Thanksgiving Fun!

This past Wednesday Alec and Ashley took part in "Homeschool School's" Thanksgiving Re-enactment. The school really does a great job putting this on. They dispel a lot of myths about Thanksgiving and you really do learn a lot. This is their 2nd year of being in this play. Last year Alec was Squanto and Ashley was just a Pilgrim child. This year Alec was William Brewster and Ashley was and Indian named Squicone. It was very, very cold and both of the kids had on clothes under their costumes. It was so worth being cold though. They both had a wonderful time!

You stand in line and your tour guide takes you on a tour of "Thanksgiving."

Here we are with the Pilgrims on the Mayflower. You learn here that the Pilgrims were not Puritans but were Separatists. They came to the United States because they wanted to separate themselves from the English church and wanted to base their own church on a Biblical model. Notice my William Brewster in the middle.

Here we are at Plymouth Rock. We learned here that Plymouth Rock was not where they landed first. The actually landed somewhere in New York (they told us, I just forgot where), but it was inhabited by Native Americans, and the Pilgrims were afraid of them attacking them.

Here is our Indian village where we learned about Squanto and his role in helping the Pilgrims. We also learned that the Patuxet tribe was a peaceful tribe. Notice my little Squicone in the middle.

Here we are introduced to the only 4 Pilgrim ladies at the first Thanksgiving. Did you know that by the time they celebrated Thanksgiving only 4 women survived and they had to take care of 50 men and children!!! We also learned that Thanksgiving was not a religious holiday. It was a time of feasting, games, and celebration. If it were a religious holiday the Pilgrims would have spent the day in prayer and fasting.

Here we learned that the Pilgrims did not dress only in black and white like pictured in story books. The actually wore solid colors! Also we learned that they did not eat with forks, only spoons and knives. On Thanksgiving day there were 52 Pilgrims and 90 Indians.

Here is some of the food that was present at the original Thanksgiving. Some of it actually was not quite bad. The stewed pumpkin that is pictured here was pretty gross though. Jon tried some succotash and found a spot where he could spit his back into his cup without anyone seeing him:)

Squicone the Indian. They had a snack room where the children involved in the reenactment would be given breaks to go get a snack and drink. Just about every time I saw Squicone she was either running to the snack room or from the snack room. She then told me on the way home that the mom who sat in the snack room to supervise everything said to her, "Thanks Ashley for your company. I would have been very bored today if you would not have been in there with me." That's my Ashley!!!!

My Williams Brewster (see his GA Bulldog sweatshirt under his Pilgrim costume?) It was really, cold!

Jon and Hanna taking in all the festivities

As Alec and Ash were getting their costumes on that morning, I felt bad for Hanna Boo. She didn't have anyone to dress up like! So, I had to be creative. Who better to dress up like than the one her Daddy says she wants to be like? Her Mom! I was able to put together some matching outfits for the 2 of us! So Hanna got to go as "Little Mama in High Heels" I even sacrificed pulling my hair back for her, which I HATE the way my hair looks pulled back.