This one is for all you pixie dust believers and magic dreamers… for this, my dears, is the summer of fairies! I am a starry-eyed gal, always existing in the mindset that there are, without question,  fairies, Bigfoot, mermaids, unicorns, ghosts, angels, you name it. It’s who I am and how I choose to see the world- without that faith in magic, it’s kinda … dull.

I want my children to embrace that feeling of belief, so this summer I decided Daphne would learn to look for and find fairies. Not long after she got out of school for the year, she and I sat down with an empty oatmeal container, some pretty paper, glittery modge podge, a glue gun and some ambition- we wanted to build a fairy house, and start a fairy garden under the tree in the back yard.

We had a long talk about all we had learned about these tiny creatures from the Tinkerbell movies and her many books on fairies- her most beloved book being Fairyopolis A Flower Fairies Journal, a gift to her from her wonderful older cousin, Fox. We concluded that fairies only visit on the warmest of days, and that they are very, VERY shy. They do, however, love children and all people who have pure hearts.

It was so fun to design, decorate and build our fairy house, and when we set it up in the yard, it lifted the little space under the tree to a new level of pretty.

Daphne wanted so desperately to see the fairies that she peered eagerly from the kitchen window and watched her little fairy house for quite a long time. Two days passed, and while she was busy playing, looking through books and drifting into an afternoon nap, the fairies found their house under the tree and left Daphne a note AND a fairy toy to let her know that they had been there. The note was written in the language of the fairies, which in this part of the world looks like squiggly lines, but Daphne, guided by her pure heart, was able to read their words. They thanked her for the house and promised to visit when they could, while the weather was warm enough and the wind was calm.

Since that first visit, they have dropped in once or twice more, but never seem to catch Daphne! She was away on a walk with her grandma, on a trip to the hardware store with her daddy and away at dance class, but with each visit, the fairies have left her a toy or a note to let her know that they visited.

Daphne loves this interaction with the fairies. She is quick to write them thank you notes, pick flowers for them and sing them songs in the garden so they know that she is there and she believes. The summer has just begun, what will fill our imaginations in the days to come? Stick around and find out. I am a believer, are you?