Soldier Training Camp

Yay for an amazing weekend, spent with amazing people and in a beautiful location. I'm so blessed to have such a great group to reenact with! Warning: a little picture heavy!

Saturday: Still extremely wet and flooded from the severe storms on Friday.

Oh, so many puddles. They played in the puddles all day, came home soaked
and filthy and very well pleased with themselves. 

A very big thank you to the curators of the village for letting our group stay
in the meeting house. It was quite a godsend! The storms flooded the camp area through Saturday.

Apparently camels and horses can get married. Or so he informed me.

Taking a break from puddle playing to have tea. 

Dollies need tea, too.

My little flower-child is drawn to flowers like a bee. She usually destroys them but
this time she was gentle. She is two, now, you know, so maybe she is finally growing
out of her stage of mass flower destruction. 

Corn cooked in the husk - he said it was great!

Judah tested the keys on the piano in the meeting house. It was unfortunately in very bad
shape. 

Puddles, puddles, and more puddles. 

Anne took a turn at trying to play a tune. 

One of the rolled dolls we made Rosie for her birthday. We made these from the instructions
in the American Girls Book  by Miss Leslie. (1831). 

Union soldiers at drill. 

I have not heard my guitar played so beautifully since I was a little
girl and my dad played for all of us kids. A huge thank you to Pvt. E
for his music!

Sweet little Rosie. 

The paths were muddy but the bridge was relatively dry. 

It's great fun to swing on a rope. 

Downtime activities, just like the soldiers of the 60's. 

David only consented to photos if I took a picture of him eating. So, here he is eating a roll!
;)

Sunday: Much drier, breezy and beautiful. So we broke out our best dresses in honor of the day!

She stayed out of puddles for about five minutes! Haha ;)

I made this dress for her birthday but it was too cold for her
to wear it on the actual day. She loves her pink dress!

Anne made a necklace of pink glass beads and I made a
little crown with paper flowers and wire for our birthday
princess.

Anne's dress! I love how these turned out. I got the dotted swiss
on a fabulous sale for just under $2/yard from FFC. It was bright bubblegum
pink so I used dye remover to tone it down. The color came out just right. 

Those curls!

Playing tic-tac-toe with our chaplain. 

Surgeon outside the commandeered hospital. 

Drill

Slightly unhappy toad, very happy Benjamin. 

They think it great fun to wrestle with their older brother. Judah is
so good with them. 

Malachi made a ring out of a dandelion stem and bestowed it upon Rose.

Boys making the rounds. 

Sunday lunch: I made these meat pies and brought them up Sunday morning.
I roasted a big pork loin and shredded it, and slow cooked it with onion, bacon fat and
one lemon overnight.

For dessert I brought up lemon cake, made from an original 1846 recipe. This
cake was very simple but certainly rich! 3/4 lbs of butter, 1 lb of flour, 1 of sugar, 7 eggs and
the juice and peel of lemon.
These cakes were in celebration of Rose's and Benjamin's birthdays, which are only 10 days apart.

Camp

Excuse my horrible hair - I had been playing baseball and my
hair went crazy.

Wild onions/garlic (can never remember how to tell which is which)

Cabin that later hosted the music and dance

Her favorite place!

Playing checkers with the chaplain at the general store.

Anne curiously watches the musicians.

My sweet baby! (who is not really a baby anymore! She is still breastfeeding though, so,
I can count her as a baby til she decides to wean. She is now officially my longest nurser!) 

Punch.

Her very first dance! She was absolutely thrilled!

And, Malachi!

So looking forward to the next event at the end of the month! We've really had a great start to the season.