Conner Prairie

We took a trip to the Indianapolis area over the Memorial Day weekend to visit some good friends of ours.  Our first stop, though, was Conner Prairie.  This place ranks near the top of my most favorite places to visit, mainly because I love this time period in history.  We spent a good 6 hours there and were able to get through most everything, but we went at a medium pace (mainly because kids have limited attention spans!).  We'll definitely plan to go back sometime in the future!

This is the William Conner homestead.  The time period through this area is 1836.  Yes, Mr. Conner was a wealthy man.

More of the inside.  The piece in the bottom left corner is original to the Conner's, which means it is nearly 200 years old!

These are views of their backyard as well as the back of the house.  Just beautiful!

The girls sitting on the back porch steps.  One of my favorite pictures of the day.

This was the Conner's loom house.

We got to see a demonstration of how the loom works.

A mama sheep with her lamb grazing in the fields next to the Conner's barn.

Getting to pet some lambs (sheep, calves, and goats, too!) inside the barn.

The girls then got to make their own candles out of melted beeswax and paraffin wax (a derivative of coal).  They dipped it in the melted wax, let it drip off, then had to walk down a path and around a tree (to let it dry a little).  They repeated this process a few times (they start them out with candles already dipped quite a few times) and then it was ready to go!  Can't wait to burn them here at home!

Our next stop was Prairie Town.  Because this is an interactive history park, you could pretend to be someone looking to locate to Prairie Town.  This was a house for sale.  

There were many hands-on toys and games for the kids to try.

The wooden stilts were harder than they looked!

This was my favorite house in Prairie Town.  I think it was because of the decorating and big yard for gardening.

I thought that the framed stitching was neat because it was sewn by a woman named Rowena (my great aunt's name was Rowena) in May of 1790.  That was 224 years ago!

The girls got to help the character move a plant in one of the garden boxes and then she gave each of them a clove flower.  There was a separate building for drying herbs.

We visited the doctor's house and office.

We visited the potter's barn and got to watch him make a piece of pottery.

Here he weighs the clay.

We also visited the General Store where the girls got to use soapstone chalk to draw on chalkboards.

We got to see more animals as well.  Two calves were being moved to a different pasture.

Rooster

Cows and horses

We then crossed the covered bridge into the 1863 Civil War Journey area.

The houses were a lot bigger and more elaborate in 1863!

Hailey got to see what it was like to wear Confederate soldier gear.  He told her that she would end up carrying about 25-30 lbs of gear and then asked her if she thought she could do that for 25-30 miles a day.  She answered no.  He then said, "I think your mom wants to take a tin type (the type of portraits taken back then) of us."  

Located in the Depot building was a play area for kids where you could climb structures, try on civil war clothing, and play in water.  Great for hot days!

Shooting the water cannons (Hailey got Clara right in the head) and spinning the ship's wheel.

At our friends' house.  L to R: Corrick, Avi, Hailey, Me, Clara, Brian, Paige, and Jon