The Tooth Fairy found Maple Street

Miss Monkey Mae wiggled the heck out of that tooth. She was determined to meet the Tooth Fairy. But alas, sleep took her out of the running to be the first one to meet her.

The Fairies of Summer, a special giveaway...

South Carolina summers are hot. Actually that's an understatement. They are really hot and really humid. Of course the fairies need a place to cool off and we had the perfect oak tree to shade them during those hot days. The same one we used for our fall fairy house. So Anna Mae and I went off to hunt for materials to build their summer home. She pulled the wagon all around the yard and here is what we found...



Mr. Ant decided to help us build the house. Anna Mae wasn't sure if he was a "good ant or a bad ant"...I looked to see if she was wearing her red slippers when she questioned his goodness.



We discovered a cute little mushroom in the yard too. South Carolina has the most interesting mushrooms. I may have to do a mushroom expose sometime here at Betty's. Now you know mushrooms pop up where fairies have been. So we knew that our summer home would be put to good use. We also found some pretty purple flowers to decorate the house with. Making sure to follow the rules of Fairy House construction the other materials used were moss, pine cones, rocks, sticks, a broken bird's egg, dried hydrangea flowers, bark, acorn tops and magnolia leaves.



Back in the spring Light-Beams Publishing read about the Unplug Your Kids Blog Challenge and they contacted me. They wanted to reward those who were participating in that challenge with the book, Fairy Houses by Tracy Kane. With great generosity, Light-Beams Publishing not only offered three books as giveaways in that challenge but also sent me an extra one to do another giveaway at another time. What better time to offer fairy house inspiration than with a book about fairy houses? So if you would like an opportunity to win Fairy Houses by Tracy Kane here's what you need to do:

1. Visit Light-Beams Publishing and leave a comment about their website.

For additional entries do the following:

1. Click the "Tell a Friend" button at the end of the post and tweet about this (with a rt@laterbetty) plus follow me on Twitter. Then leave a comment with your user name and if you tweeted.
   
2. Click the "Tell a Friend" button at the end of the post, choose another social network (our favorites are technorati, kirtsy, stumble upon) and show some love. Then leave a comment with what you did.
3. Follow me or subscribe to my feed and leave a comment that you did.
4. Go over to Later Betty's Bargains, check it out and follow that blog; leave a comment here that you are following that blog
   
5. The big one worth 5 entries: Build a Fairy House and blog about it; leave a comment with the link.

Leave a comment for each entry. Be sure I know your e-mail address to contact the winner. Giveaway is open to anyone in North America and closes at midnight est on Tuesday, August 18, 2009. Winner will be chosen from Random.org, will be emailed and has 48 hours to respond or a new winner will be drawn. Thanks for entering! On your mark, get set....go!

Anna Mae can't wait to see your fairy house!

Fall Fairy House or What to do on a Saturday Afternoon in a Small Town when there is nothing to do

After a chilling fall rain the night before, the day was washed clean and the sky, blue and sunny. And the age old questioned that arises every Saturday morning in our little house arose again without fail, "What are we gonna do with the kids today?". Neither of the parental units were feeling too parental that morning so cartoons would have to do until lunch was the next activity of the day. With lunch done and the dishes cleaned up we were begging them to go outside...please! I evened opened the front door pointing with great momma intimidation to get...out....side...now! When that technique failed to work I succumbed to interacting with them. Yes, mom of the year award once again.

I stepped outside with the kids and looked at the decaying jack-o-lantern. It was then I remembered seeing a fairy house constructed out of a pumpkin. I brought the kids back into the house for a brief moment to review the rules of constructing a fairy house:

• Fairy Houses should look so natural they are almost hidden. A location close to the ground is best.
• You should use only natural materials. Dry grasses, leaves, sticks, pebbles and pine cones are just a few examples of materials to choose.
• Be careful not to use or disturb any of nature's materials that are still living, especially flowers, ferns, mosses and lichen. Fairies do not like to disturb or destroy anything that is growing in nature.

So outside we go to collect natural materials to add to our pumpkin house. Here is some of what we came up with:

Now, I have to confess we used toothpicks to attach some items. But they were once natural material, right? Gavin decided the decaying pumpkin was not too inviting for fairies to sleep in so he gathered very colorful leaves and layed them inside the pumpkin.

He also, I might add, was highly concerned that the lid of the jack-o-lantern would leak on the fairies if it rained. So he gathered leaves that still had their stems attached and stuck them through the lid opening creating a canopy of beautiful deep red leaves on the orange pumpkin. Mother Nature really is a great designer! Anna created the pathway to the house with pebbles and small rocks.

And I created the ladder leading up to the house.

The kids stood back and appreciated their creation. They walked around the tree and peeked around several times to see if they might be able to sneak up on a fairy.

Then I suggested they say a little something to dedicate their house to the fairies. This is what they came up with:

I must say, the magic of childhood is one of the best things about being a parent. And to think I had begrudgingly stepped outside with them. How lucky am I to be given the opportunity to share in that magic? What a gift. We are already planning what our winter fairy house will look like.

May you find some magic today too!