Shelburne Museum

On Saturday, the Rowe household, joined by Nana and Gramps, visited the Shelburne Museum in Shelburne, VT.  It was a little slice of heaven for both my olden-days, history-loving daughters.  To start off, we visited the one-room schoolhouse from the 1840's.  For Julia, it was a reminder of her favorite school field trip to our town's Little Red Schoolhouse; for Madeleine, it was a first glimpse of history.  They were beyond excited to sit at the little desks and imagine themselves as 19th century pupils.  Their attire kind of gives them away, however:

From then on, every single building and exhibit we checked out brought joy and delight to Madeleine's heart.  In the Dutton house, built in 1782, Madeleine exclaimed in wonderment over the nooks and crannies filled with beds, cradles, and various antique furniture. In the gallery of old fashioned dolls, Madeleine was enthralled with the dollhouses; that is, until she declared loudly, "Let's go in ANOTHER room because it kinda SMELLS weird in here."

In the gallery of hand-made quilts, Madeleine exclaimed over the fact that "they MOVE!", as visitors could look through various framed quilts on a swivel.  Furthermore, we had this exchange:

ME: Madeleine, can you believe somebody made each of these quilts entirely by hand?  Every stitch?

MADELEINE: (gasping) EVERY STITCH?  On these MASTERPIECES??

As we moved on, Nana tried to warn Madeleine against the lodge displaying the stuffed remains of big game and forestry hunting, but Madeleine was bound and determined to take a look.  Luckily, she didn't seem to realize that the stuffed creations were once actually living animals, despite there being an entire room devoted to antlered heads hung on the wall.  The only thing that gave Madeleine the creeps were the bears.  Upon seeing a bear-skin throw rug, Madeleine skittered out of one room, exclaiming, "I'm afraid it's gonna come to LIFE!"  When she came up upon these three behemoths, her reaction was mixed:

MADELEINE: Aww!  They're so furry and CUTE, and (suddenly backing away with increasing panic while still talking) uh, okay, uh -

ME: You scared?

MADELEINE: Uh, KIND of - (scampering out of the building)

We also got to go aboard the ship Ticonderoga, and explore every area of ship, from the kitchen to the engine to the sleeping and dining quarters to the decks to the steering wheel.  Julia and Madeleine were particularly excited to pretend to captain the ship:

As you can see, one must suspend her disbelief to imagine she is really steering the ship out at sea, unless we are pretending the sea is made of grass and concrete, but that didn't deter these kiddos!

The only area that bored Madeleine was the old apothecary, or, as she put it, "Everyone's just, like, looking at empty bottles and stuff."  So while she and I hung out outside the building, we planned our next destination.

MADELEINE: Julia got to pick the schoolhouse and everyone else had a turn to pick where we went, and I didn't get a turn!

ME: What would you like to look at next, honey?

MADELEINE: Uh, let me think.  I know!  The JAIL, because I've ALWAYS wanted to see what a jail looks like and I've NEVER gotten to see one!

Now that is something to aspire to.  Off we went.  Madeleine even got to play prisoner, though she was not a fan of the rock-hard bed in her cell:

Our final stop was the Round Barn, which was full of horse-drawn carriages and sleighs.  Julia enjoyed perusing the various carriages, but Madeleine was too busy pretending to be a spirit who haunts the round barn to really pay much attention to the display.  She did manage to work one of the carriages into her ghost story, however.  

ME: So, are you a spirit from the olden days who used to ride these carriages?

MADELEINE: Yes.  I was in that carriage there, and there was traffic.  MUCH traffic, and the carriages weren't even MOVING, and we were stuck for DAYS with no food, so...I died.

She then inducted me into the spirit world to help her haunt the barn, and asked my back story.  Mine was a lot more boring than hers.

ME: Uh, I used to work at this museum, and then I got really old and I died.

Madeleine didn't care how lame my back story was, however.  She was just thrilled to have another spirit join the game, even though I just sat in a chair while she hid behind wall-hangings and in corners in wait of someone from her family to jump out at.  It was enough for her to occasionally run over to me and talk to me about her happy hauntings.

We hit the gift shop before we left the museum, and both girls got completely appropriate historical relics to take home: Madeleine got Silly Putty and Julia got Mars Mud.  Suddenly we were out of the olden days and into an intergalactic future in which Julia the Martian was playing all kinds of sneaky pranks on Madeleine, including turning Madeleine's mother (played by me) into a pig.  At one point, Madeleine ran up to where I was hanging out in bed to ask me a question, informing me that I had to answer like a pig.  Madeleine found my pig snorts acceptable and went running back to Julia.

MADELEINE: (in a faux British accent) I asked Mommy's permission, and she said yes!

JULIA: (in her faux Martian voice, which sounds more like a an Eastern European accent to me) How do you knows what she said?  If she's a pig, then she can't talk!

MADELEINE: (in a faux British accent) She snorted twice.  That means "yes."  I took pig classes.

Thankfully, I am no longer a pig, though the Martian game continued through much of our drive home.  The Rowe family is now back in the Rowe household and hoping to milk our one last day of the long weekend before it's back to the grind of work and school on Tuesday!