Everly is a pretty and kind, little unicorn who lives with her mummy, daddy and little brother – Sashy Bear, in a tree house in Farmer Norm's apple orchard. 

Yes - a unicorn in a tree house! Quite a sight to see! It is a crooked little tree house with a spirally ramp that twists around the tree all the way from the ground to the door.

Unicorns help keep the birds away that peck at the apples so Farmer Norm is happy a unicorn family lives in his orchard.

Everly is also very shy and only has one friend, her bestie, Elsie the duck, who lives with her own family at the end of the paddock near Farmer Norm’s dam.

Everly is turning six years old and is having a fairy princess birthday party.

However, on the morning of the party her pet puppy Tinker found her costume and  decided to play

with it, shredding it to pieces!

Everly's mummy sends a message to Elsie to let her know to no longer wear a fairy princess costume.

Gertie, a sweet little squirrel from the post office, delivers Everly's mummy's message to Elsie that morning and explains what the puppy has done and that Everly is very sad.

Elsie sighs deeply. She feels so badly for her friend. Everly is so sweet and so gentle; surely she

could do something to help brighten

Everly’s day?

Suddenly she has an idea and dives

under her bed, a little bed hidden

in the tall grass reeds and daisies.

Gertie watches, twitching her little squirrel head to one side out of curiosity. “What on earth are you doing, Elsie?” 

Gertie falls to the floor in giggles as Elsie’s entire body nearly disappears.

The only thing Gertie can now see is

Elsie’s feathery, duck bom bom high

in the air, her little tail feathers

sticking up as she throws hats and

scarves all about.

“This”! quacks Elsie excitedly, waving a pretty princess costume. “Everly can wear this today and still be a princess, even if she’s not a fairy princess. It’s a little too big for my duck body but would fit a unicorn perfectly”.

Gertie squeals excitedly. “Ooh - Marna the Llama has some sparkly shoes that I’m sure she’d let Everly

borrow!

I also have a small jar of fairy dust I can bring if you don’t think Everly would mind if perhaps I joined you and came to her party.” 

Elsie beams. “What a great idea, Gertie!”

Elsie and Gertie rush over to Marna the Llama's little house. Marna opens the door with a big smile. She explains that although Everly is in her class at school she doesn’t know her very well as Everly is so quiet.

Elsie speaks softly. “Everly’s just shy, Marna. But she’s lots of fun to play with and really, really nice”.

With a kind smile Marna says "I'll be right back!".

She reappears a few minutes later wearing her own fairy princess outfit for the party and carrying four beautiful,

silver sparkly shoes. 

Marna suddenly looks bashful. She glanced at Elsie and Gertie and almost whispers “I’d like to come to Everly’s birthday party too, if you think

that’d be okay? I'll bring these

shoes for her. 

I’d really like to play with Everly

at school too", she says happily.

The girls give Marna a huge hug. 

Thus, off they all trot off toward Everly’s house, Marna in front. She is a very fast walker.

Marna suddenly stops short. Elsie, having no warning at all crashes into her. Gertie, being right behind Elsie ends up crashing into Elsie's feathery butt. She scrambles out of the big bunch of feathers.

“Sorry but I have an idea!", says Marna quickly. My friend, Hannah the Goanna, has a pretty wand in her dress-up box. We should see if she’ll loan it to Everly today too”.

Soon – you guessed it – they arrive at Moana’s house.

Hannah lives in a cute burrow in the ground, nestled right by a big apple tree in Farmer Norm’s orchard. 

As Marna the llama, Elsie the duck and Gertie the squirrel finish their story, Moana wipes her eyes. 

“That’s very sad. I like Everly a lot."

 Hannah continues, "I see Everly at the library but we’ve only said hi a few times. From now on when I see her I'm going to say hello and ask her to play with me." 

She looks thoughtful then, " I would

 be happy to give my wand to Everly

for her party. Do you think I can

come to the party too?”

They all squeal delightedly.  Hannah nearly jumps out of her skin. 

She giggles. “I guess it’s okay then. Give me a second and I’ll put on a costume. I have a lot of hand-me-downs from my big sisters so I have a costume that I can wear!”

Soon  Hannah the goanna, Marna the llama, Elsie the duck and Gertie the squirrel are on their way. They look quite a sight in their bright and sparkly fairy princess costumes! 

Suddenly Moana stops. “Hold up everyone!” 

This time Elsie thinks fast. As the group come to a crashing stop Elsie flutters her wings madly and dodges out the way -  just..in..time! 

Gertie isn’t so lucky and bounces off of Marna’s behind. She sits in a daze, rubbing her head.

