party like it's 1776

Christopher had Friday off so we kicked off our Independence Day celebration early. Our time here is quickly coming to an end and it seemed like a good day to cross visit Abraham Lincoln's birthplace off our lengthy to-see list. I dressed AB up in the first of her three patriotic outfits and off we went.

The cabin Abe was born in is located inside a replica of the Lincoln Memorial on the farm where he spent his first few years. Except that it's not the actual cabin he was born in. For many years they believed it was, but in 2004 it was confirmed that the logs were cut down when Abe was 40 years old. At this point the cabin was already inside the memorial and it's my personal belief they decided to leave the fake cabin because it would have been too much work to remove it. (For what it's worth, I also believe they could have figured out it wasn't THE cabin maybe, I don't know, 100 years ago. How hard is it to count tree rings?)

The area surrounding the memorial was very pretty. Annabelle entertained herself by pulling the flags off the plastic flagpoles. 

She used the flag as a tissue immediately after this picture.



Yesterday we took another trip to a recreated 1880's village. Annabelle was wearing THE CUTEST ruffled red shirt and blue pants with white stars that Christopher said made her look like a Vaudeville dancer. Whatever. Everything was going great until we were pulling into the parking lot and she threw up all her over my freshly cleaned car, her brand new car seat and the outfit that I never got a picture of. Between our TX trip and yesterday I have cleaned out enough gross car seats for the next decade. I told Christopher that I was really growing as a person by not being completely distraught over the fact she was now wearing a pink onesie with a bear on it instead of the outfit I bought her in April. I can still be a good mother even if she's not dressed to the nines. What a lie. Three minutes later I saw children in red, white and blue clothes and I was singing a different tune. I almost taped a sign to her chest letting the whole place know we she had just experienced an unexpected and catastrophic wardrobe malfunction. 

Somewhere along the way the people at Patti's 1880's Settlement got confused about what the 1880's were really like. Not one thing about the place was historic in any way, shape or form. For starters, there's was a mini golf course. I may not have been alive in the 1880's, but I'm fairly certain there wasn't much putting going on. There were a bunch of animals, a few shops and a little playground, but they all screamed "Built in the last 20 years." The only thing truly 1880 was the temperature. I'd say it was around 1,880 degrees.

Due to car difficulties we didn't make it to church today. That didn't stop us from breaking out outfit #3. You can't see it, but the white I wore was two new white hairs I found while doing my makeup.

Let's take a brief trip down memory lane to last 4th of July. I don't know why I always do this to myself. I swear we just took this picture last week.



I hope the skirt fits her next year. If not maybe I'll make it into a headband. What better way to celebrate your independence than a giant tulle bow sitting on your head.