Oaklawn Garden

Two posts one day after another? What the heck is going on!? I did a thing today, that's what.

I frequent a doll collecting forum and a month or so ago I found out that another member and I live pretty close to each other. So we decided we should do a meet up and she suggested this place:

It was amazing!

It's a 20 acre botanical garden/museum and it has lots on neat little alcoves and corners!

And a cannon!

This is the first building we saw. I think it used to be the museum but my friend told me they recently sold off a bunch of stuff. I'm not sure what to call it now!

It still has an old fire truck in it but I didn't go in for some reason. I guess I'll have to do that next time! To the left of the museum building you can see an orange grate.

That is the old jail? Probably had a building around it at some point but of course my resident bad-ass had to get some pictures in it:

And around it:

Then we went to the daffodil fields. Wikipedia says they have around 300 varsities? Pretty cool if you ask me!

Daken and Melly had to get a best friend shot in! No he's not crying manly tears :p The ground was soft and it was difficult to get them both to stand. So they ended up falling over and I didn't get his nose totally dried off!

And then we tried very hard to get a group shot of everyone we brought:

From left to right is Wrennie, Daken, Melody (all mine) Laura, Zia and Anne (my friend's) and then my Ameila is sitting in the front!

Next we went to a boxcar and caboose set up:

Here is a slightly better picture of the caboose and tracks:

We decided to take some pictures in front of the boxcar first. Here is Melly:

This would be the only picture she kept her hat on for!

Then we set up a little table and these three had an Easter treat:

I got a lovely picture of Laura:

She's based off of Laura Ingalls Wilder and my friend made her dress! Isn't she lovely?

Anne and Daken decided to have a picture in front of the door:

And then I decided that Amelia would look lovely next to this yellow paint!

 Here is a little behind the scenes shot of the poses we were doing:

You'd never know they were all around like that from the individual shots!

My friend also brought some ADORABLE mini books:

Melly is holding Harry Potter for her big brother Sam of course. Amelia makes me want to get some because look at how well she poses with it! Yeah I think I need some mini books.

Zia and Wrennie shared a stair:

And Anne of Green Gables and Alice in Wonderland!

I got some beautiful pictures of Laura:

And Wrennie on the caboose:

And then Daken did some modeling:

Got to love all that rust!

Close by were three old grave/memorial slabs.

I'm not sure if they are actual graves LMAO

They are pretty worn and it's hard to read them but we managed to make out a few words:

Next time I think we're going to bring things to make grave rubbings and see if we can make anything out a bit better!

We also found this neat old sign for a school:

And the old town power plant:

Unfortunately a lot of these things are deteriorating but you could see some machinery and whatnot on the inside!

Close to the power plant was this cast iron bench.

Perfect for Amelia to sit on!

And then Mel and Zia decided to sit and have a chat as well:

We actually came to this park because the Azaleas were supposed the be in bloom. They're not quite there yet!

But they are still very pretty! Zia totally sold me on that dress by the way. I got moved way up on my priority list!

The trees were stinking amazing:

I probably could have spent all day taking tree pictures to be honest.

I really liked this building:

It was full of old signs and equipment.

And right next to it was a little yard with this neat school sign:
  The dolls wanted to play here! Note how Daken is like dang it Melly, why do I have your stupid hat!? She just couldn't keep it on today! Poor guy.

Did I mention all the trees?

I thought Daken looked nice in the middle of this lovely little lane!

Laura also found a tree to climb:

You can practically hear Mary telling her how unladylike that is!

It started looking like it might rain so we headed to the house. You can't go inside but we did peek through the door there and it's pretty neat inside. My friend said it looked very well loved and worn. She's right it did and I would love to explore it!

This is the back of the house:

It had this amazing doorknob on the backdoor:

The real reason we came back to the house was to use the front porch! We got a pretty darn successful group picture:

Daken either looks thrilled or like OMG SO MANY GIRLS!!

The front porch was so neat. It had all of these cool elements like this screen door:

I thought the historic commission plaque was pretty too!

I also loved all the light fixtures:

I got some of my favorite photos here. Like Anne hiding behind a post:

And Melly being dramatic:

I said she was having an Ophelia moment!

And also Wrennie looking thoughtful:

We decided it was about time to go but before we left I got some awesome pictures of Daken on the tracks:

He looks so pleased with himself! (Note: please don't try this! We were very careful and safe)

And then I was on my way back home. My friend also gave me this beautiful dress for Caroline:

Isn't it amazing? I changed her and took her picture as soon as I got home! I feel so special :)

I had such a good day and I'm really happy to have a new friend. Especially a doll friend! Wrennie did a post all about her day here. It's filled with a lot of pictures I didn't share on this post so go read it if you're interested in seeing more! I hope you guys enjoy this picture filled post and next time we really will be talking about another special edition set! Till then :)