Mahaffie Stage Coach Stop

 Last Thursday we went to Mahaffie Stage Coach Stop here in Olathe. It is a visitor center and restored farmstead along the old Santa Fe Trail.

 The had "rubber band" cannons and taught the kids about how cannons were used during the Civil War and they got to try to hit the target.

 Inside the farmhouse we went to the kitchen in the basement and helped make lemonade. We learned about all the chores that children would have done and some of the things that would have happened in the kitchen from cooking to cleaning to canning and food storage. They even showed us how to make pickles. The kids LOVED it.

 There was a horse treadmill the kids got to walk on. They learned about "horsepower" and how they thrashed grain.

 We played some games in the "front" yard. The stilts were hard to do.

 Kathryn's favorite part was having a "goat cart" ride! You would have thought she was the Queen of Sheba.

 Boys in the cart.

 They had a cannon that they would fire "blanks" from. The kids got to help "prep" the cannon and learn about the different jobs on the cannon crew. Kathryn was #1 in charge of the "worm" cleaning out the cannon.

Spencer was #5 the ammo bringer. He would carry the "ball" in his bag from the ammo case to the cannon. They really liked our time there and even though it was hot we were glad we went.