As you learned from my earlier column about my obsession with thrifting, I am preoccupied with anything “old”. I've always been a nostalgic person and was fascinated with the garage attic at my grandparents and my mom's stash of her childhood toys. I remember many nights spent using her Charlie Brown projector that came with the circular slides of The Waltons and Frankenstien (quite the range I know!) I used her original Easy Bake Oven and played with her vintage Barbies. I was realizing the other day how blessed I and my kids are that both my and my husbands parents were sentimental enough and had adequate space to hang on to the majority of our childhood toys.

In my living room sits a mini formica table and chair set that was my husband's and his sister's that my son now sits at daily to draw and colour. When I learned I was having a girl I was overjoyed that I'd be able to pass on to her my amazing two story Barbie home complete with a veranda, spiral stair case, bay window, and all hand made furniture that my parents made for me for Christmas one year.

This week it'd be great if you could take your kids somewhere that has a sense of history to it. It could be somewhere personal like the barn or forest that you played in as a kid (I still love to visit the woods at my grandparents where my mom's tree forts are all still standing) or it could be a historical site in our area. When I first moved to Estevan I accepted the position of the NWMP Museum Coordinator. I know it's changed a lot since I ran it but I know there are loads of artifacts and displays about the NWMP in this area. The Souris Valley Museum also has a lot of great displays that tell quite a tale. If you start asking around I think you'd also be surprised at some of the “personal museums” out there. Today I had a great time walking through a mini “street” of old buildings like a hotel, Co-op Store, and farmhouse filled with antiques on the farm of our friends Calvin and Gloria Johnson. At one point she made a comment about how the grandkids loved to come out here and play and I responded, “Well of course – I'm almost 30 and I want to come out here and play!”