Tuesday, December 28, 2010

Fairy Magic


When I started this blog two months ago, I had intended it to be an outlet for me to express myself and write often, but I also wanted it to have a focus so that I could write with intention and build a community of readers that I could connect with and relate to.  I had intended to make it a balance of writing about running and motherhood.  I think I've done an okay job of writing about a variety of topics but I have not given as much attention to the motherhood aspect of my blog and so I thought it might be time include a few posts about some of fun stuff we do around here.  I know that most of my "readers", "friends", "followers"  (or whatever you want to call my blog community)  are fellow runners who write running blogs.  I hope I don't scare you away with my motherhood blogs that I throw in here. Please don't stop reading....I promise to write more running and non-mommy/kid blogs too!  





I believe that childhood should be magical.  I believe that kids should believe in dreams and all that comes with it for as long as possible.  I believe in the unbelievable.  I believe in helping my kids to believe that anything is possible and anything can be.  

Shel Silverstein says it best:  

“Listen to the mustn'ts, child. Listen to the don'ts. Listen to the shouldn'ts, the impossibles, the won'ts. Listen to the never haves, then listen close to me... Anything can happen, child. Anything can be.”


The Jewel Fairy 

Around our house you will surely find plenty of this:





These are the various collection of "fairy jewels" that my girls have around the house.  They believe that fairies really do live around us and they continue to look for them...in flowers, trees, around our house, and even in the bookstore on occasion.  

One of the exciting events in our house is having the Jewel Fairy come visit!  Now, I'm not exactly sure how the Jewel Fairy came to be but I think it happened on a day that I was just bored and felt like spicing things up.  The first time the Jewel Fairy came to visit started with me just telling the girls to run to their room and close the door because I was going to do a special Jewel Fairy dance and song and if we were lucky, she would leave jewels under our Japanese Maple Tree.  They giggled and ran to their room while I stomped around the house and made some silly noises, and sprinkled plastic and glass jewels under the tree.  When I was done with my noise making and jewel sprinkling, I called them out to see the magic delivery!  It was great fun.  The smiles on their wide eyed faces told me that this would be happening again. And Again.  Sure enough, they never stopped asking.  "When will the Jewel Fairy come again Mama?!"  I had to tell them that she only comes on occasion and not just when we want because she has other jewels to deliver.  I will be sad when they stop asking for the Jewel Fairy.  It has become part of the magic of their childhood.  I hope they at least pretend to believe for a long long time.   

At the beginning of the holiday season, we had a jewel fairy play date where four other girls came for a visit and a jewel fairy experience.  Since it was  close to Christmas, I went to the craft store and bought some Christmas colored "jewels". I mean the fairy brought Christmas jewels of course. Gosh, I hope my kids are not precocious enough to be reading this blog yet.  Anyway, they looked like this:







I also bought a package of these little bags for the girls to keep their new found jewels in.  



Here is the magic Fairy Tree where she always delivers the jewels


The Jewel Fairy Playdate Crew




Fairy Houses

I'm convinced that just a simple cardboard box can have limitless possibilities.  After watching Tinker Bell and The Great Fairy Rescue, the third Tinker Bell movie, the girls were inspired to build their own fairy house in hopes that the fairies would come live with us.  We still have this fairy house outside our front door and I'm convinced that they really do come to visit from time to time.  













Fairy Parties

Here are just a few snapshots from my daughter's 3 year old Fairy party.  This party will be a new post someday.  So much fun and magical indeed!  







And here is our favorite of all our cardboard box creations!  




How about a Hodge Podge of questions to choose one from!  Even if this post made you vomit and want to fairy gag yourself!  


1. Have I scared you away from reading my blog yet?  Hope not. 


2.  Do your kids believe in fairies or other imaginary creatures?  


3.  What are your favorite uses for cardboard boxes?  


4.  What do you think is one of the best parts of childhood?  


5.  Did you have a "magical" Childhood?  For me, I guess this depends on what you would consider magical.  Since we were raised as Jehovah's Witnesses (disclaimer:  I am no longer part of this religion or anything similar.  Glad too), we were not allowed to celebrate holidays, birthdays, or believe in anything remotely magical.  I had a wild imagination though!  



