It's Been a Long Time

I am so far behind on my blogging!  I can't believe it has been nearly a month since my last post.  I didn't intend to take such a long break, but it's been crazy around here.  So I'm going to try to catch up in a few posts on what all happened in July, then we'll move forward from there, okay?

 My last post was on the Fourth of July.  We continued to do more red-white-and-blue artwork with the daycare kids.  This was some marble painting we tried (this is one of the daycare kids).  I got distracted from posting because of a very large project we took on, which I am still not ready to post about.  We're moving our living and dining room areas into the garage and dedicating that space inside our house to daycare only.  I'm excited.  I have all sorts of preschool stuff that is new - lots of rugs, and tons of teaching materials.  I'll post all about that when it is up and going.

 In the mean time, we had our annual Green River Rendezvous - which is a celebration of sorts, or rather a commemoration of the old days when mountain men would bring their furs to sell, and traders and Indians would meet them.  It was really mostly a drunken party, which unfortunately it still is.  But we do have the Museum of the Mountain man, and a big parade, in addition to street vendors and all of the chaos.

So we took the kids to the museum.  It's a very well-done museum (though I like the one in the next town over with all the local history better ... not to mention, the local one is much bigger).  I guess it's not fair to call the other one local and not this one.  The mountain men were very local.  It is just that the county museum has things from original settlers and and businesses, which is  more interesting to me personally.  There are quite a few things from my husband's family in that museum, which makes it easier for me to relate to, I guess.

 Since I am in the process of remodeling the daycare, one thing that caught my eye was the canvas backdrop they used in this display - it's basically a piece of a wall tent, with charcoal artwork on it.

 I loved the idea ... especially since I can't paint a mural on our wall (we are renters).  I'm also considering building an old west town out of pieces of cardboard - just the false fronts of the buildings attached to the wall - out of painted cardboard.  That or maybe a group of horses running behind a corral fence.  My daycare is named "Little Buckaroos Daycare" so the theme would fit.

 Anyway, back to the museum...  They do have some pretty cool displays.

The kids' favorite part is the wildlife they have on display.

 And the eight year old was really impressed by the Indian headdress. He remembered it from being there before and was on the lookout for it through the whole museum.

 Of course the beaver hat and buffalo coat played a big part in making it profitable for mountain men to do their trading.  It's pretty cool to see a beaver hat in person after hearing so much about the history connected to it.

 The museum has an awesome kids' area under the stairs.

They have little stools with little saddles on top of them (wish I could find some of those for the daycare!)

 They have dress up items and all the kids' books they have in their gift shop.

 And they have this cool display unit with a plexiglass front - they have holes cut in the front so the kids can reach in and touch skunk hides, deer antlers, and all sorts of other items.

 This display doesn't have a hole - it's a bunch of marbles and a picture from the school house where they were found.  Marbles used to be a big thing.  I remember when my Grandpa got alzheimers, he would talk about marbles and shoot invisible ones in the air.  Must have meant a lot to him at one point in his life.

 One of the funnest parts of the kids' area is Fort Nonsense.

 It is sided with log so it looks like you're really in a cabin.  I'd love to do something like this in the daycare ... if only I had the space for it.  Guess I'll have to stick with a fabric-covered card table version.  (What I really need to do is build something with loft space.  We have 10 foot ceilings, so there is plenty of space for double - deck play space.)