The Grove Holiday Arts & Craft Faire and a Fall Hike

The Kennicott House decorated for the holidays.

One of my favorite events all year is The Grove Holiday Arts & Craft Faire! The Grove is both a historical landmark and nature preserve with several historic buildings nestled within a prairie grove. The Arts& Craft Faire is a very special time when several of the historic buildings, interpretive buildings and nature center are filled to the brim with quality crafts, artisan products and culinary treats. Guides in 19th century apparel, twinkling lights, whimsical snowmen and evergreen fronds add to the holiday atmosphere.

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Made with Dad: From Wizards' Wands to Japanese Dolls, Craft Projects to Build, Make, And Do With Your Kids {Review}

**Disclosure: We received a copy of this volume in order to make an accurate review. No other compensation was received. All opinions are 100% my own.

We love, love, love crafts in our household and are always scanning for new ideas and projects. Recently, we had the opportunity to review Made with Dad: From Wizards' Wands to Japanese Dolls, Craft Projects to Build, Make, and Do with Your Kids by Chris Barnardo and let me tell you, this book is a treasure!

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Vibrant Thanksgiving Pinwheel {Craft}

I am always cooking up crafts for us to work on. Some of them flop and some look rather nice. This past weekend, my daughter and I made some vibrant Thanksgiving pinwheels and I have to say that they came out pretty nice!

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Melted Crayon Halloween Vase

Like most of you, we have brightly colored mounds of crayon pieces. I hate to waste, so I am always trying to think of a new way to use them. This week, I melted some to make a vase using a glass jar. Since Halloween is around the corner, I used greys, whites and blacks for my vase.
 

To start the project, I had my daughter sort threw her crayons and pick out her white, black and grey remnants. I then broke them up and placed them in oven-safe glass bowls. Next, I preheated the oven to 350 and placed the bowls on a baking sheet covered with foil.

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Happy Trunk Kid's Activity Boxes Delivered to your Home! {and a Deal!}

As you know, we like to do a lot of crafts around here. I am always looking for new ideas for art and science projects for the little ones--whether it be for my daughter alone or when she has a playdate. I have recently been introduced to a new concept called The Happy Trunk. The Happy Trunk takes much of the guess work out of finding new projects for the kiddos. If you join their program, they will send you a themed craft box each month (for as long as you are subscribed). Each box is themed and contains 2-3 crafts along with a science project. They also send an open ended kit encouraging more creativity. The beautiful thing--everything you need is in the kit. (You do not know how many times I have been it middle of gluing things together only to realize I am missing something!) 

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