Claire spent days working on fairy houses on our front porch. She’s used rocks, sticks and leaves and is now begging us for a handful of bricks so the fairy folk will stay warm through the winter.

Aren’t the flowers beautiful in there? My Mom adored them too, especially when they were on her plants! Heehee. We gave Claire permission to pick as many flowers as she is old (4 at that time) and while we were all thinking four total, Claire visited each plant for four. Watching her out the window, was like watching a squirrel scurry around for nuts. She bundled them all up in a ziploc bag fast as could be and cradled her treasures the three hours home from Grandma Caca’s house. Mind you her pockets were already full of treasured rocks from the camping trip the night before!

Building these fairy houses were only the beginning. Fairy fever hit its peak in September when Claire discovered Tinker Bell the movie in the library. We checked it out and while I pictured this movie to be a fluffy bit of damsel in distress/happily ever after movie by Disney — I was so wrong.

I was shocked that I LOVED it. I loved the message of finding one’s talent and gift and using it to help the community as a whole. I loved the strong and smart female lead. I loved the idea of Tinkerbell as a “tinker,” a fairy with a gift of mechanical engineering. Hooray Disney, we need more girls in science and math and this is one way to inspire them. Claire has always loved to build contraptions and invent and this has fueled her interest even more.

This is a “cleaning contraption.” A slow, but oddly effective way Claire invented to put away her markers.

Thank goodness I loved this movie, because Claire re-watched it about 40 times going so far as to study the DVD menu from The Great Fairy Rescue to recreate the perfect fairy house. She sat still for 45 minutes drawing the fairy house and after hours of work, all on her own, she’s got a great shoe-box fairy house complete with a popsicle-stick wood floor and interior artwork.

I’m sure any fairies would love to live here so send them our way!