Maine Maple Sunday is always the 4th Sunday in March (although some farms have activities, demonstrations and samples on Saturday as well).
Oh, wait, you're NOT from Maine? What is this we are talking about? Do you kids think that Maple syrup comes from the grocery store? (or, worse yet, they have never had 100% REAL boiled from sap syrup??). If this is the case, Maine Maple Sunday is a great time to get out, educate your kids (and yourself)
In a nutshell, this time of year, when temps are above freezing, sunny and "warm" (well, this is a relative term for Spring conditions here in Maine) during the day, and then dip back down below freezing at night. sap in maple trees can be (literally) tapped and collected in buckets. This sap is then boiled down (at a ratio of approx 40 gallons of sap to make ONE gallon of syrup), and made into syrup.
check your local farms and/or sugar houses, often they welcome any and all to check out the maple syrup making process and offer samples - YUM.
We're heading here on Sunday (last time we went to MMS here, our youngest was still in my belly!!) A Wrinkle in Thyme Farm in Sumner (lots of fiber animals to see there too!!)
We LOVE to go on trips, but with a business (KidsTravelHappy.com!) not even 2 years old, kids in soccer, swimming, and part-time work of my husband (he teaches during the school year), sometimes it's difficult to find bigger chunks of time to do things.
As a result, we've adopted a new strategy for the summer, and have had some great times taking our 21' Class C RV to somewhat local events and making a mini-vacation/weekend out of it.
Recently, we went to Bread & Puppet in Glover, Vermont. It's an incredibly talented group of folks, and admission is FREE (they do 'pass a hat' which is so worth contributing to). There is also 'cheap art' for sale, and tons of thought-provoking posters, postcards, books and other things to help the organization "cheap art and political theater in Vermont" (as they like to call themselves).
(part of the "pageant" in the fields)
This theater group has performances all summer, and although some of the messages are beyond the comprehension of young kids, the 'performance' is visually so entertaining, they won't even know they've missed something. We had our 4 and 7 year old boys there (along with 3 other families of friends with kids), and the kids did well for the first 3-4 hours (then, we decided to go). We were there on a nice weather day and being outside really helped the kids! Don't forget sunscreen, snacks, drinks, and activities for the kids.
The moral of the story? This was only a 2 hour drive for us, and we went over on a Saturday, camped on friends' land, then to the show all afternoon Sunday, and home that night. The kids (more or less) entertained each other outdoors at the 'camp' and the adults were able to enjoy some (periods of) adult conversation, tasty food and beverages.
And, next weekend? We're heading to a family-friendly Blue Grass Festival.... more on that soon! :-)
Maine Maple Sunday is always the 4th Sunday in March (although some farms have activities, demonstrations and samples on Saturday as well).
If this is the case, Maine Maple Sunday is a great time to get out, educate your kids (and yourself)
