When a garden gives back

deanna in ME Barely zone 6a, more like 5b

16 years ago

I'm not your standard mom. I'm not at all crafty, creative, and multi-tasking is not a strength. I'm really great at logic,math, and science, though! Too bad those aren't top requirements for mothering. I've got four kids, ages 10 down to 4, and only one of them has ever had a birthday party. Pretty sad, right? That is my lot in life, and my children's curse.

But, I finally did it, I finally brushed the cobwebs off the Creativity Gears and planned a birthday party for my 8 year old. It came a full month after her birthday, but the focus should be on the fact that we actually did it, not that it was so late. It was quite nerve wracking, wondering if anything I plan could possibly turn out to be fun, if it would all fall apart, if I had enough food, if my plans would degrade into chaos, if things would zip along faster than planned only to have a gaggle of girls staring at my after 30 minutes asking, "OK, what's next?"

Here's my triumph. The girls made fairy houses. I couldn't imagine actually constructing walls and roofs with the girls, so we did tee pee style houses. The girls did a great job! My garden gave back and made it the perfect birthday party. it's the end of the season, and nothing in the garden was off limits--garden beds, containers, you name it. We had collected twigs, leaves, birch bark, moss, and pebbles, and they added the flowers. Surprisingly, one of the most popular things was long silver-green dichondra, a container plant from the window boxes. The girls really created some beautiful things to take home and had a wonderful time. You can see all the fairies with their pretty houses. Now we just have to shrink the fairies down to size so they can take up residence in their new homes!

I'll lastly note that even though the sun was shining and it was a beautiful day, the air was cold and the wind was really gusting. Notice how the eight-year-old fairies could care less about cold and wind!

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Comments (11)

User
16 years ago
What a great idea ! You are a wonderful Mom in LOTS of ways I bet. Those little girls are going to talk about that party for the rest of their lives. And the best part will be the fairy parties they give with their children. What a gift you gave. c
Lilyfinch z9a Murrieta Ca
16 years ago
This is a wonderful party idea! I love that they were all wearing wings. How Fun!
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bev2009
16 years ago
It looks like it was a smashing success! That is something the girls will always remember. You are definitely the "cool" mom in their book.

Your love of math and science can be such a blessing to them! We have a serious lack of kids interested in those fields. Science (nature) proved to be a valuable way for me to bond with my son, especially since neither of us had any interest in sports. He still helps me in the garden and we go together to band owls! And my daughters love birds of prey too. I don't thing too many moms/daughters get excited over seeing a hawk. (BTW, I also have four kids in six years. Did you have the first two a year apart on the same day too? LOL)
Thyme2dig NH Zone 5
16 years ago
Deanna, that is such a sweet party idea. The girls look just precious and the fairy houses they built are so creative and absolutely beautiful!
deanna in ME Barely zone 6a, more like 5b
Original Author
16 years ago
Thanks for the encouragement, everybody. We did have a good time. The party went better than I certainly thought I could do!

bev2009, you beat me! I don't have any that are one year apart. My closest two are 18 months apart. Too bad you weren't here this week. We saw two bald eagles flying over the house for a couple of days. My first concern was that they were planning a full assault on the chickens, but they left chicken-less. We also considered getting our oldest, a girl, into falconry at a school about an hour from here, but it was too expensive for us to do. I think it would have been about $150 an hour because they required that I be present during her lesson because of her age, but charged me on top of that because I was present during her lesson. Don't know how they came up with that policy, but it was just too expensive. I think my oldest would have loved it as she is so good with animals and very observant, but that's life.
cyn427 (z. 7, N. VA)
16 years ago
How wonderful. I LOVE their houses. I'll bet all the girls will remember that as the best birthday party ever!
natalie4b
16 years ago
You made my day!
aimeekitty
16 years ago
This is the cutest thing ever.
thinman
16 years ago
Awwwww, what a pretty bunch of fairies! That was a great idea, Deanna, and I'll bet they had a blast. Pretty darned outstanding for someone who is "not at all crafty." :-)

That science and math comes in awfully handy when the kids need help with their high school homework, and you can answer a lot of questions about how things work that most parents would be stumped by. And, I'll bet you tend to be very logical and a good problem solver. All good mom qualities.

ThinMan
lavender_lass
16 years ago
Did you supply the wings? Those are so cute! I should get a few, for the nieces to wear, when they play in the fairy garden. I think they're outgrowing their Tinkerbell costumes from last year's Halloween :)

Well, first party...huge success! See, you're better than you thought! The other mom's are probably thinking...what are we going to do for our parties? LOL
deanna in ME Barely zone 6a, more like 5b
Original Author
16 years ago
All your encouragement is SO APPRECIATED! Thanks so much for the kind comments.

Believe it or not, lavender lass, the wings were at the dollar store. They were $1 each! Completely perfect for the party. They also had fairy wands and headbands with colored hair (you can see one in the photo), so each girl had wings, wands, and different colored hair. Thank goodness for the dollar store!

Yes, I'll have a lot of fun with science and math in high school. I used to tutor science and math and I just loved showing high school kids why things worked. About 90% of the time the kids had just learned to memorize a "do these steps and the answer pops out" method, but when they were shown the foundation of why the process worked they ended up having success in the classroom. It was very rewarding.