I thought I’d pull it out and take some pictures of these family heirlooms.  I sent pictures to Andy’s mom, so I could get the history on where these came from.

They were actually her toys.  The house that went along with this furniture was stored in the attic and a squirrel munched on it. And the little plastic dolls {which had rubber bands in the joints} broke.  But the wooden furniture is still in great shape!

Since they were in the same box, I thought that maybe these figurines went with the dollhouse furniture, but they didn’t.  My husband’s great-great grandma and great-grandfather gave them to his mom.  They were from their childhood.  I’m not sure how old that makes them, but they’re in wonderful shape.  Aren’t they cute?

And so colorful!

Here you can see some of the furniture in more detail.  The vanities even have little mirrors on them.Do you have any old toys from your childhood?

Peter immigrated to the United States in 1888 and settled in Franklin, Renville county, Minnestota {big surprise that my Norwegian ancestors settled in MN, huh?}

Kvam was a farm in Inderoen, Norway – near Trondheim.

Peter’s sister, Pauline married Johannes Erikssen Kvam and I’m assuming that this is where they lived since she didn’t immigrate to the US like Peter did. What do you think – is this their house or perhaps just near where they lived?

Interestingly enough, Peter’s wife’s maiden name was Anna Margret Kvam.  I don’t know if she is related to Pauline’s husband or if perhaps they just lived on the same farm and took the same name.

I might be able to solve the mystery if I could actually translate the message on the postcard.  But it happens to be in Norwegian.  Which I don’t speak.  I can pick out the “Dear Brother” and “Your Sister, Pauline’” and something about a picture of Kvam, but that’s about it.

Does anyone out there know what this says??  Is it just small talk or is there something important there?

My husband is a great woodworker.  He sanded the old varnish off and simply oiled it down.  Isn’t it beautiful?  The last part of his project is putting a new cushion on the seat.  I love old furniture, especially pieces that have family history like this one.

My husband’s grandmother is selling her home and we drove up to pick up the piano which she gave us.  (I will post about that later, once I get  a nice picture of it.)

Here is a photo I took of her while we were visiting.  It’s hard to believe that she’s 95!!

While we were there, we found this school book, which belonged to her husband – Homer Lyle Weeks.  He attended Knowledge Hill School in Lawrence, Kansas.  The date inside the book is 1923.

I am always drawn towards books.  We have shelves upon shelves of them.  I know that I may live to eat my words, but I can’t imagine replacing all of my books with one of those new-fangled iPads or nooks.  I’m not against electronics of course.  I have an iPhone and a laptop.  I blog for goodness sakes. I just like the feel of a book in my hands while I’m reading it.

This book is one of the other things that we took home with us.  It is so special to know that Andy’s grandpa used this as a child – and that we’ll be able to pass it on to one of our children some day.

I can’t even begin to imagine how scary that must have been to get this letter. I have a husband in the Army, so I can sympathize.

I am just thankful that he was only wounded, or I wouldn’t be here today!!

Now they are packed away in a trunk and unfortunately we’re not sure who made them or who they belonged to. We know that they came from my mom’s mom’s side of the family, but that’s it.

Were they made by my great-grandmother? Maybe we’ll never know.

They are still family heirlooms though.

He received the Purple Heart.  My dad has it now along with this newspaper clipping.

I graduated in 1994 and I didn’t come anywhere near a Home Ec class. (of course now that I’m a stay-at-home mom of 5 kids I sure wish that I had taken it!!)

My mom graduated in the early 70′s and learned to sew well enough to make her own prom dress.

I am impressed – even if it is pink and has tacky colorful gems on it.

And here it is, complete with gloves and beehive hairdo to go along with it.  Love my dad’s ruffly powder blue shirt too.

What a good looking couple, aren’t they?? They were high school sweethearts and have been married for 38 years and going.

My mom remembers family get-togethers where he and others would pull out their harmonicas and just play.  What happened to those days?

I recall him playing it for us when I was a kid also.  I was always impressed that he could make music with it.  I only made noise.

My mom now has his harmonicas.  I thought that it was funny that one of them was an “Echo Harp” harmonica.  Isn’t that what Alvin wanted?

It is now in the possession of my mother and I took some pictures of it while visiting this August.

As you can see, it is starting to come apart in a few places, but for being over 100 years old, it’s in pretty good shape.