Candy Cane Deer project

I just posted the instructions and supplies for these cute reindeer candy canes, on my What's in the Box? blog.  Thought I would let ya know in case you are looking for a simple, fun project to do this season.

Trip to the state capitol building and History Museum

We went to the state capital (Lansing) yesterday to tour the capitol building and visit the Michigan Historical Museum, as a part of our Michigan state history study. It is a beautiful building!  We took a self-guided tour but did listen in when the docent was talking to a group of elementary students (about the House of Representatives), saw the Senate in session (thankfully, they were done near the end of our tour so we could sit in the public viewing area and take pictures of that area) all the while learning about the history of this particular building.  We've been to Lansing on several occasions but never had the time to squeeze a visit in.  For anyone in Michigan, I highly recommend making the trip to tour it.

Standing dead center on the main floor, which is a thick glass tile, so when you come in downstairs, you can sort of see folks standing there, muted from the frosted glass, but crazy none the less.  These pictures simply do not do this beauty justice!

House of Representatives-they have the pink/maroon color scheme.  On the ceiling are etched glass state symbols from all 50 states-very neat.

Senate-blue color scheme.  There is an etched glass picture of the Mackinac Bridge (a student won the contest for that, like $2000 [not sure when that was tho] and that is the same amount that the architect earned for his sketches for the building back in the late 1800s).

Just one of the paintings on the upper rotunda. These were painted on canvas, then were glued to the panels.  Gorgeous.  I took pics of all of them (I think).

Had to kind of lean over the balcony to get this shot. You can see the details and beauty of the upper part here.  Love the stars.

Looking down from the top floor.  That is a class down there and those white tiles are the glass ones I spoke of.  This is crazy gorgeous.  The other floors have painted portraits of the past governors hanging all around the circle hall area.

I had!!!!! to take a picture of this.  I just wish more people would "get" that.  There are many more pictures I took, but didn't want to clutter up the post too much.  Even the door handles have the state seal on them-tried to get a pic but it was just too dark.  The lights are unique, the restoration they did here is amazing.  Again-if you can get here, do so!

We then walked the few blocks to the historical museum.  It was chilly and windy and I pray we don't get earaches or anything from it-very cold.  Anyhoo-we got there and walked through it.  We were greeted by a dude who obviously loves his job but he is sadly under the influence of the evolution/billions of year old earth thought.  My children were very gracious and didn't disagree with him (as that would be pointless and we were not there for a debate) but he kinda got the impression we were not buying the millions/billions part. LOL  I just wish they would leave the dates out-it happened a long time ago and that should be sufficient...but no-they have to toss that in.  Let the folks going thru decide that on their own.  UGH!  He at least told us how they extract the copper from the rocks and that was interesting.

He took this for us but didn't get all of the map of Michigan in it-it is huge-like 2-3 stories high huge.  We look like we are bearing the state of MI on our shoulders-LOL

This sits right by the entrance to the main part of the museum. 

The museum has a traveling display on the Civil War there (right now anyhoo) and that was a fun room to explore.  They has a telegraph machine pinging and on a computer screen you could read what it was saying.  It was dark in there so I didn't get many pictures and I had to have the camera on museum mode, which means they can be somewhat blurry...bummer-but hey it is the experience, not the pictures we are there for... 

Kind of a neat wall mural there...the drum in the case is obviously from the war, very beat up and yet-when you figure someone carried that into battle-amazing and sobering.

They had a tent set up with little folding chairs and canteens for the kids to play with-some coats/hats too but my children are too old for that-but I am sure the younger visitors love that part.

They also had many flags (that I found out after reading the literature we got from the capitol building tour) that were from the Civil War here (originally they were kept in cases in that circle area of the capitol building where you start your tour)-very humbling to see these too.

Had to have them in sealed rooms and no flashes were allowed so as not to further deteriorate them.

This is a funny one-it is in the area where they talk about law making or something (we are terrible at reading the info signs) and so when across the room from this display-it looks like the dude has wings!  But in reality-that is an eagle statue behind him-crazy huh?  The kids were digging this.  I will have to check the literature to see what this display was for.

They have an area that looks like you're heading into the copper mines-way cool (but extremely dark) and then you come into an area with all sorts of tools/mini house section to highlight what a home would be like, then you can go upstairs to a schoolroom and mini-house of the early 20th Century.  There were too many folks in there to take pics, but it is awesome.  We've been at least 2x before-each time is fun and again-I highly recommend it-especially if you are doing a Michigan history study. There is a small fee now to go thru, but it is not too bad.

We wrapped up our visit to Lansing by stopping in a local Zoup restaurant.  The Tomato Basil Bisque (I think that was its name) was delish-the sandwich not so much-but it was food and we were hungry after all that walking and touring.

I should note here that I am currently reviewing for HEF review team, the State History from a Christian Perspective from A Helping Hand.  It is a great program.  I am really impressed with it.  Sis is doing the upper level material and Bud is working through the Funbook.  I can't wait to share my thoughts on that soon.  In the meantime, you can find them here:  State History from a Christian Perspective  (I also have their 50 States Under God 3-12 and 3yrs-3rd and their Geography program to review!)  I will be sure to let you know when it posts.