Freezing Friday Field Trip!

Yesterday, Laura, Allen and I headed to Manassas to Mayfield Fort for a field trip. my momwas kind enough to come and watch Joey and Anthony. We got there early enough to drop off 6 bags of donations at Good Will then we had to find the fort. I was the first person to find it. It was tricky to find. It was a very windy, cold morning!! Our trip was to one of the last two earthen forts in the area. The docents met us in the parking lot. They told us how the Confederate army took over this farmland when the family who lived there decided the war was too close for comfort and left. They had to get Navy seamen there because they were the ones who know how to use the weapons that were there. They also used Quaker weapons(fake guns) to trick upcoming armies. Allen was able to answer one solution as to why they would want to build the fort where they did. It had to do with the shape as well as the nearby railroad. At the top of the hill was a Confederate soldier reenactor. The kids learned about his uniform. They also took positions around the cannon and acted as infantry. Allen got to give out the shell. Laura got to pretend to fire the cannon. Then they learned about signal flags and practiced spelling out words. The flags were red with a white square and there were numbers for each letter. It was a interesting trip. There would have been more activities but it was so cold that is all they did. We enjoyed ourselves and the kids would like to go back on a warmer day. We met Allen for lunch and went to Burger King.