Amanda

29 comments:

  1. You haven't scared me away!

    I love your jewels and fairy magic! That is so freaking cute. Maybe you'll help inspire me and give me ideas for the day I am lucky enough to finally be a mom! ... (The countdown is on, by the way. I have a plan. Less than a year and I get to start my turkey baster relationship!) Watch - you'll give me great ideas of fun things to do, and then I'll end up having the most masculine little boy ever!

    My oldest friend and I talk about our childhood quite often. She has 3 little girls and they all have the latest, greatest toys. They get bored easily she tells me. But when we were little we just used our imaginations! We made up dances, we LOVED Barbie, we had fun organizing our eraser collections, we lived on our bikes. It seemed like we just had a pure, innocent childhood! .... But don't get me wrong, we LOVED Mario and her Commodore 64! Late nights of saltine crackers and Super Mario Bros with a joystick = pure awesome!

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  2. Wow, you started this blog 2 months ago? When my blog was two months old I had like 2 followers :) Love this and great pictures!

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  3. This post was awesome! I love that quote by Shel Silverstein! Although I have 2 boys, I can totally relate to the jewel fairy and all the magic it brings!
    Cardboard boxes ROCK! We've made car ramps, hotels, car garages, a zoo, etc.. with them. The possibilities of what you can create with a cardboard box are limitless!

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  4. Aww this blog post made me smile and even want a girl someday! You also inspired me to create car out of one of the boxes in the basement. You seem like sucha fun mom!!!

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  5. My parents use to make all kinds of playhouses out of refrigerator and washer/dryer boxes. SO MUCH FUN! You're little girls are lucky to have a momma that loves them and loves to have fun with them!

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  6. How adorable and incredibly creative! I remember having a blast with a box for our new stove wayyyyy back when.

    I just asked Tate if she believes in fairies....she says no...LOL.

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  7. I love Shel Silverstein. His poems have soo many wonderful quotes.

    You are such a fun mom! I had a great childhood, but it certainly wasn't a magical one. I haven't given my kids a very magical childhood either; I guess that's just not my strength. My youngest still believes in Santa, the Easter Bunny, etc. The funniest "magical" thing he ever brought up though was in relation to prayer. "I prayed and prayed that God would turn me into a Ninja turtle, but I haven't even started turning green!" Oh, my gosh...I laughed so hard after I left his room!

    I think the best part of childhood is that sense of limitless possibility, that you could do anything. Even though I don't still have that, or even really have it for my kids (way too negative reality-bound sometimes), I try to never stifle their sense of possibility or keep them from trying for something, because they are always surprising me with what they accomplish.

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  8. Oh my Kate, I lvoe your comments! They are great....you have me laughing out loud about the Ninja Turtle comment.....
    Also love what you have to say about childhood and I think you're probably an awesome mom because of your ability to know yourself and know your own strengths and weaknesses.

    I love all of these comments...thank you guys.

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  9. Fantastic! I love the jewel fairy - is there something similar that boys would enjoy?

    We just got a bunch of stuff delivered and the boys used the box to make a cat house - super cute.

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  10. Wow oh wow!! What an incredible, creative mom you are!! I'm jealous :)!!!

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  11. Not sure what happened there with the last comment...

    Amanda, I love your creative side! Acrylic gems? I didn't know they even sell such things!

    Now you know I have 3 boys...but they would totally fall for something like the fairies. My three year old clings to my costume jewelry and keeps it as his treasure. :)

    The box houses are GREAT! Where do you find your boxes? I can't get most stores to part with them- they want to keep them anymore. Sears used to give them away.

    Your kids will absolutely treasure these memories.

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  12. Thank you ERG! And Great idea.....for boys you could make a treasure map and bury some cheap jewels or gold in the back yard and send them on their way to find the treasure. It would be so cool. :)

    We just end up getting the boxes by buying things that come in them. I tried asking SEARS not too long ago and you're right, they don't do that anymore. They are hard to come by but that is why we save them when we get things that come in them.

