Playing Anne & Gilbert in an 1890s Schoolhouse
What a beautiful weekend it has been! Though the Iowa winds have been almost blowing us away the last few days. Where we live in the country, the wind is always stronger than a place that is more dense with structures and trees. The crabapple, pear, and peach trees have already blossomed and now the fresh eating apple tree blossoms are just beginning to open. I hope to capture some of their beauty on our farm before it is too late! I’ll have to cross my fingers that the wind dies down a bit so they’re not just images of hair flying in every direction - ha!
Jill and I reached out to our friend who operates the Kalona Historical Village in Kalona, Iowa to see if they would be available for us to take some photos with our new spring clothes from Little Women Atelier. This little historical village is near our farm, so it is always a fun trip to take the kids to! There are a handful of really cute historical sites in Iowa, and this is one of the best ones as each building is meticulously decorated and it features two museums onsite - one that houses Mennonite records and artifacts and the other features exhibits on railroad expansion during the 19th century, Native American history, and the founding families (which includes my own family!).
I have had the honor of working with Little Women Atelier for a couple of years now, and when they asked if Kyle and I would like to try out their 2023 line of dresses and their new men’s line I was elated! As soon as I opened the pretty brown package tied up with string that we had to try embodying Anne and Gilbert from the beloved Anne of Green Gables series by L.M. Montgomery. This was quite fitting, too, as the month of May we will be featuring recipes and posts inspired by Anne!
The 2023 Little Women collection features dresses inspired by each sister from Little Women. In these photos, I am wearing the Meg dress with long sleeves in Dusty Blue. I think it looks just like a robin’s egg in these photos!
Kyle, my husband, is wearing the news men’s collection. He is wearing the Classic High Waisted Trousers, Shirt with Mandarin Collar in Sage Green, and Men’s Vest in Gingerbread.
The Kalona Historical Village has 18 buildings with interactive exhibits. We took photos at some other locations that I will share at a later date. For this post, we featured the schoolhouse as we thought it was very fitting for Anne and Gilbert! We managed to capture some video for our Instagram and TikTok accounts featuring the classic hair tugging scene. We would love if you took a peek!
Dressing up for the parts made my theatre kid heart so happy. I haven’t taken part in a theatre production since high school. It was such a big part of my life, and I deeply miss it sometimes. When my oldest son was a baby (eight years ago!!) I tried desperately to start a children’s theatre program in town, but I just didn’t have the voice or resources to do so. While I still think that would be fun, it might have to wait until my children are older and do not need so much of my attention. Kyle grew up doing reenactments with his family and traveling around Wisconsin to showcase life during the mid 19th-century. We have also been on the hunt for smaller local reenactment troupes, but it’s kind of a difficult hobby to find! We decided this was a good alternative and a much for entertaining date night than going out to eat.
I hope that you enjoyed these images and watching our little video! Perhaps, if you are in the area, you might stop at the village and act out your own Anne and Gilbert scenes.
Have a lovely Sunday, dear reader!
xoxo Kayla
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