Powell Gardens: Fairy Houses & Forts 2012

Powell Gardens is one of our favorite summer destinations. We love the Heartland Harvest Garden, Rock & Waterfall Garden, and wooded paths. Every year it is a family tradition to attend one of our favorite events, the Festival of Butterflies (Aug 3-5 & 10-12, 2012). But now, we have a new reason to love Powell Gardens. This year, Powell Gardens' exhibit Fairy Forts & Houses: An Enchanting Garden Adventure, especially captivates children. If your kids are looking forward to Starlight's production of Peter Pan this year like mine are, a visit to Powell Gardens to see fairy houses, reminiscent of Tinkerbell, is a terrific outing. The exhibit features fairy houses and pirate ships, beloved by girls & boys of all ages.  

With miniature fairy houses indoors and large scale forts & houses to play outside, the exhibit truly captured the imaginations of my children. How do I know that it sparkd their creativity? From their first glimpse of the first fairy houses, they were begging to create their own fairy houses at home. I listened to "little wheels turn" as they brainstormed about ideas. A day exploring the outdoors, learning about plants and playing, exploring artistic creations, followed with an incredible art project at home (instructions below) - this mom's win-win! Tip... KC Parent is giving away an enchanted overnight at Powell Gardens... read on to find out how YOU could win!!

So, what will you see if you visit Powell Gardens: Fairy Forts & Fairy Houses Exhibit?

Powell Gardens

816.697.2600 http://powellgardens.org

Location: 1609 N.W. U.S. Highway 50 Kingsville, MO Click here for Driving Directions to Powell Gardens.

Hours: May-September: 9 a.m.-6 p.m.; October-April: 9 a.m.-5 p.m.

Admission: April 1-Oct. 31: $10/adults, $9/seniors, $4/children ages 5-12; Nov. 1-March 31: $7/adults, $6/seniors, $3/children ages 5-12; Festival Admission $12/adults, $10/seniors, $5/children ages 5-12. Learn more. Note that the Festival of Butterflies in August is one of our annual must-sees!

Parking: Parking is FREE and Powell Gardens can accommodate RV parking (no overnight parking allowed).

Tips for Your Visit to Powell Gardens

• You will be outside walking, so wear comfortable clothes and shoes.
• Remember sunscreen.
• Bring strollers or wagons for little ones.
• Pack bottled water and snacks.
• One picnic area is offered in the gardens. We like to see the Heartland Harvest Garden, then picnic (as the picnic area is geographically on our way from the Heartland Harvest to the Rockwall Garden), then explore the rest. You could easily reverse that plan, simply dividing the gardens into two large sections and breaking to eat between the two.
• Lunch may be purchased at Cafe Thyme in the Visitor's Education Center (open 11am - 2pm).
• Trolley Rides are offered for $1/person to offer a break from walking.
• There is a fountain children like to play in - you may want to dress with that in mind.
• There are sandboxes for play, be prepared.
• Bring a camera!

Fairy Houses & Forts Exhibit: May 19 - Oct 7

This week we visited "a magical world of childhood fantasies come true." The exhibit features miniature fairy houses in the observatory (my girls' favorite), and seven large-scale forts and houses for playing, climbing, and exploring throughout the gardens. Regional designers created miniature fairy houses and fanciful forts large enough for children to play. They offer new perspectives of the great outdoors and gardens with unique lookouts on a pirate ship, a mirrored fairy house offering a periscope view of the gardens, an ice house, and uses of unique materials and shapes accenting the garden and capturing imaginations. 

My girls were especially enchanted by the miniature fairy houses in the observatory... all made with natural materials and each one uniquely designed to suit different personalities. The exhibit inspired my girls so much, we made our own fairy houses the next day (read on below)!

Children love the interactivity of the exhibit. The large forts are wonderful outdoor playhouses. One of the forts offers sand play, another is the scene of a shipwreck with a ship's steering wheel and crow's nest, another allows kids to add to the artwork with their own chalk drawings, and others offer fun places for pretend play, climbing, and viewing the gardens through new eyes. Keep reading to learn how YOU could win an overnight at Powell Gardens!

More Reason to Love Powell Gardens

Permanent gardens at Powell Gardens are part of the must-see outing. Powell Gardens' Heartland Harvest Garden is an entirely edible landscape laid out like a patchwork quilt. Children love the silo at the end of the trail where you and your family can go up an elevator, or climb stairs, to the top. Once at the top, you’ll see the whole garden below and the beautiful quilt design. The Harvest Garden features a variety of apples, peaches, grapes, lettuce, herbs, berries and more. The exhibit includes information on how the plants are grown, how they are harvested and the foods we use to eat them. The foods that are harvested are served at Powell Garden’s own Café Thyme and some samples are available for tasting. My kids especially love the Tutti-Frutti maze where kids wander through a maze of mint plants. They are encouraged to sniff and explore them all!

The Rockwall & Waterfall Gardens are absolutely exquisite, with many flowers in bloom throughout the summer. All plants are well labeled throughout so you know what you're seeing. In addition, gardeners are always on hand busy at work and available for questions. It’s a wonderful place to visit to enjoy family time together in a beautiful setting.

After Your Visit to Fairy Forts & Houses

Be sure to Enter the KC Parent Powell Gardens: Enchanting Overnight Giveaway!! Then, make a craft inspired by the exhibit...

After our visit, my girls wanted to create their own fairy houses. With a combination of materials in our craft closet (all items available at Michael's, JoAnn and Hobby Lobby) and inexpensive birdhouses purchased at Michael's (other local craft stores also carry them) they created their own masterpieces.

Materials:

• A House (we used wooden birdhouses, but you could use flower pots, cardboard oatmeal canisters, objects from nature... anything can be the home, the imagination knows no limits and many natural items were displayed in the exhibit that may inspire your children)
• Paint and brushes
• Tacky Glue
• A variety of decorative objects: small seashells, dried beans (we used pinto beans for rocks), feathers, fake flowers, fake flower petals, leaves, butterflies, colored sand, glitter, other small objects to paint.
• Cardboard for a base to landscape

Steps:

• Paint or create the houses.
• While the houses were drying, the girls used green paint to paint a thick piece of cardboard for the fairy's yard. Then, they outlined walking paths, rivers, and more. We used glue and colored sand for walkways and rivers, pinto beans for stones, and small flowers and feathers for decoration - all simply glued in place with tacky glue.
• At Michael's we found a few new embellishments, in our case little mushrooms the girls were able to paint and glue to their landscape and large fake flowers to use as umbrellas. Many fun things are available to decorate your landscape. Look in the kitchen (pinto beans for instance), your own craft supplies (feathers, pom poms, fabric scraps), your backyard (acorns, seeds, pinecones), and other household treasures (toothpicks, beads, fake flowers, etc).
• The houses were then decorated with materials. Fake flowers, feathers and shells added decor, fabric was used to create a hammock between two flowers.... let the kids imagine and create, you'll be amazed at what they think of for their designs! One of my favorite ideas was the use of fake flower petals (left over from a wedding, but available at craft stores) for roof shingles.

We had a great time exploring Powell Gardens this summer and I'm especially grateful for the way it sparked imaginations in this house!