Our Daily Bread: Missouri and Star Wars

I had a great trip visiting my mom last weekend. The drive up to Missouri from Little Rock was very nice because I was driving through the Ozarks and all the trees were changing their leaves. I made it to my mom's a little later than I intended but that seems to be the way things are now. I used to be on time and prompt for everything, but since I married Ben I've become a bit more lackadaisical about being on time.

Mom's house was not ready to take pictures yet so we hung out, went shopping at Lowe's for stuff for her house, and plenty of trips to Target. We also stopped off at a petstore called Petland that had a lot of puppies that you could play with. It was so fun! I played with a Rottweiler (who wanted to chew my shoes) and a sweet little Dachshund. I also got to pet a bunny and some little Chinese Jumping Mice. I have to say, I like playing with puppies and then leaving them at the store instead of taking them home. Maybe that will help me get over my wanting another puppy syndrome!

On Monday we drove two and a half hours to Mansfield, MO to see the Laura Ingalls Wilder Museum as well as her house on Rocky Ridge Farm. We watched a short video and then toured the home. We also got to see a lot of Laura and Almanzo's old things like clothes and household items. It was so neat to see some of the things she wrote about like her bread plate that says, "Give us this day, our daily bread", and the clock that Almanzo gave her. Here are some pictures from the trip:

Sign near the museum.

Laura's first house, the original Rocky Ridge Farm house. It took them 17 years to complete the house..

Laura's second house that their daughter had built. They moved back to their old house later.

View from the rock house. It was so beautiful!

On Wednesday was Halloween. We didn't dress up last year so I really wanted to dress up this year. Lauren always has a theme with her kids and this year's theme was Star Wars. James was Luke, Eliza was Leia, and Brian was Yoda. I decided to dress up like an Ewok, but I have no sewing skills so Lauren helped with my hood and shirt and Ben finished the hemming. Ben couldn't think of a costume so I finally came up with young George Lucas so he found a flannel shirt, wore his jeans, and some glasses that I poked the lenses out of. I thought we all looked great! We met up at Trunk 'r Treat at Parkway Place Baptist and got to see my parents-in-law, brother-in-law, Gerald, and Adrienne and Emma there, too. Gerald was dressed like Han Solo, so all we were missing was Chewbacca and the droids.

Here are those pictures: