Flowing Well Park, A Return to Conner Prairie, and Some Fall Odds and Ends

This is a continuation of a fall travel series.  If you missed any of my previous posts you can find them here:  Bird Watching at the La Crosse Marsh, A Return to Galena Illinois, A Visit to the Lincoln Home, A Visit to the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum, and The Lincoln Tomb and Historic Springfield,Turkey Run State Park, and Fisher's AgriPark Fall Festival

Today wraps up my fall midwest travel series, and just in time for my Christmas blog break!  If you missed any previous travel posts of our fall vacation, just click on any of the links in the first paragraph.

In this post, I am covering just a few more fun activities we did while visiting the kids, along with our Thanksgiving break.

Conner Prairie Kiln

                           Flowing Well Park

One of the activities we did with the grandkids was to go to "Flowing Well Park".

"Flowing Well Park" is a sweet little park in Carmel Indiana that has an artesian well which visitors are free to bring their empty water jugs and "fill up".  My kids do this on a weekly basis because they believe the water is so much better to drink than city water.  But in addition to the free artesian water, the park also has a mile long nature trail through the woods and along "Cool Creek". The creek is a great spot for fishing and wading.

The grandchildren love wading in the creek and finding seashells and rocks.

The nature trail through the woods is pretty cool too!  It's the perfect size trail for little feet!

Conner Prairie

I already did a very extensive post on Conner Prairie HERE, so I will not elaborate much more except to say that this is a place that constantly has new programs and activities every weekend and throughout the different seasons.  We went back in the fall because they had a lot of fall activities, plus they have a huge fall festival.   One of the events on the day we were there was was their "Kiln Burn" which they only do ONE day out of the whole year, and we were lucky enough to be there on that day!

But first, we took some time to grab more family fall photos.

And now, onto the kiln burn.  This was fascinating, and scary to watch.  We couldn't believe the heat, and the fire and smoke that came out the top.  Be sure to watch the video below to really get the full picture,

After the potter forms the pottery, it is placed in the fire. Yes, right inside that very hot fire!  We could see the pottery live but it's hard to find in the photo and video.  The staff, dressed in period costumes, explain the process and fuel the fire...and they were hot and sweaty, let me tell you!  It's not a job for the faint of heart.

They also sell the finished pieces on site.  They are pricey, but the proceeds help support the Museum.  I purchased a small mixing bowl for $30 and a soup mug for $22.  I use them a lot too!  They are so strong!

This is the building where the kiln is located.

Of course Atticus' favorite part is always the carpentry shop.  Here he was learning how to make a rake.

Elisha enjoyed exploring the old town wagons and stores.

Thanksgiving

The kids came up to us for Thanksgiving.  Baby Lazarus isn't crawling yet, but somehow he manages to move around and found himself under my curtains, of which we proceeded to play a game of peek-a-boo.

The grandkids were up early and played hard everyday.  They often fell asleep wherever they were at.

I make the same "3 Cheese Ball" every holiday because it is a family favorite, but this was the first time I turned it into a turkey.  The grandkids and I had a lot of fun making this turkey.

The kids have been dying to see "Moana 2" so we decided to treat them to their very first movie theater experience.  Their reaction was priceless:

They really enjoyed having their own reclining seat, especially Elisha,  he would not stop playing with those buttons! 😆

We had the tradition meal of turkey, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce, rolls, beans, corn, and stuffing, plus our special occasion beverage:  Sparkling Juice!  Everything tasted great.  The grandkids especially loved my "Make Ahead Potatoes" which are loaded with cream cheese, sour cream, and butter...what's not to love?  😆

 All in all it was a great Thanksgiving week and a great fall!  So much to be grateful for.

See you in 2025 with my newest travel series:  "Yellowstone and More!"

Have a Great Day!  Amy

Linking Up with these Fabulous Blogs HERE!

Easy Handmade Christmas Cards Using Stickers

Spellbinder's had a HUGE warehouse clearance sale in November so I took advantage of that and ordered a whole box of new toys.  One of the things I ordered was a $1.00 set of Nutcracker Ballet Chipboard Stickers.   You heard me right, $1.00!!! And guess what, they are still only $1.00 as I write this post, so you may want to scoop them up as they are cute!

So far, I managed to make four cards and two tags out of the sticker set, and I still have some stickers leftover.

Stickers today are not the same as stickers when I was a kid. Today's stickers have so much more interest, detail, and dimension.  They are so attractive looking, they are perfect for making quick and easy cards:  no stamping or coloring involved.  Anyone can do it!

My first two cards are my own design, and the last two cards I cased from the Spellbinder website which always has great ideas of how to use their products.

Christmas Ornaments Card

To make this card, I used the ornament stickers in the set and placed them on the white panel in different lengths.  I added gold twine to 'hang' the ornaments, and I used two red bow stickers for two of the ornaments and I created a gold bow out of the twine for the third ornament.  The "25" sentiment is also a sticker from the set.  I put some pretty Christmas designer paper in the background and added four rhinestones in the corners of the white panel.

