then headed over to the wood carving and walked thru the rose garden to the Ranch House and learned a little Living History. Here we learned about the kitchens and how having a stove was precious and it was considered a luxury to have one. The kids tended to the gardens and the more children the better as they were very much needed and a huge help within the family dynamics. They also learned about the fancy hats that the ladies worn for all different occasions and the process of how they made them is still used today.

We listened to some great music from live folk bands and headed over to the butter churning and watched ladies make Biscuits in the Dutch-Oven. The old Print Shop was neat to see as well as a "real" Blacksmith working making a hook and horse shoe.

It is just amazing how they did things in the past and how technology has changed our world. Some for the good and some for the bad. But what we learned most was that things always go back to the "way things used to be".

Prescott is pronounced by most locals as "PRESS-cut" or "PRESS-kit" instead of "press-COT") .

The City is named after author William H. Prescott, whose writings were popular during the Civil War. Here in this picture as he "William H. Prescott" is sitting in the chair in the center.

The end of a long day but well worth the history we learned.

Bottle Cap Snake

This is a super cool project to do with the kids!
Okay, we had seen this wonderful "bottle cap snake" at a reptile class at our local library. It was enough to inspire the girls to make one of their own. They saved lots of bottle caps! They found them in parking lots, parks and pretty much where ever we went. They even got some family and friends and our local mexican burrito shop to save them for us. Finally, we had enough. Infact, we had a total of a little over 400 bottle caps.


First, we took all the bottle caps and punched a hole with a nail and hammer in the center of each one. Then we strung about 140 caps on a wire for each snake (we ended up making 3 snakes).

We then added buttons from larger to smaller at the end for the "rattle" tail.

For the head we took Model Magic Clay that air dries and molded a snake head.

With a piece of the wire we created the facial features and even inserted eyes. The snake took about 3 days to dry but well worth the wait.




Here is our snakes that bend into all shapes and ride on the girls shoudlers as if they were their "real" pet snakes.