Springfield Bass Pro Shop

After visiting the Laura Ingalls Wilder Museum, we all headed to the largest Bass Pro Shop in the country for lunch and more exploration. Our family loves Bass Pro Shop and we have visited quite a few of them across the country. The Springfield store has an alligator that Ali and Bella always run to first – to see if he has changed positions since our last trip (we have seen him blink, but have never seen him move around, and he seems to always be in the same location within the enclosure). The store is also home to many other live (and stuffed) animals, including alligator gar and snapping turtles. The restaurant, Hemingway’s, features a full menu and a very nice buffet.

Laura Ingalls Wilder Museum

We visited the Laura Ingalls Wilder Historic Home & Museum, in Mansfield, MO with our wonderful friends the Cobb family and the Wade family.

The tour begins with a walk through the museum, which houses many artifacts from the Ingalls and Wilder families.  Next we watched a short film; then went on guided tours of the two homes on Rocky Ridge Farm. 

 

Battle of Pea Ridge Sesquicentennial Commemoration

The 150^th anniversary of the battle of Pea Ridge was held March 9 – 11, 2012. 

Despite being outnumbered and outgunned, the Federal Army had great leadership and won the battle.  Pea Ridge National Military Park is the most intact Civil War battlefield in the United States, and covers 4,300 acres. The park offers hiking trails, horse trails, a guided tour road, a museum, an orientation film, and a book/gift shop.

  

Valentine's

Once a month, the American Legion Auxiliary meets for craft night to make tray favors for hospitalized veterans.  Ali, Bella, and I are members of Post 100, in Rogers. The members of the Legion and the Auxiliary keep very busy helping veterans and sending items to deployed soldiers.

The Auxiliary will be hosting our annual USO Follies at the Rogers Little Theater on Friday, May 4, 2012.  Seating is limited, so please send an email to me for ticket info.

Our church, Cross Brand Cowboy Church, hosted a Sweetheart Dinner. We served an Italian themed dinner, played “The Newlywed Game,” and watched the movie Courageous. 

Cross Brand is a great place for everyone (cowboy or not).  We meet at 6pm every Sunday, and have children and youth groups every Wednesday at 6:30pm. Once a month we have a potluck dinner.  We hold fundraisers, concerts, horsemanship shows, and our Buckle Series Play Days will be starting back up in May.

        

Crafts

The second Wednesday of each month, the Bentonville Public Library offers an origami class.  Ali and Bella really enjoyed learning the art of paper folding. Even though we live closer to the Rogers Library, the Bentonville Library is where we always go. There are many reasons we prefer it: the staff seems friendlier, they offer a wide variety of classes, they play a family friendly movie every week, they host plays, they have a cute little café, and they have homeschool classes every Monday. 

Every other Saturday, Lowe’s holds Build & Grow Clinics, which the girls LOVE.  Lowe’s provides a craft kit, mini hammer, apron, and goggles (notice how we forgot to bring the apron and goggles on caboose day).  A few of the projects we have created are: spaceship, music box, race car, dinosaur, and caboose.