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  13. this is wonderful for your kids
    I love the pictures! When they are parents themselves they will appreciate all that you are doing so much I promise you that!
    The best memories they will always remember this for sure

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  14. Your kids are so lucky to have a Mum who encourages and nurtures their imaginations. Some of your pictures took me back to my childhood, when I would play fairies in the garden with my sisters (wearing the obligatory tutu) and making little fairy gardens with moss and rocks and flowers.

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  15. I love this! What a wonderful thing to do with your kids =)

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  16. This post is making me miss having little kids....My girls would have loved this when they were little. I'm going to have to do this for my nieces (I have a lot of sisters and we're all fighting to be the favorite auntie-ha!) So creative!

    You're a great mom Amanda! Your kids are so lucky to have you!!!

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  17. You are simply amazing, girl! Such an inspiration! I'm glad you are showing this side here. I have realized that I need to be utilizing our cardboard boxes a lot more!!! Those girls... I just can't say enough how blessed they are to have a mommy like you. You are creating memories for them they will never forget and they will only know how good they have it years down the road.
    I shake my head when I think of how creative I am or am not!

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  18. Great post Amanda! My daughter would love any and all of this, and she is still 8. We are trying very hard to not let our kids grow up too quickly - like you, I am hoping to put off the end of these magical days as long as possible.

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  19. Great post. I love the fairy story.

    Kevin
    http://halftriing.blogspot.com/

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  20. 1. Absolutely not! I'm not a mom... yet!
    2. N/A
    3. When I was a kid we moved between 2nd & 3rd grade for me so my parents had several "wardrobe" boxes that had a metal bar at the top to hang clothes on. Well, if you lay it on the floor, the metal bar makes a perfect gas pedal. My sister and I made them into cars, with windows and seats. It was a lot of fun.
    4. One of the best parts of childhood is using your imagination. I wish I could still believe in some of the things I did as a kid. I still remember when I thought girls HAD to have babies and boys HAD to play football (this seemed realistic as my mom had babies and my dad played football when he was younger). I thought either way it wasn't fair because both hurt. Still makes me laugh when I think about it.
    5. I absolutely did. My mom was really good about making us believe in fun things.

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  21. I love this post! I am a huge advocate for the preservation of childhood. I'm so glad you stopped by. I'm looking forward to reading more from you.

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  22. How fun!!! You are creating some awesome memories for your children...love it. :)

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  23. Thank you for letting me live vicariously through you, a mother of daughters!

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  24. You are the best mom EVER!
    My mom was alway working or keeping my stepdad away from the alcohol so my childhood was never very magical...but one place I loved to go, which seemed to have a magic all on it's own, was my grandmother's house in NE Iowa. She lived out in the country by herself and it was such a great escape from the life I didn't like so much at home. Countless days wandering through the woods picking Lady Slippers and orange Day Lillies and day dreaming. Ya gotta have those magical kid days, no matter what type of magic you produce....they make us smile so big as adults!! :)

    Funny thing...well maybe not so much - my daughter just told me how I always failed at making Leprechan traps and "remember the one year you forgot to turn the milk green ..." Gee, can't she remember the good ones in there and only fixed on the one bad one?? One year she'll get it, right?

    Off to read about your Garmin.... :)

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  25. PLEASE CONTINUE TO INCLUDE MOTHERHOOD POSTS!!! I want to have the jewel fairy come to me. I hope you don't mind that I will COPY all of your cute ideas when I am a mom. Seriously your kids are the cutest. I loved all the pictures, you are a very talented photographer. Seriously, so cute. I love reading about your family and running so just keep doing what you are doing!

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  26. We don't have any fairies around here but we do have pirates with hidden treasure! Looks like a fun forest you're running over there. Hope to see you joining us at The Casa for Wordful Wednesday soon!

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  27. You are an amazing mom Amanda!!! Too fun. I will have to do that with Kate someday soon. Love it.

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  28. Ps. At kate's 2nd bday, the girls made pixie dust bottles. I bought the little glass jars at michaels and they layered the colored sugar (pixie dust) in their jars. They loved it.

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  29. Fantastic post. I did not have a magical childhood, but we try our best at home. Epic star wars battles happen every night with paper towel roll light sabers, we like to build things too. Forts, Lego castles etc. Boxes at this point always end up being spaceships. My son is 3 and daughter is 1. I love the buried treasure idea. Love your blog!

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