Building a Fairy House

Every night, Noah and I snuggle up in my bed and read stories.  It is absolutely my favorite part of every day.  It feels like a celebratory way to end a good day and after a bad day it is my refuge.  A calm, comfy, snuggly place to remind me what matters and let everything else fall away.  Noah will go into his room and pick the book for us to read.  I’ll see him come running into our bedroom and I’m always a little nervous – Please don’t let it be Hop On Pop or Trucks!  But when he came in last night with Fairy Houses by Tracy Kane I was relieved.  And happy.  This was the first time he chosen that book on his own which made me even happier!  As we read it together last night I knew what our fun activity would be today.

Rules of the Woods:

“You may build houses small and hidden for the fairies, but please do not use living or arificial materials.”

 

We have several trees that would make suitable building sites but I knew immediately which one Noah would pick – the Tresure Tree.  We found a great little nook for our house.

We got to work clearing out the space.  Even kitty wanted to help.

    

 

I started collecting moss and lichens.  I showed Noah what I was looking for and asked for his help.  “Moss!” he yelled as he pointed to a large tree stump on the other side of the field.  What he had found was actually fungi.  As I started to explain that the fungi was actually living and we shouldn’t pick it for our house, Noah declared another discovery: “Ants!”  Right as his feet were what I would estimate to be about a billion ants.  The red biter ants.  We would have to look elsewhere for materials.

 

I suggested pine cones but Noah had another idea.  He led us into the barn to collect shavings.  We did find some pinecones and pine needles behind the barn as well.

      

 

As hard as he tried, he couldn’t harvest this post.  Bless him ❤ So he added what materials we did have to our fairy house.

    

Our Fairy House.  For now anyway…

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