USCL NASC & Historic Brattonsville

Today we visited two new places.  Gavin has been asking to go to places he's never been before so for the last 2 weeks we've been searching for new places. First we went to the USCL Native American Studies Center in downtown Lancaster.  They had a family friendly awareness event today.  We did not make it in time for the puppet show but we did see some Catawba potters, basket weavers and the best part were the Catawba drum and dance show.  The Catawba Indian Nation is the local Native American tribe.  The Catawba reservation is located near Rock Hill, SC.  The pottery they're known for is made from clay from the Catawba River.   Gavin and I enjoyed watching the drummers and dances but Liam was scared by the sound of the drums.  Nick ended up holding him in the lobby the whole time.  We left to get lunch and the weather wasn't as bad as we had expected.  We thought it would rain all day but it hadn't, just overcast and misty.  So, we took a chance and decided to give the farm day event a try.

Last weekend we visited the Rock Hill children's museum which was a huge hit with both boys.  We ended up paying for the annual membership.  At the museum we learned about historic Brattonsville and their "children on the farm" day event.  We were told it was only a 10 minute drive from the museum.  It was not 10 minutes, it was more like 30 minutes from the museum (about 45 from our house).  It seemed like an eternity coming from USCL.  As we are arriving at the farm, it starts sprinkling and we start thinking this was a bad choice but we pushed through.  Nick wasn't sure it was worth the trouble but Gavin and Liam were antsy, they'd been in the car for close to an hour and a half, we were almost out of snacks....they needed to get out of the car and burn some energy or we were going to have a miserable ride home.  The sprinkles stopped and we made it to the entrance.  At the end of it all, we were glad we tried it because it was fun and educational for the boys and us too.

Brattonsville is a 775 acre plantation that was lived in by 3 generations.  The Brattons were/are? a wealthy family of physicians.  They owned 80 slaves.  We learned that slaves typically lived in small wooden cabins/shacks on a plantation but the slave house at the Brattons was made of bricks- a sign of their wealth.

Throughout the property they have volunteers dressed as the people who lived in the plantation in the 19th century.  Our first stop was at the main house where we participated in (pretend) tea time and etiquette class.  I didn't think Gavin would enjoy this but he really liked it and played along with everything.  He learned to place his napkin on his lap to signal he was ready to be served.  He agreed to milk and sugar for his tea.  When he picked up his tea cup he said "ooh, it's heavy."  He learned that he needs to keep his dirty napkin on his lap and never on the table.  Gavin was really cute.  He pretended to drink his tea a few times and ate his pretend cookie.  We got to keep the napkins stamped with the Brattonsville seal as a souvenir.

Below, Gavin is learning to how cows are milked.

 Ringing the bell...

 The boys are watching the horses plow the field.  These horses were enormous!

 Walking around this farm really made us realize how much we need a backyard that the boys can just run around in.

 Petting "Easter" the bunny

 The boys never complained about it being cold even though it was 40 something degrees and wet.

Below: This was Gavin's favorite part (he later told us).  Gavin made his own candle stick.  The ladies handed him a stick with a thread for the wick and he was to dip the thread in the wax, then walk around the circle marked by the rope so it would dry, dip in the wax again, and repeat over and over until the wax dried and he made a candle stick the size he wanted (or in his case, until he got bored of walking in circles).
        

Overall, a great family day.  :)