Summer is here and so is baseball. I grew up in the Midwest and lived there my whole life…until a month ago. When spring and summer come, so does the excitement of baseball! While girls and womens softball is hot hot hot now, there was a time when womens hard ball baseball was the place to be and that was in the mid 1940s to the mid 1950s. One of the most well known All-American Girls Professional Baseball League teams was the Rockford Peaches, based out of Rockford, IL. You might know them from a little movie called, A League of Their Own. 🙂 Today, Rockford is home to the Rockford Starfires, a new hard ball team looking to revive women’s baseball on the Peaches old stomping grounds. However, that doesn’t mean the Peaches are gone, or forgotten! They live on through the WWII Girls Baseball Living History League! They play at different historical reenactments, museums, and events in Wisconsin, Illinois, and Indiana and we had the pleasure of seeing them play at Cantigny Parks and Garden before our move west. They are fabulous and you should really get out and see them play if you can(or even join their league if you have a passion for baseball and fun–I was seriously considering it myself if we weren’t moving)! Check out their schedule at the link to their site above! The ladies were happy to talk to the kids and spread their love of history and baseball. They even asked Big Sister and Little sister to come try their hand at hitting the ball and running the bases DURING their game! How fantastic is that?! They even let Little Sister keep their practice ball. I have to say the kids really felt like they hit the jackpot and so did I! Such a great experience and memories! These are some of my favorite photos to date! Please enjoy!
Get ready to play ball! 😉
The beautiful spring(finally!!!) inspired a garden shoot for the blog! Some of my favorite gardens are English, which led me to Jane Austen! It was a sunny and humid morning which brought out all the beautiful colors at Cantigny Parks and Garden, but it made for a sweaty mama, squinty eyes and frizzy hair for Big Sister. I curled her hair before we left, all super cute and they fell by the time we got to take any pictures! 😦 They still turned out pretty cute, but darn it! All the best made plans….. I didn’t quite capture what I wanted the first go ’round(did I mention squinty eyes and frizzy hair?), which might have had a little to do with the fact that I went by myself with 3 kids under 6 and forgot the stroller. I was running around with clothes in my arms, a camera on my neck and a baby on my hip! Little Sister did not like my elbow in her face while I was trying to shoot, lol! So, we made a second trip, this time just me, Big Sister, and lots of glorious sun blocking clouds! It did make for a bit of a chilly shoot, but we braved it and I am thrilled with the outcome of the second set of pictures. I’ve included pictures from both shoots below. Without further ado, I present Miss Jane Austen. 🙂 P.S. If you are interested in where I got the dress or any of the activities I do in upcoming posts you can check out my Pinterest board for Jane. 🙂
So this month has been crazy hectic! Turns out we’re moving. In a month. Needless to say the blog has taken a back seat and so has Amelia Earhart. We’ve still been doing activities and reading, but it hasn’t been as well thought out it as it as been before. Which is unfortunate, but that’s life sometimes, right?! So, our move involved a trip to our new, soon to be home in the Pacific Northwest, which meant a trip to the airport!
The airport was so fun for the kids! We’ve been before, but it’s been two years so the excitement and anticipation was new all over again for the older two. We spent a little time at the Battle of Midway Memorial exhibit at Midway International Airport.Part of the exhibit includes a plane recovered from Lake Michigan in 1991, the SBD Dauntless Dive-Bomber. It hangs from the ceiling as part of the exhibit and is the same type of plane flown in the Battle of Midway in WWII. The exhibition also includes interactive kiosks with videos, pictures and sculpture commemorating the battle. The kids had a good time exploring it while we waited at the airport. Unfortunately, my camera was packed and I only have some terrible iPhone pics of us at the airport. The timing of this trip was perfect and so fitting while we learn about Amelia Earhart and aviation! (Excuse the iPhone pics from the airport, I accidentally checked my camera! 🙂
Once we got back we did a little experimenting with some different planes in our backyard. It wasn’t very scientific at all, but it was fun! We had a very large styrofoam plane, an inflatable vinyl plane and foam plane that launched from a gun-type device and we flew them all off our deck in the backyard to see which went the furthest. The kid were a little surprised that the largest plane went the furthest. I could go into more detail about why some planes worked and some didn’t, but this was just about fun. 🙂
We also read some great books about Amelia Earhart this month. My daughter’s favorite by far was ‘I AmAmelia Earhart,’ by Brad Meltzer. She brought to school when it when it was her turn to bring in a book for read aloud and carried it with her for a couple of weeks. It’s a really fun and cute book for young kids the puts an emphasis on following dreams and working hard to achieve them. Admittedly, it’s a favorite of mine as well. We also read ‘Night Flight: Amelia Earhart Crosses the Atlantic,’ by Robert Burleigh, which was great for describing what is like to fly alone across the Atlantic Ocean. Finally, we used ‘Amelia Earhart: The Legend of the Lost Aviator,’ by Shelley Tanaka as reference for Amelia’s life and achievements.
We still have a couple more weeks until the move, hopefully I can get back on track soon! It will be quite interesting to take an adventure of our own!
The kids had such a fabulous time visiting the aviation museum and that was due in part to some of the people we met there. One of the museum volunteers informed us that one of the women who is a board of directors for the museum holds many world records in aviation herself! While taking pictures outside we met Dan who invited us to take a closer look at some planes that he owns. The kids loved climbing up into the planes, playing with some of the controls and just exploring the ins and outs of the planes. My husband and I enjoyed talking with Dan and learning about his journey to aviation and learning to fly. He actually learned with his mother, another inspiring lady! It was great to hear all these men tell us about great and inspiring women in aviation! After touring Dan’s hangar he took us over to Midwest Aeronautique LLC to meet Bob and Jim who are in the long process of restoring an aircraft from the 1940’s built by the Fairchild Aircraft Company.
