A History Lesson

Today was a fairly mild day after having a couple of pretty chilly days.  I decided it was the perfect day to take the girls to go see the Arkansas State Capitol in all it's holiday decorations. 



Not only is it just a gorgeous building (even when it's not decorated), but it's where my husband and I got married.  So it was really neat to be able to take the girls to see where their parents tied the knot.


Right on those steps =)

I was worried that the girls would be totally bored with it, but they were just in awe of everything.  They loved all the marble and all the decorations were oversized, so they just thought it was magical.

 

Their patience with my camera wore out very quickly.  They just wanted to explore.  After we climbed all the staircases, we started to leave but the security guard stopped us and told us that if we went down to the basement, they had a little holiday scene set up for pictures down there.  I think that was the girls favorite part... a setting with a tree complete with presents, a little rocking chair with a doll, fake milk and cookies, and a rocking horse.  I didn't think I'd ever get them away.



Before we actually went into the Capitol, the girls saw a group of statues and went to explore them.  It's a memorial for The Little Rock Nine. 

 

As we left, the girls started asking me who they were, so we had a little history lesson when we got back to the van.

Now, I've never heard the girls ever talk about any of their friends being black or white.  It's just not an issue.  So it took me a minute to really think of how to explain it to them.  I told them that years ago, people used to have to go to different schools based on how dark their skin was.  Then they decided that people with dark skin could go to school with people with light skin and these statues are the first people who got to do that.  I didn't really feel that they'd understand the conflict surrounding the event, so we didn't go into that. 

Isabelle asked me what color skin we have.  I told you, it's just not an issue with them... they don't even know "black" and "white."

Olivia said, "That's stupid.  Elanea's hair isn't the same color as mine and we're still friends."  I loved that.  Skin color should have no more importance to people as hair color should.  Out of the mouths of babes....

If only we all had such a simple view on life.