Fairy homes get their closeup at Pine Lake Park

After reading many fairytales, kids in Sammamish may be wondering whether fairies do exist, and if so, why they are so hard to spot. Now parents have an answer in Pine Lake Park.

The Sammamish Arts Commission opened a new attraction within the park on June 1 that features a beautiful set of community-made fairy houses.

The houses are made of bark, leaves, and anything else found on the ground of the woods, blending in perfectly with the natural environment. These beautiful houses seem to invite little fairies to fly to the trail and take a rest in the park.

Ashley Arrington, who chairs the Arts Commission, came up with the idea and organized the project.

Arrington then invited Sammamish residents to use their imagination and build these fairy houses, challenging participants to only use natural materials in order to preserve a “forest” look.

After an approximately three-month process of planning, the houses were installed in Pine Lake Park, which was chosen because the trail was easily accessible from the parking lot, according to Chris Jordan, the city’s recreation and cultural services manager.

Creators of all ages, including elementary school students, submitted a wide range of different houses, 14 in total. Some of the houses were done by members of an entire family.

Abi Nubla-Kung, 46, one of the fairy house creators, said that she and her family “loved doing it.”

She created her fairy house in collaboration with her two sons, ages 8 and 11, and her neighbor’s family. Even though none of them had done anything like this before, she had a lot of fun and hopes that next year she can include her whole neighborhood in the project.

“My son wants to be an architect / builder, so this was a great intro into how structures were built,” Nubla-Kung said.

Arrington said that she loves seeing how people think differently about an arts project with the same set of rules. The fairy houses add just a touch of happiness and color to an otherwise normal trail.

These fairy houses will stay up until the end of June, and then disappear like their tiny residents so often do.

For more information about the Fairy House Trail at Pine Lake Park, go here.