Happy Birthday Lili!

Our little Lili turned seven this week. For several months we have been planning to visit Plimouth Plantation for her birthday. It was great, and despite some drizzly weather, we had blast and learned a lot.

This is the replica of the Wampanoag site...the structure in the middle of the field was a treehouse for the kids to play in and help scare animals away from the corn...pretty cool...

Thanks to an emphasis on "cultural sensitivity" in the museum's literature, my little rule-follower Lili was terrified of offending the Native Americans who were at the Wampanoag site. It was kind of confusing, because the people dressed up as the English colonist are role playing, but the "Wampanoags" are of Native descent, and although they are in 17th century garb, they are NOT role playing. So this whole thing kind of stressed Lili out and she was overheard repeatedly telling Audrey, "Just don't say ANYTHING to the Indians, Audrey!!!" I guess Lili was worried Audrey would display her knack for brutal honesty and say something offensive. She needn't have worried. This was actually the most enjoyable part for me. All the people working there were really talkative and interesting.

The Pilgrims however are a little more difficult to talk to because they are pretending to be actual people who lived in the 17th century and seem think it is no big deal that they lost a couple of kids during the last winter etc.

It was pretty amazing to think of these people surviving the winters in these tiny one room homes...at one point my mom asked Audrey if she would like to have been a Pilgrim girl and she looked around and said seriously, " I would NOT like to have a floor made of dirt." and then, glumly, "Why did we come here?" Later on we were using the restrooms in the gift shop and I said to Audrey, "I didn't see any bathrooms in those tiny houses, I wonder how the Pilgrims wen to the potty?" Audrey looked concerned for a minute and then her face brightened, "They probably just came in here!"

Some cute little goats staying out of the drizzle.

Kateri loved the people watching.

I thought it was really cool how you could see the ocean from the site.

We also got to go onboard a replica of the Mayflower, which is anchored in Plymouth Harbor, and then it was off home for enchiladas and Princess Birthday Cake...all in all not a bad birthday for our sweet firstborn!