Thursday, March 19, 2009

Spin Cycle: Little Wonder Explorers

Once upon a time there were two little girls named Elizabeth and Lilli. They were out in their backyard one day pretending to go on an adventure.

"Let's pretend we're princesses!", said Lilli.

"Yes, and pretend we got some mail!" Elizabeth answered.

"Mail Time!", cried Lilli. "I love mail time! Here's the mail, it never fails, it makes me want to wag my tail, when it comes I want to wa-"

"What?", said Elizabeth. "You have a tail?"

"Never mind.", said Lilli. "What came in the mail?"

"It's an invitation to Papa's birthday party!"

"We have to go there!", said Lilli.

The back yard faded away. The girls were now standing on a yellow path that wound through a forest, past some sort of obstacle, and to a hill, atop which they could see a lot of birthday balloons.

They needed to get to the birthday party, but naturally, they didn't know the way. What were they going to do? A voice spoke up from on top of Lilli's head.

"I know the way!", it cried.

"Magical Cap! Do you know how to get to the birthday party?", asked Elizabeth.

"Of course!", said the Magical Cap. "I'm a cap, I'm a cap, I'm a caaaaaaaap!"

"Where are we going?", asked Lilli"

"To the birthday party!" replied the Magical Cap"

"How do we get there?", Elizabeth asked.

"Through the forest, past the Grumpy Old Hole, and to the birthday party!", replied the Magical Cap.

"Allons-y!" cried Elizabeth, who had suddenly learned French

As the girls went down the path they suddenly heard a noise.

"That sounds like a puppy crying!", Elizabeth said.

"We should rescue it!", Lilli agreed.

A tiny duckling, turtle and guinea pig suddenly flew by, their Frisbee aircraft narrowly missing Elizabeth's curls.

"What are they singing?", asked Lilli.

"I'm not sure.", Elizabeth replied. "It sounds like something about teamwork?"

"Teamwork! We should get us some of that so we can go save that puppy!", Lilli cried.

"Don't bother," Elizabeth said, watching the trio of little animals zooming away, "I think they have that covered".

The girls continued down the path. They realized that their surroundings did not look as life-like as they had a minute ago.

"I think we're in the middle of 'Beech Forest' by Klimt", said Lilli. "Isn't it lovely?"

"What?", asked Elizabeth. "You keep saying weird things. And why do I hear the Spring movement of Vivaldi's Four Season's playing in the background? Where is that coming from?"

"I hear it too", said Lilli, "It's probably coming from that Violin Tree over there.

"Violin tree?", asked Elizabeth.

"Yeah, look, all the leaves are shaped like violins."

"Amazing!", Elizabeth said. "But what-"

"Look!", Lilli cried. "That must be the Grumpy Old Hole!" Indeed, in the middle of the path there seemed to be a deep pit. "It doesn't look grumpy to me", she said.

"I know, me neither.", Elizabeth replied.

A cranky voice drifted up to them from the depths of the hole. "You'd be grumpy too if you'd been stuck in a pit for a really long time!"

"Hey, I know that voice, that's our cat, Newts!", Elizabeth said.

"Well!", exclaimed Lilli. "I guess I get to sing that teamwork song after all! Only now it's save the kitty!"

"Got any ideas?", asked Elizabeth. "We're going to be late to Papa's birthday party."

"Well", said Lilli, matter of factly, "I do see several pieces of rope ladder scattered around the nearby bushes. We could tie them together."

"Not that one!", cried Elizabeth. "That's a snake! You have to be careful to only pick the pieces that are rope!"

In no time at all the girls had found all the pieces, tied them together and dropped the ladder down the hole for Newts to scamper up. They gave Newts kisses on his nose so he would feel all better and then the three of them ran up the hill to the party. There were balloons and streamers and a giant cake, and best of all, there was Papa, waiting for them.

Papa gave them big hugs. "Thanks for coming to my birthday party!", he said, "I'm so glad you got here, I almost thought you weren't going to make it."

"We did it, we did it! Yaaaaaay, we did it!", the girls chanted.

A lound rumbling noise filled the air.

"Now what?", Elizabeth asked.

"Oh, it's just my stomach.", Lilli replied. "I'm hungry. Want to go see if Mama has a snack for us? I think she has some strawberries."

"Yeah!", Elizabeth cried.

As the two sisters ran into the house, laughing happily about their backyard adventure, the birthday party scene faded behind them.

A moment later Elizabeth stuck her head out the door and yelled "We did it!" to the empty back yard.

The End.



With apologies to Blue's Clues, The Backyardigans, Dora the Explorer, the Wonder Pets, and The Little Einsteins. And a big thank you to Sprite's Keeper who gave us the Spin Cycle assignment this week of creative writing, and has just made my Thursday much better.

3 comments:

Sprite's Keeper said...

I recognized every show except the Backyardigans! I am actually proud of myself! Great story, and I thought for a second that the obstacle course was coming out of Dora the Explorer and the voice above would be the Map, although I have only seen limited episodes of Dora. I loved this Spin and a special thanks to Elizabeth and Lilli for the wonderful imaginations! You're linked!

Camille said...

I remember playing like that as a kid, although our inspirations were a bit more old school, like care bares.

Shangrila said...

OMG-I heart you in your face! You just bought yourself a stalker for life-lol! Sadly, I knew every show-you put them together BRILLIANTLY! Your girls will get a kick out of this story when they're older-I know I did! AWESOME spin!