When looking for activities to do over the course of Family Weekend, students and their families can make their way to the Lincoln Log Cabin for this year’s Harvest Frolic.

The Frolic will kick off with a 5K run or walk 9 a.m. Saturday followed by a list of activities including crafts, contests and demonstrations depicting the way of life during the nineteenth century.

Claire Eagle, the Lincoln Log Cabin graduate assistant who helped coordinate the event, said this is a family event featuring many activities geared toward the younger family members.

Among the activities for kids offered, there will be a pie-eating contest, craft-making of corn husk dolls, soap carving, and a dipper cup race.

“Some people think that it’s just coming out and looking but there’s a lot more than that,” Eagle said.

Eagle said the Frolic offers more than just walking around and looking at the different volunteers dressed up in traditional clothing from that time, and instead families have the opportunity to interact with living history and get a sense of what it was like living during that time.

“All of the artisans we have will be doing demonstrations,” Eagle said. “We have a blacksmith; we also have a broom maker (and) so many different kinds of stuff. We’ll have oxen out here so they’ll be able to see an oxen demonstration and basically what he’ll do is hitch them all up and you’ll be able to see them (the oxen) carry stuff and go across the field. Most of the time if there’s kids around, he’ll kind of show the kids more in depth.”

Eagle said it is very eye-opening to be able to see what it was like living during that certain time period.

“I’m a history buff, and I have been involved with history for a long time, but I worked out here for the summer and really being out here, cooking in front of a fire, not having air conditioning it’s a lot different and you didn’t really expect it to be,” Eagle said.

Eagle said the experience would definitely give those who attend a different perspective.

“When people see this kind of stuff done, they have more of an interest and more of an appreciation for the time period,” Eagle said.

The Frolic will run from Saturday into Sunday and also host a presentation from reenactors depicting Gen. Ulysses S. Grant and Civil War photographer Alexander Gardener.

Analicia Haynes can be reached at 581-2812 or achaynes@eiu.edu.