Fairies Set Up House Next Door

So, we've been studying nature & fairies for homeschool and reading a lot of great fairy folklore which has been so much fun. It's really awakened the kid in me - I forgot how much I loved this kind of stuff when I was young and it's gotten me feeling creative and whimsical. I found this great book called Fairy Houses...Everywhere and it is just fantastic to look through and see how imaginative people have been. I'm looking forward to getting the next book in the series and will have to share them with littlest sister Cat, who is a big fairy fan herself. I couldn't wait to get outside with Ethan after we looked at it together & be inspired by what we found.

As luck would have it the latest HearthSong catalog had a fairy door, so I ordered it and put it outside as a surprise for him to discover. The excited gasp and happy look on his face when he looked out the window and saw the little door on one of our trees was just priceless. This summer he's been really spooked by the thought of bee stings and other bugs buzzing in his ear so I was glad to have an incentive for him to get out there. He couldn't wait to check it out and enjoyed helping gather the materials in between saying "What's that noise? Agh it's a bee!" every two seconds. I did most of the building with his directions ("Don't knock that over Mom" was a big help) and TA-DA here is our fairy house. Already more ideas of things to add are coming to mind and some little knots higher up on the trunk of the tree look like windows, so it's the perfect spot and is a great view from our kitchen window. Here's hoping that our not-so-gentle toddler won't destroy it moments after he sees it. He's not exactly known for being delicate or leaving stuff alone, but at least we've got some good pictures, so I'm satisfied. Just an excuse to keep building!