Sarah was in her red bandana phase for this trip (she
has since gotten her hair cut very short) and was sometimes full of
mischief. She's almost as tall as me now--but not quite.
Faith had an extra week on hand as part of her REI timeshare, and so decided to take a trip to Williamsburg. Bob and Alicia couldn't go, so she invited Sarah, Tegan and me. Walter had to work. She had been back to Williamsburg a couple times and had lived in Virginia for a year, but I hadn't been there since I was about 12 (and even then we didn't go to Colonial Williamsburg, just to Jamestown).
We got a large condo a mile up the road from the town. We appreciated the fireplace, deck and kitchen. The kids appreciated the huge jacuzzi, two TVs and the condo pools. In fact, they decided to spend a day at the condo just "hanging out" while Faith and I walked (and shopped!) all over Colonial Williamsburg.
Faith had signed us up for a special "Felicity" tour. Felicity is a character in the "American Girl" series of books and dolls. Her character is set in colonial Williamsburg, so the tour was about what life was like for a girl of Felicity's age in the late 18th century. Our tour guide was a personable young man dressed in the requisite garb and our tour took us through many aspects of colonial life, including lessons in deportment, tea and conversation, and sewing, with Miss Mannerly.
Sarah was in her red bandana phase for this trip (she
has since gotten her hair cut very short) and was sometimes full of
mischief. She's almost as tall as me now--but not quite.
At one point
in the tour the girls got to pull a buckect of water from a well. It
took six of them to pull it up, but then Sarah wanted to try it by
herself, and she did it! Of course she and her cousin Meredith had to
try out the stocks and everyone (especially Natalie!) had fun trying
to roll the wooden hoops.
Tegan had a good time, too. The
younger girls were encouraged to wear colonial dresses for the tour.
Faith made a lovely dress for Natalie and I decided I'd have to do
the same for Tegan. Of course, I wanted to make something
historically accurate! So I went digging for 18th century sources. I
knew she would not want to wear hoops so I settled on a modified
saque-back dress. Instead of a corset I interlined the bodice, even
made the appropriate hidden lacing in the inside back. She was used
to wearing a chemise with her medieval dresses, so I made one of
those, too. It was fun to do but as usual I wasn't done before the
trip so ended up sewing all the way down to Virginia. Luckily, Faith
didn't mind doing the driving.
Tegan took her turn in the
stocks, but the picture with the sunflower and in the garden is from
my Mom and Dad's house after we got back from the trip.