Christmas Stocking Card & Tags

My next card uses a mix of stickers from the Nutcracker set, plus some Circuit cut outs and other stash I had lying around my craft room.  The stitched border was done with this month's latest Stitching Die:  "Cross Stitch Nested Card Front and Tag"

To make this card, I cut a Christmas stocking using my Circuit machine then I just filled it with a lot of the stickers from the Nutcracker set.  I added a foam snow man, and more images I cut with my Circuit machine in the bottom right corner, along with the sentiment. The evergreen foliage is from another Spellbinder's set.  Adhesive crystals and snowflakes were added for embellishment.

To make the tags, I simply cut them out, stitched them, stamped a sentiment and Christmas image, and then added an eyelet to the hole. 

The edges of the card and tags were stitched using one strand of red embroidery floss.

My last two cards were inspired by the cards on the Spellbinder's website.  The layout is the same, but because I didn't have the exact same supplies the designer paper and sentiments are different. 

                           Nutcracker Card

To make the first card I simply stuck the stickers onto the white card stock base that I cut with a Spellbinder's die.  Then everything was adhered to a pretty Christmas designer paper adhered to a white card.

Speaking of The Nutcracker, has anyone watched the new Ben Stiller Christmas movie "Nutcrackers" on Hulu?  It is so good.  The children in the movie dance their own version of The Nutcracker at the end of the movie, and it is so touching. It's hard not to cry!

Mouse King Card

To make the second card I adhered the stickers to a light blue card stock, then I put some glittery Christmas designer paper below and separated the two panels with a silver ribbon.  The simple card is finished off with a sticker sentiment and poinsettia flower.

 I hope you enjoyed my easy handmade Christmas cards and you will try making your own cards out of stickers too!  Only one pack of stickers made all these cards!

Have A Great Day!  Amy

Linking Up with these Fabulous Blogs HERE!

Fisher's AgriPark Fall Festival

This is a continuation of a fall travel series.  If you missed any of my previous posts you can find them here:  Bird Watching at the La Crosse Marsh, A Return to Galena Illinois, A Visit to the Lincoln Home, A Visit to the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum, and The Lincoln Tomb and Historic Springfield, and Turkey Run State Park.

The day after hiking in Turkey Run State Park we went to a fall festival at Fisher's Agripark.  Fisher's Agripark is a 33 acre urban farm located in Fishers Indiana.  The park pays homage to Fisher's agricultural  roots and provides inspiration to future farmers and homesteaders.  The park has public fields and gardens, livestock,  a playground, nature trail, nursery, and more!

The park holds a variety of activities from May through October, one of which is their Fall Festival which we attended!

The festival had so much to do we couldn't even do it all in four hours!  Here is a list of everything they had going on at the farm:

• Movie in the barn (“Home on the Range”)
• DIY veggie stamp tote bag
• Mini pumpkin painting
• Wood pumpkin craft
• S’mores & fire puts
• Putt putt golf
• Face painting
• Photo booth
• Super slide
• Inflatables
• Animal encounter
• Nature trail and playground
• Food, snack, and drink vendors

Because we had young ones, we spent a lot of time playing in the inflatables.  

They had a corn maze inflatable, which I thought was kinda cooky coming from Wisconsin where we have 'real' corn mazes, but the little ones seemed to enjoy it.

They had an inflatable farm, which seemed to be Elisha's favorite.

And they had an inflatable barn to jump in with a slide attached!

They also had a real tall, fast slide!

After playing in the inflatables, the kids were hungry so we headed for the food trucks.  We enjoyed smash burgers, walking tacos, hot dogs, and hot pretzels.  With full tummies, I thought it was best to let the stomachs settle before playing again, so the kids all got their faces painted!

Atticus and Elisha chose different Spider Men variations and Alethea chose a unicorn colored kitty.

I was so impressed with the ladies doing the face painting.  They were so good at it, and they were great with the kids!

Grandpa and Ashley took turns holding baby Lazarus,  I was the photographer that night, so I'm not in any pictures unless I handed my phone to someone and said "Here, take my picture!"  I do that at least once so when we're looking through family photos someday no one thinks I'm dead cause I'm not in any of the pictures. 😀

I don't know what's going on in the photo below.  I think Elisha is using his bargaining powers on Grandpa Todd.  He has learned when he doesn't get what he wants from one authority figure, to just go try another.  I have no idea where he learned this from, and why he even attempts it, because it does not work!  Trust me, we're on to him! 😂

Once everyone's face was painted, we headed over to the farm animals.  The children were given feed to give to the animals.

We decided to take the short nature trail back to the play activities.  The trail went through the woods where some small fall arrangements of pumpkins and hay stacks were displayed.

It was finally time to roast some marshmallows and make s'mores.  Atticus had been asking to do this all night and we kept saying "later", "later".  Well, "later" finally came and he one happy boy!

After s'mores time it was time for me to get in a fall photo so I grabbed Elisha and had Grandpa take our picture.

The grandkids really enjoyed playing on the playground and on the giant haystack.

And I thought I should include a photo of this little guy, baby Lazarus, since you couldn't see him much in mommy's Snuggie.

I hope you enjoyed our fall activity and photos, even if it's a little late as it is now the Christmas season.

 Next week I will finish up with this series and then I will be taking a two week holiday break.  I will come back after the New Year with a new travel series on Yellowstone National Park and more!

Have A Great Day!  Amy

Linking Up with these Fabulous Blogs HERE!