This particular plane was built in the US as part of an US Army Air Force contract then shipped to Great Britain where it flew for the Air Transport Auxilary until the end of the war. After that it was sold to dentist in the Netherlands in the 60’s who flew it there. It went through tree owners before ending up with Jim and Bob and Aeronautique in 2001. They have been restoring this piece of history in their care since that time!! They showed us a picture of what the plane looked like when they bought it and it was literally a pile of metal and wood when they got it. What they have done since then is painstakingly restore every aspect of it by hand, and it’s truly impressive what they’ve done! They definitely have a passion for this project and it shows. They kids were enamored of the work they were doing and were thrilled to sit inside this piece of history! I, was personally stunned at how little holds these aircrafts together! It’s literally string, canvas, and tape! There’s some wood and metal in there too, but OMG, I don’t know how men and women flew these planes across oceans, in wars, and all other situations! Truly remarkable, and I know that I could never do it!
This aviator became the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic and mystery surrounding her death still baffles people to this day! Coming up next!
Studying Nellie Bly has been a treasure trove of learning for us! We left off in England in my last post. From there we continued to France where we made strawberry crepes, then we headed to Egypt and made some self portraits of ourselves as ancient Egyptian pharaohs. In the last two weeks we also got our first package from our monthly subscription to Little Passports to continue our world studies after Nellie Bly and we did a quick activity about how Nellie traveled, that is with one 16″x9″ bag for a 72 day trip! It was all capped off with a trip to our local train diner for lunch and the kids’ Festival of Countries program at their school! The kids had a fabulous time making crepes when we ‘visited’ France on our travels! It was a little messy, but they tasted great! After we did all the mixing, sifting and pouring of ingredients the kids had some time to just play at the table with some of the ingredients while I cooked the crepes. We finally cleaned up, added some strawberry, whipped cream, and chocolate sauce to our crepes, and sat down to eat! The recipe for the crepes(which really were fantastic) along with other links to the activities and materials can be found on my Pinterest page for Nellie. Our next activity on our trip ’round the world were ancient Egyptian pharaoh self portraits. The kids loved seeing themselves as ancient pharaohs and coloring their headdresses and tunics. I let their Festival of Countries studies at school take them the rest of the way around the world as life kind of got in the way of us doing it at home. 🙂
We received the first of our monthly activities from Little Passports, a subscription service that sends us materials to learn about a new country each month. The first kit introduces you to the hosts of your studies, Sam and Sofia, who are doing the traveling and sharing the adventures with you through: letters, stickers, maps, information, computer games and more. Each kit after that focuses on a new country and sends you new materials for fun and games while you learn.
Inspired by our kits from Little Passports, we decided to try an exercise in packing for travel. Nellie Bly traveled the world for 72 days with just one hand bag measuring 16″x9″ in size, about the size of a loaf of bread. The bag that I bought for our photo shoot was the same size and style as that bag. I thought it would be fun to see if we could pack for a two day trip to Grandma’s with that bag. We made a pile of items that we thought we would need to be away from home for two days. The kid grabbed pillows, blankets, clothes, toys, etc. Needless, to say, the items did not fit in the bag! They ended up narrowing down to just a few small items to take with them. My son didn’t seem to mind editing his pile, but my daughter was a little frustrated, lol!
We decided to wrap up our studies at Choo Choo Johnny’s, a local train diner for lunch. It seemed appropriate and was a lot fun! 🙂 We also got to see the kids perform at their Festival of Countries program which was really fantastic and included songs, dances, costumes and they brought home a ‘suitcase'(portfolio) of all their activities from their studies! We had so much fun learning this month and are looking forward to our next awesome lady, a real ‘fly girl!’ 😉
This blog was inspired by a post by Jaime Moore Photography titled, ‘Not Just A Girl….’ I saw this post shared on Facebook probably in December 2013 or January 2014. I found it so compelling when I saw the pictures and read about what she was doing with her daughter. I have two daughters of my own, one of whom will turn 5 this year and is mature, wise, and has a deeper understanding of things beyond her years.That post came at a time when I was, A) exploring and honing my photography skills, and B) realizing with each passing day that my little girls would not be little forever. Every book we read, conversation we have, and experience we share will one day be out of the realm of my influence. I need to make every moment count! Therefore, starting this year I wanted to begin a journey with my daughters that would be fun, meaningful, and something that we could: experience, learn and grow from –together. The idea is to learn about women throughout history who were/are influential, inspirational, powerful, smart, strong, trailblazers, or whom we just thought would be fun to know more about. We would learn together through reading, traveling, listening, watching and discussing these women–together. Our journey would be an opportunity for me to continue to practice my photography by capturing photos inspired by each woman that would encapsulate her for us as we take a step in her shoes.
Always be reminded that life is full of unfinished edges and to find the beauty in it.
Trundlebed Tales: Bringing Laura Ingalls Wilder, Children’s Literature, and History to Life
Laura Ingalls Wilder's Pioneer Girl
My writing workshop
This site is all about ideas
A photo journal chronicling a mother/daughter journey one step at a time.
A great WordPress.com site
Bridging the Gap
Just your average 32 year old diagnosed with E.W.S. at birth... AKA Excessive Writing Syndrome :)
Brian Marggraf, Author of Dream Brother: A Novel, Independent publishing advocate, New York City dweller
For lovers of reading, crime writing, crime fiction
about women who do amazing things
Tania Pripovski
** OFFICIAL Site of Artist Ray Ferrer **
Colourful Good Food & Positive Lifestyle
healthy vegan and vegetarian recipes
thích kể chuyện
A Step in Her Shoes 