You've created a monster!!

 Two photo filled blog posts in one day!!!  Well, as it turns out, it was simply a gorgeous day.  Sadly, Bill was at work, but otherwise, today was a near perfect day.  I had the chance to work a little on my book while Liam was at soccer practice and Finn played on the playground.  The boys and I had lunch and then took an impromptu swing by the Hancock Shaker Village - they had a sign out that read, "Baby Animal Today."  How could we resist?

Before we left for soccer, though, we hung around the yard.  I love love LOVE the previous owner for planting literally HUNDREDS of flowers and plants.  Each week something new pops up.  Those creeping purple things are my current favorite.  This whole little garden area is so cute.  There is some kind of little purple plant that is not going to survive as Finn keeps picking them.

And here's another Britt-fashioned swing.  I can't have enough, I tell ya!

 Even Finny can manage...sorta

And now we're at the Hancock Shaker Village. I didn't get to stop and read about all the neat buildings and things as I was letting the boys set the pace (which is RUN-look at something neat for 3 seconds-RUN-repeat).  The stone round barn is a MARVEL.

Here, take a closer look:

All the baby animals were housed in the round barn.  It was awesome.  Finny loves the calves.

The little lambs were pretty cute and the piglets were hilarious.  Forgot to upload a picture of them.  They ran around us in their pen like they were in the Daytona 500.  It was crazy cute.

 SoCo creamery has a little ice cream shop strategically placed in a barn near the back of the village - perfect for when you are exhausted and hot from running after little ones up and down hills after turkeys and whatnot.  (They even had dairy free sorbet for Finn!  You cannot imagine my relief and joy over this one tiny detail...honestly.  Your child having to be left out sucks.  But today, we all enjoyed a cold treat together, yay!)

This was my favorite room.  The broom making room  in the Bretheren house.  The Shakers believed that there were 'women's duties' and 'men's duties."  Women had a whole house dedicated to making dairy, cream, and all manner of woven items.  The men made the amazing brooms, shoes, and super cool oval boxes (that sell for $38 a piece for the smallest one!!! And it's small!)  I would love to go back for a broom making demonstration.  You can buy brooms in the gift shop for what I thought was a reasonable price - $28-ish, I think.  Reasonable for a handmade beautiful broom.

 OOOO, these cloaks are right out of one of my favorite movies, "The Village." Honestly, I am pretty sure their village was based almost entirely one a Shaker village...had to be!

And so...this time, I swear, I'll lay off the camera for at least a few hours....