Field Trip: Mahaffie Farm

  We were going to make it to Mahaffie Stage Coach Stop and Farm this spring, that's all there was to it.  I'd passed it too many times on the way to other places, my sweet cousin sent me a note highly recommending it, and then came the announcement about "homeschool days" and that settled it!  We registered and were ready to go!
  Mookie was rather blasé about the whole thing.  In fact, she's been in a little bit of a funk lately.  This was just the thing to get her out of it. Really, the whole family needed it.  It had been a crazy and stressful week and we needed a treat!  We grabbed Ducky and Grandma and headed out!
  When we arrived, we didn't stop in the little interpretive center at the main building.  Shorty was dying to "play!" so we were on the move.  The first thing we saw was an opportunity to plant corn - there were plenty of hands on activities for the kids.

  There was even a wheat planting demonstration with a horse drawn planter going on.  The big draw was the animals - baby pigs, sheep, goats.  My little farmer wanna be's were in heaven :)
  The next stop was the stage coach.  The kids' rides were free, but the adults had to buy tokens. We had debated on whether or not we should all ride, but I am sure glad we did!

The ride lasted over 5 minutes and thrilled young and old tremendously!
  The house that the Mahaffies had owned as a stage station was open.  In the basement they had cooking demonstrations going on.  The gals were cooking corn cakes on the wood stove and churning butter, both activities were ones that the kids could help with - and mine didn't have to be asked twice ;)

  The part they had the most fun with though were the old time outdoor games like Game of Graces and hitting the hoop.  Mookie excelled at the Game of Graces and was a pro.  What can I say, I think the kid was born 150 years too late.  In fact, she had so much fun, she smiled like she hasn't smiled in quite a while.

While the big kids played games, Shorty just wanted to run up the big hill...

King of the hill!!!

Of course, there were other things like grinding corn for chicken feed and then actually feeding the chickens!

Then we were tiredly and happily making our way out the door.  Posing with the Olathe boot, waving, "thanks for coming" (yep, that was Shorty).

Can you tell who I spent most of my time with?  Yep, the little guy.  Our unspoken deal is I will chase him and the older kids get to spend time at the things they want to.  Bubby is so meticulous, wanting to make sure he gets to see every. little. thing. on. the. map. and Mookie just wants to take her time at the hands on stuff.  When we get to take Ducky and Grandma along it makes it even more special because the older ones get to hang out with them for more one on one time while I ride herd on the little guy.
  We are definitely going back to Mahaffie someday.  While we were at Mahaffie we picked up this most awesome kids' passport (free) with places in the surrounding areas that you could gather stamps from.  Some of the places were ones we'd been to like Missouri Town and the Ernie Miller Nature center, but there were also so many more that now we need to go to!  Yay!