Love, Learn, Play: The Village is OPEN!

Greenfield Village opened yesterday!! I can't even begin to describe how grateful we are that this amazing little piece of history is right in our back yard, literally a five minutes drive away. Growing up, I didn't realize the historical value of Greenfield Village. I didn't understand that people come from all over the world to go to a place that my sister and I used to just ride our bikes to every afternoon. To us, it was just a fun place to go ride a carousel and eat the most Delicious frozen custard in the world. But as an adult, I am just in awe of the place. It's an unparalleled glimpse into so many different eras of our country. Moments in time- moments that changed time- things you just can't read in a history book.

I know it will be the same for our boys. Right now they LOVE the village because of the carousel and the train. But they also love the farm- they love watching the horses plow the fields and watching the baby lambs grow up. And they love the lawn games- the no batteries, no screens, no buttons to push good old fashioned fun games. So every time we go to these favorite spots (which is multiple times a week!), we try to talk to the boys about the history of these little gems... to teach them as young as we possibly can about how incredibly lucky we are to have these opportunities to see living history right before our very eyes. And someday, we'll teach them about the custard too :)

I promise that you'll see many more photo posts about Greenfield Village throughout the spring and summer as we enjoy our weekly trips and our favorite special events- the car shows, the concerts, the baseball games. Someday in the near future, you might even get to follow a special Paddock Family journey- as Jon wants to buy an old Model-T so he and the boys can restore it together and we can actually participate in the Old Car Festival instead of just going to it. But for now, here are some photos of our first 2012 trip to the Village... a cold and rainy April day, but a great day nonetheless!!!