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Operation Fairy Garden
Joy. That feeling of intense happiness and gratification we experience when we discover something new or thrilling, or achieve something meaningful to us. I experienced joy just this past weekend. My husband and I surprised our daughter for her 8th birthday by transforming her room into a fairy garden while she was away at grandma’s house.

For two days my husband and I focused on realizing the transformation (which we called Operation Fairy Garden since, due to the surprise nature, it needed to be orchestrated with military precision if we were going to complete the mission before our daughter returned home on Sunday).
Joy – hers from having a dream come true and mine for making it possible.
Joy in Nature
My daughter has always loved nature. Like fairies, it holds magic for her. Outdoors is the place she goes to set her imagination free, or to be wild and boisterous as she burns off pent up energy from a long day at school, and where she often does one of her favorite things of all – sing. Nature speaks to her, touches her and helps her heart take wing. She loves the beauty it offers, its variety of colors, shapes and sizes. She appreciates its many life forms, too. Nature brings her peace. And, like her new bedroom, it brings her joy.
That sense of shared joy brings us back to Operation Fairy Garden. Before the results of our secret mission were revealed to her, we had our daughter read aloud the sign we had placed on her bedroom door. It read: “Happy Birthday. May your garden always grow.” Together we’ll make sure it does.
Ways to Share Fairies and Nature With Your Family:
- To have some winter birthday fun, build a fairy landscape.
- To bring some fairy magic into your life try Ranger Rick’s fairy house activity
- To discover a unique sanctuary, read Lessons in a Fairy House
- To explore nature with a child in your life share NWF’s award-winning children’s publications