Fairy Houses

I just realized that I forgot to post about M’s favorite activity during our Mother-Daughter Camp-out: fairy houses!

One of the dads had encountered amazing fairy houses in his travels. (A little closer to home, you can find some fairy houses at the Berkshire Botanical Garden.) He and his daughter were excited to share the fairy joy. The younger girls (3rd graders) jumped on it first:

He’d brought along this Fairy House book by Tracy Kane:

She’s got a whole series of them, along with a website with tons of information and photos.

The girls caught on quickly and built like crazy. The dad’s daughter displayed the kind of technical expertise that comes from experience:

Now, you might recall that J’s been a consistent supporter of All Things Fairy, including two fairy themed birthday parties (the second of which involved making homemade fairies and lovely fairy gardens) as well as constructing fairy habitats and corresponding with fairies on her own.

I feared that M would consider herself somewhat too sophisticated for fairy houses. But she and her friends jumped into their construction projects with gusto. Practicing engineering and artistry outside: what’s not to like?  True, she and her friends weren’t serious believers like the 3rd-grade girl who spent Sunday morning displaying the precious gift of dried fairy wings that had been left at her fairy house overnight (to my jaded adult eyes it looked like a helicopter, but I could be wrong). Still, M and her friends had a wonderful time. If I hadn’t dragged her away, I think that she could have worked on it all day.

Once we arrived home, M and J started creating a whole village. Our setting is a bit less rustic, so they incorporated a few non-fairy elements, like this big ol’ cinder block:

They had a lovely time. I think you could take a couple of photos and sell them as castles or forts if your kids aren’t quite as fairylicious as my girls are.