Four Mile Historic Park field trip

We started a new routine this morning.  Everyone is awakened and they are to get dressed, brush their teeth and hair and make their beds before coming downstairs to eat breakfast.  Then immediately after finished breakfast, they are to get started on schoolwork.  It worked well today especially since we had to be out the door by 9 AM to get to our field trip.

We went to Four Mile Historic Park so named because it is 4 miles from the house on the property to Broadway and Colfax which is where the capital building stands.  Pioneers would stop for food, drink and rest at the house before heading into Denver for business.  The house was built in 1859 by the Brantner brothers.  Eventually it was bought by the Booths who increased the farm to 60 acres and had a large honey and butter business.  Mrs. Booth produced 4000 pounds of honey at one point with all her hives.  Eventually, the railroads arrived and the property was given to the city of Denver and made into a park.

We were there to learn about the pioneers.  First we stopped at the loading of the wagon and learned how kids had to make choices about the things they could take with them across the prairies.

 This was an actual wagon - it seems so small.  I guess I always imagined the wagons to be like the ones on Little House on the Prairie.  The kids also learned that everyone had to walk the entire way since there wasn't any room on the wagon except for the driver.

 Then we got to ride on a freight wagon.  This was everyone's favorite part of the day.

Then we headed over to the fire to make some oyster mash - no oysters inside only flour, egg, butter, salt, pepper and corn.  Then they threw in some crisco to the pan and baked the batter over the flame.  The kids seemed to like - Cairn and I didn't want to try it.  I didn't like the crisco part of the meal.  Everyone got to help stir the batter.  First up Skylar,

Then Andrew, 

 Finally, Cairn.

 Waiting for our turn to try the oyster mash.

 After a snack we headed off to pan for gold.  Cairn was the expert pan handler since we took the class at the Mining Museum back in January.

 No one got wet which was amazing and they all found little pieces of gold.

Our last stop was the teepee to learn about sign language the Indians used on the prairie.  Andrew couldn't wait to go inside the teepee.

After we hit all our stops on our field trip, we ate our picnic lunch with our friends.  It was a fun morning and the weather was perfect.  Not too cold or too sunny, just a nice fall day.

When we got home (around 2 PM), Andrew was sleeping so the girls got to work with few interruptions on their schoolwork and got it finished before Cairn had to go to piano.  Cairn earned 100% on her unit assessment for fractions and decimals.  Skylar earned 100% on her language skills unit assessment too.  Andrew had finished his schoolwork in the morning so I let him nap until we left again.  He went from no naps to falling asleep early in the afternoon the last 2 mornings.  The only bad part about it is he doesn't fall asleep at bedtime and he takes forever to fall asleep too.  Tonight I finally got him to sleep at 11 PM.