visiting laura secord & queenston heights

Laura Secord's Homestead
A few weeks ago we read that you could visit the Laura Secord Homestead with a donation. Our Dutch ears perked up.  That was a deal compared to the almost $10.00 that they normally charge per adult.
In 1812 Laura's home was invaded by American soldiers and one night she overheard them talking about a planned assault on one of the British forts. Late that night she left her five children, a wounded husband and walked 32 km. through the forest amongst Indians and wild animals to warn the British of the American's plans.

It was really neat visiting there and the scenery along Niagara-on-the-Lake is stunning, but it is definitely not worth the amount of money that they normally charge.

There was a display table with some of the wooden games children would play during that time period. Our boys loved playing with them and the two pioneer women were great with explaining how the games worked and letting the boys try them out.
I could not help but think - no batteries, you could make the pieces and replace missing pieces (but maybe you don't have that problem at your house:) easy to store, very sturdy, and I have a feeling that the children back in those days never fought during the games!

This game looked easy enough to make and this was one of the favourites. The goal was to try to catch the wooden circle with two sticks.

I lost track of Andrew, and there he was. He had found some wool to rub under his nose and he was sucking his thumb. This is his favourite thing to do.

We went for a picnic at Queenston Heights at supper time. That is such a nice park with lots of room to roam. I think that we have never picniced with just our family before and we had so much fun that we are going to make more of an effort to do it again. It was relaxing and it was good for us just to sit back and watch the boys play. Their imaginations are very entertaining!

                                                              ~   beautiful memories  ~

Responsible brother Nate making sure that Tyler does not fall off of the bench. How precious.

Adam does not stroll, he power walks. Its good for me because it is good exercise keeping up with him:)

Andrew looking way up high at the Brock monument. Thankfully it was closed. I am not a big fan of heights and I am even more afraid when there are wiggly, daring boys around me.

They all had to go to the bathroom at the same time so Adam directed them away from public eyes and told them to do their job behind the wall.  All was well until we noticed that they were standing on the edge of the cliff; they had moved far along the wall. My hands got shaky and my heart started to pound. The problem was that if we yelled for them to come back they probably would do something goofy and loose their footing. Just another one of those heart stopping moments.

I kind of like this picture. It shows that I can have peaceful moments with our baby admist much activity!
And that was our day!