Battle of Blue Springs

I took off work on Friday to go on Davis' field trip with him. All of the intermediate kids (grades 3-5) went to the Battle of Blue Springs in Greeneville, TN. It was basically a reinactment of the Civil War times and how they lived and fought back then. Cindy, Jessica and I decided we would carpool and one of Cindy's neighbors rode with us also, Tao (I hope I spelled that correctly). We had a blast chatting and hanging out until we got to the 'battlefield' and Cindy's son Tucker was in a separate group than our boys so she was split from us. :(
Here is how they started out...they made them line up in a straight line, no talking, and this little guy yelled rather loudly if they didn't do it correctly. Us mothers wanted to take him home with us and let him boss them around there too! ;)

There are Davis and Noah waiting patiently in line. Aren't they cute...both wearing their Wildcats football sweatshirts??

Brayden...Jessica's son...wasn't in the best mood at first but he snapped out of it very quickly.

Cheese Davis!!!

Davis and Noah posing for me.

There were many horses and let me just say...that was the MOST horse manure that I have ever had to dodge in my life! Jessica and I were thoroughly disgusted with having to step over it every 2 steps...yuck!

I forget who these guys were...I remember one was Stonewall Jackson and the one talking (not pictured) was Robert E. Lee.

Here is Davis' teacher, Mrs. Cook.

Every 15 minutes or so, the cannon would fire and we would switch stations. This station was a lady talking about how they lived and cooked and so on. I was SO embarrassed here because my cell phone rang...yes I forgot to put it on vibrate...so Duffer's lovely ring tone blasted. It is the song, Let's get it on by Marvin Gaye and I could have crawled under a rock and DIED!!!! Jessica laughed for about 20 minutes because of how embarrassed I got. Anyway, they called Mrs. Cook and Mrs. Pruitt up there to help sing some song about Goobers and peas or something.

These tents were everywhere. I am so glad I didn't live back in this time...give me my AC anytime over this!

Our next station was the photography section...of course about the only thing that interested me. This was what the cameras looked like back then...he sat his hat on top for no particular reason. Although it was very interesting hearing how they took and developed pictures back then, I will never give up my digital photographing!!

This is the camera man guy...with his hat on he resembled Abraham Lincoln.

All of the students in our group lined up as if they were going to battle and then they actually had them charge the field. The kids loved doing this!

Next stop....can you tell what it is??? This is the medical center/hospital. That is why they have both flags in hopes of preventing attacks on them. This was very interesting also...

The first thing he showed us was this gadget used to pull teeth...and Davis is scared with us pulling them out with our fingers...if I only had this little tool!! hee hee hee

These two were used to cut and pull back the flesh of arms and legs whenever amputation was necessary. All of this was told to us just before we ate lunch...isn't that lovely??

Here are the saws used to cut bones during amputations.

More instruments....

Lunchtime!!! I snapped a picture of Cindy because Tucker wanted her to eat lunch with him so she came over, made her sandwich and split! She will kill me for posting this wonderful picture of her but it was the only one I got...sorry girl, you know I love ya!

Davis, Noah, and Hunter eating lunch. We had crickets jumping all over us -seriously, there were hundreds of them - while we were eating.

Here is Tao...her son Keagan is in Davis' learning center also. I didn't know her until this trip but she was hilarious!! We had fun taking pictures because she had a nice camera like mine only hers was a Nikon. Jessica is depending on me for pictures...since I didn't post them all I will send them to you through Kodak, Jessica!

Here is Jessica...I caught her with her mouth full, SORRY! I had a lot of fun hanging out with Jessica because it has been about a year since we had really hung out together. Let's not wait so long again this time!!

After lunch, we walked around the little stores and bought some Kettlekorn...YUMMY!!!! Davis and I ate the whole bag before the end of the day!! The first stop after lunch was to the cannons and this was the kids favorite part of the day.

This man explaining the cannon process and how they worked resembled how my dad used to look years ago. ;)

Davis watching about the cannons but checking to see where I am...he is sitting beside Keagan.

I can't even remember what this guy talked about since Jessica and I were chatting the entire time.

Brayden was looking around checking things out so I snuck in a shot of him.

The cannons as they were firing...I took these from the next station...another reason I didn't know what the man was talking about.

Noah's mom, Becky, and Noah. She left a little early to pick up Noah's brother, Ben and then they were going to DB's away game at Sevier Co.

Davis, Noah and Hunter walking to the next and final station. I can't believe how chilly the weather stayed all day.

Again, not sure what these men were talking about since I was too busy talking...us parents were pretty much ready to go at this point. The kids loved the horses though and even got to pet them in the end.

One of the men on the horses...it was funny because he has some odd accent that we couldn't figure out where he was from. We all loaded back in our cars and on the buses for the long (1 1/2 hour) drive home. Cindy said she pretty much needed a gurney (sp??) after all that walking!! LOL!!