Magical fairies find their way to darlin'ville

Yesterday was my sweet #3 darlin's 3rd birthday. She is my only December child, and so I try to "pull out all the stops" for her special day because it's easy to be lost in the hysteria of the holidays. Each year I try to hone in on something they love and this year it was fairies. Usually I can tie the party into literature as well, and to my delight I was able to find Mary Cicely Barker's flower fairy books. If you haven't heard of this collection, it is really stunning. You can learn more about Ms. Barker here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cicely_Mary_Barker
I began looking on ebay and amazon and I found a whole collection of activity books, paper dolls, stories, and craft books. This one was the best and you can click here to see it on amazon: Flower Fairies Book for Girls So after looking over this fantastic book brimming with ideas I was ready to make a magical land in the middle of darlin'ville. You know they say you are never too old for fairies so I recruited some adult fairy lovers to help me out. Luckily I know two people drippin' with creativity! My sister and grandma

came over and brought pinecones, branches, small twig doll chairs, tulle and ribbons. They draped them from our chandeliers and made table centerpieces. We placed flower and ribbon bedecked brooms on the front doors to greet our fairy visitors. Even our boy darlin's were interested in all the trimmings. The book had suggestions for foods too so we went all fruits, veggies and nuts like the fairies do. Healthy and authentic. That doesn't happen often..sigh. As the party neared, I found a sweet game that helped little girls choose their fairy name. We placed velvet slippers and magical fairy rings in party favor bags with our traditional bookmark made to commemorate the way that darlin' is at the time of the special birthday. If you got one, you know I am no poet, but I make an effort at least. I usually match it up to the invitation I design because I am a little nuts, but if you know me well, that's no revelation either! I do love making these things for the darlin's though! It takes time but I am glad to give it and I enjoy the creative expression myself. ;-) Once, I had the party prep all settled, I pulled out my gift for the darlin', my first-born girl. A few weeks ago, I found this fairy forest lodge here: Fairy Forest Lodge by Enchantmints

Since I bought it, the price has naturally gone up for Christmas, but I suspect it will go down again afterward. Once it arrived in the mail, the oldest darlin' and I made a homeschool lesson out of it and assembled it once the others were fast asleep. This thing is made out of REAL wood, not pressed or hybrid. It was very receptive to my watery paint stain and has doors that open and windows you can see through. Now, if I didn't have darlin's I would possibly have made this for myself anyway because I am seriously pink on the inside with a shade of steel magnolia if you know what I mean. I really did enjoy dolling up this fairy abode for my girl. My grandmother passed along some wood pieces she had and we made furniture: a wood stove, table and chairs, a bed and nightstand, mushroom fairy dust pots, mushroom lamps, a fairy light, a wash bucket, rosebud lamps, and a bird nest stand. My darlin' helper added some pet cats to sit on the steps. I was really pleased with it until I realized I had no fairies to live in it.

My sweet friend, Renee, showed me some little wooden people the size of chess pieces she'd painted into saints in her homeschool endeavors and I was struck with an idea.

So late one night, these little blossoms in front of the fairy house were "born". As I pulled it out to wrap the gift for the party I was hoping and praying the baby raptor from last week's post there's a baby raptor in darlinville didn't mangle the new fairy people but hey, that's life, and at least I know how to make more-reference my post on quotes brevity is the soul of wit and how it's always faster the second time you do something! I am thrilled to say our fairies seemed to have a lovely time sipping frozen fruit punch and playing the fairy name game. The birthday girl turned out to be Pear Blossom Featherfoot. OK, so you are never too old for fairies. I turned out to be Apple Blossom Starlight. That's better than any nickname I had in high school!
Seriously, you have never seen anything sweeter than four girls dressed as fairies and sitting under ribbons, pinecones, and tulle and eating toothpick fruit and veggie cabobs and drinking pineapple-cherry-white grape punch giggling over new fairy names. I am sure the innocent play of my children will be fleeting since our culture will grow the girls (and boys) up before their time, hardening them up for "the real world". I savor the sweet femininity while it lasts and try as hard as I can to S L O W things down. If I could smash the clock for them I would but in the meantime, I intend to encourage the magic and wonder of childhood by giving as much freedom for play and exploration as is possible.  From what I've learned, there's power enough in the pure heart of an innocent anyway.