Utah History Year

Fourth grade is the year designated for the students to learn all about Utah history, geography and geology.  It makes for a fun year for the kids.  Last fall Blythe's class went on a field trip to Antelope Island and right before Thanksgiving they had a day long Mountain Man Rendezvous. At the rendezvous all the kids dressed up as either pioneers, indians or mountain men.  They did a square dancing demonstration and did some crafts and ate apple crisp and topped it off with a trading post in the afternoon.  Each child brought in some type of item to sell.  Some make dream catchers, others made bead necklaces or scented sachets.  Other more modern items included music mixes on CDs.  They had earned "beaver bucks" in their classes that they could use to buy things with or they could barter.  

This month the 4th grade went on a field trip to the This is the Place Heritage Park.  I was one of the chaperones and heard it declared the best field trip ever, despite the fact that one girl in Blythe's class threw up on two other girls while we were in the Blacksmith's shop.  The final event was the 4th grade singing concert.  All the classes had learned songs all about Utah.  The songs mentioned everything from Brigham Young and the Mormon pioneers to the Olympics, to the meeting of the trans-continental railroad in 1869 to all the counties in Utah.  The kids were given the option of dressing up again and about half of them did.  

Last fall I supplied not just Blythe, but also her two best friends with their pioneer clothing.  All three dresses had belonged to me when I was about their age.  So I got calls from the girls again asking if they could borrow the dresses again.  Well, it had been a full 6 months since they had last worn them and Blythe no longer fit in the dress she had worn and her friend Madison, likewise had outgrown the dress she had worn last fall.  Luckily, Kaelena still fit in hers.  So Madison wore the dress that Blythe had worn and I had to come up with a new outfit for Blythe with one day's notice.  Fortunately for Blythe, my Mom is much handier with a sewing machine than I am.   From my stockpile of costumes in the basement I found a red and white checked skirt that my Mom made for herself sometime after she was married.  The waist just tied to fasten, so it was easily adjusted to Blythe, but my Mom was able to quickly put a tuck in the skirt so it wasn't too long.   We also found an old petticoat of mine and an old bonnet and she wore one of her own shirts.  Blythe ended up looking like a cute pioneer girl after all.  

The kids just before the concert started.

Blythe is on the back row in the middle. 

After the concert, wearing the bonnet

which she refused to wear while singing.

Blythe and her friend Madison.

A full length shot of the two girls.

Madison opted to not wear the bloomers.

Blythe wearing the dress last fall at the Rendezvous.

You can tell it was a bit small even then.

Blythe square dancing at the Rendezvous.

Barrett saw this picture of Spider-man outside the music room at Blythe's school and wouldn't leave until I'd taken his photo with it.  He and James are very into Spider-man now and I just bought him three new Spider-man t-shirts to wear this summer.  He still loves Cars, but Spider-man is coming in a close second.  I tried to video some of Blythe's concert, but Barrett wouldn't stop bumping me, so I gave up after about 30 seconds.  School is out this Friday.  I can hardly believe another school year has gone by and my girls will be in the 3rd and 5th grades next year!