“Ouch.”  Hannah hugs Gertie. “I’m sorry.” Gertie grins and hugs her back. “It’s okay. I bounce really well.” They giggle. 

 Hannah suddenly remembers why she’d stopped.

“Everly needs to be a fairy princess. She has all the parts of her princess costume now but needs something extra special to be a fairy princess. Do you guys know what it is?”

WHAT ABOUT YOU?

All together the group yell “FAIRY WINGS"!!

“But where can we find dress up fairy wings quickly?” sighs Elsie. 

Marna shrugs her shoulders too. She can't think of anyone.

 Hannah smiles. “Who do we know who is super nice, talks very fast and has a mummy who sings on stage so she has lots of dress-up costumes?"

Bang, bang, Bang! Billy the Kid (a Kid is what a very young goat is called) answers his door. 

He is surprised to see his friend,  Hannah the goanna standing there in a fairy princess costume, along with Marna the Llama, Elsie the duck and Gertie the Squirrel.

They are all in costume too.

Billy listens as the group quickly explains.

“I don’t know Everly but she sounds nice and has lots of friends by the looks of it”. Billy says this so quickly it is hard to keep up. He smiles at the group. 

Elsie waddles forward carrying the princess costume for Everly.

As she shows it to Billy the ribbon on her princess crown dangles in her face. She wiggles her head side to side to try and flip the annoying ribbon out of her face. It falls straight back. She tries to blow on it repeatedly, in order for it to move. 

“Everly is really shy”, says Elsie, “but she is also very nice and kind to everyone, which is why I want her to have a wonderful, fairy princess birthday party, just like she wanted. We just don’t have fairy wings.”

“I know we sometimes play with your Mummy’s costumes and I remembered there were some fairy wings.”  Hannah pipes up.

“Sure, let me get them. I know Mummy won’t mind.” Billy trots off. He shortly reappears with the wings. "Uh, I have a question..." He opens his mouth to say something when... 

Elsie scoots forward, eager.. Again the ribbon lands on her face. She looks down at it, dangling this time right in the middle of her duck bill which makes her eyes cross.

Billy laughs. “You’re making yourself cross-eyed, Elsie”. 

Elsie giggles then looks at Billy.

Elsie looks at Billy seriously. “Billy, if you aren’t doing anything would you like to dress up as a fairy prince or princess and come with us to Everly’s fairy princess party?

It’s about to start and I know Everly

 would love to meet you.” Elsie pats Billy on the shoulder. “It sounds like you and Everly would get along really well.”

Say no more!

A few minutes later and down the little dirt trail they go. What a sight the group is, as they traipse happily across Farmer Norm’s paddock to Everly’s tree house.

Elsie leads the group, waddling happily in her fairy princess costume, her little duck wings sparkly with glitter, almost like having real fairy wings.

They stop at the foot of the tree house and one by one trot up the ramp toward the front verandah.

Inside, Everly sits in her living room, a little sadly. She looks around. Mummy and Daddy had worked hard to make the room pretty for her fairy princess party. 

There are balloons and streamers in silver and blues and lots of party food and drinks on the table, including fairy bread – buttered slices of bread covered in delicious, sugary sprinkles as a special treat.

There are also fairy cakes – a type of cupcake that looks like it has wings made from cake, held together with nice dollops of cream and sugar.

Everly is wearing a pretty, yellow dress but is still sad. Mummy sits down beside her and pets her arm. “I’m sorry this party isn’t as you’d hoped, my darling girl.”

Everly buries her face into her mother's chest. Mummy wraps her arms around her tightly. 

“Thank you and Daddy for making things so nice. I’m really trying to be happy Mummy, I really am but more than the costume, I’m sad about only having one friend. I love Elsie but sometimes I feel a bit lonely", Everly whispers.

 Mummy kisses her little girl on the forehead. “I know it’s hard being shy but sometimes we just need to take a bit of a chance and push ourselves. It doesn’t always turn out the way we want but sometimes it does and wonderful things can happen.

And like I always tell you sweetheart, even that one friend can be so important to you and you should always feel lucky for having a nice and kind friend who loves you.” 

Everly nods. Her mummy is very smart and kind and also right. Elsie is a very good friend indeed.

Suddenly there is a big knock at the door. Everly stands up, as does Mummy. Mummy kisses her again then grins, “Well birthday girl, you’d better get the door. I’ll get our first birthday game ready.”

Everly claps her front hooves together excitedly. “Will it be parcel parcel?” Mummy winks as she headed to the kitchen. She knows Everly meant Pass the Parcel but always loves how she says it.

“Maybe.”