Ivey woke up. She looked at the clock. It was eight! “Oh n- wait, we had movie night last night, so today is Saturday! Phooey, an hour of – ok, a half hour of playtime wasted. I would have used at least half an hour for getting dressed, putting in contacts and cleaning my room.” 15 minutes later the squirrel was out in the backyard in an Indian costume. Little Warrior (Ivey) was helping Little Swallow (Allie) and “Big Chief Daddy” (name submitted by Little Princess (Lauren)) take the playset to bits. The rickety structure’s slide had come off the other night. When it had come down, Little Princess, Little Swallow, and Little Warrior looked sadly at the pile of wood and the bucket of screws, nuts and bolts that had once been a castle, a pirate ship, the Swallow or the Amazon, Redwall, a house or a hotel and just plain a playset.
Allie grew bored of Indians and said, “Can we play ‘Mom and Kid’?” This game had many variations. You could have an Indian, Middle Ages, 1800’s, modern, busy or calm mom and kid(s). 1800’s was chosen, and so Ivey got into a lot of slips and skirts for a full skirt look and put on her colonial outfit and cape, Allie found a green plaid shirt, over which she wore her cowboy vest, and Lauren’s green skirt. She put on Ivey’s blue cape over it (Ivey was wearing Lauren’s white one) and Lauren was wearing a multicolored leotard and a pink silk skirt with Ivey’s white cape with the gold stars on it. (See how many more outfits you can find when you have sisters!)
Allie and Lauren’s room was chosen for the "house” and the squirrels got busy. Pillows and a quilt transformed Allie’s upper bunk into a bedroom while toys were set on Lauren’s bunk – the playroom. Allie’s breakfast-in-bed table had a baby blanket thrown over it and set with Lauren’s Pooh Bear tea set. Capes were hung on the “coat rack in the hall” – Lauren’s dresser. The closet doors were the end of the house at first, but Lauren – “Julia”- needed to get her doll, and then Grover, and then Pooh, and finally Allie said it could be the attic.
Ivey, “Willow”, cut up an apple and put the slices on the plates for breakfast. No water in open cups was allowed in the bedroom, so Allie, “Edith”, and Julia’s water bottles sat on the table. Three small forks were taken from the kitchen while Mom was blogging, and also three shallow Tupperware dishes for bowls and plates.
After breakfast Willow decided that they were going to do housecleaning. Julia, not having a very good opinion of housecleaning, announced that she was sick. Edith wanted to get sick too, but Willow said she couldn’t take care of all of them and the housecleaning, and promised her that that as soon as Julia was better she could be sick. However, they finished the housecleaning and Julia was still sick, so Willow got some of her perfume (see recipe at bottom) and sprayed it on her head. Then Julia had to be better so Edith could have a turn.
Edith got over it quickly. She had to, because Mom called, “Girls! We’re going Christmas shopping!” The outfits were quickly stowed in Allie and Lauren’s hanging cubbyholes. They were out to the car in a few minutes. Foley’s was a while away, so there were books in their owners’ paws. Ivey had Marlfox, which was a very absorbing book and would keep her busy for a while. Allie had a book about Wilbur and Orville Wright, the two otter brothers who had invented the airplane. Lauren had a book of Christmas stories and poems.
Foleys was crowded. It was filled with Christmas shoppers. The squirrels bought matching plaid flannel nightgowns, an origami calendar for Sister Rachel, the mother of a mouse family that had recently joined the church, and a tie for Goggy, their grandfather. While they were in line to pay, Mom’s phone started ringing. It was Goggy, who wanted them to take him to see the “real Santa” at Stonebriar Mall late Sunday afternoon, and then “take him to the ice rink so he could watch his ‘beautiful little grandsquirrels’ skate”. Mom pretended to hesitate, and asked the squirrels, “Do you think we might be able to do that Sunday?”
“Yes!” Ivey, Allie and Lauren almost yelled.
“Shh,” said Mom, as she turned back to the phone.
They went outside. Their car was parked near the bottom of the kid’s favorite grass slope. So, while Mom and Dad tried to walk down without slipping, the young squirrels ran down the slope, each in her own way. Allie turned somersaults (which she regretted when she got down to the car and found that she had grass stains all over), Lauren looked almost as if she was flying, running with her arms outstretched, and Ivey felt as though she were flying. She ran and jumped down the slope, called “galumphing” in the Arthur Ransome “Swallows and Amazons” books.
The ride back home was filled with eager conversation and laughter from the back seat. Lauren and Allie were discussing with Ivey what they were going to play outside when they got home. Ivey had no doubt about it. They were either going to play Redwall or castle or searats or privateers, (which was only searats reversed and the privateers capturing the searats) since those were the games that they usually played. Lauren didn’t want to play privateers or Redwall, and Allie was bored of searats, so as Ivey had no objection to any games, they decided on castle. They sat composing the background. “Hmm. Oh, I know! There was a fire where the queen lived before, and the castle burned up, and so she had to run to another place to escape the flames. When she came back, all her people had left as well, and had settled in a wide open plain. The queen built a new castle and lived in it with her knight and her maid/squire. How does that sound?” Allie piped up. Ivey and Lauren liked that.
“I get to build the castle!” Ivey said. She picked up her notepad and drew a plan:
“The balance beam is on top of the Big Black Box and the table, the slide is balanced on the balance beam.
“Oh, that’s neat,” said Allie. “Which way is the Big Black Box facing?”
“Inward,” answered Ivey. “I would have drawn the door, but that would have gotten all over the slide.” They pulled into the driveway. The squirrels ran inside and dumped their stuff inside their rooms, and ran to the backyard. The castle was quickly built, according to Ivey’s plan, and Allie stood on the balance beam. “Hey!”
Ivey looked up from where she was sitting on the “throne”- an old green camp chair. “Hey, there. Hay is for horses, don’t hay me,” she answered, which was a silly thing that Dad said. “What is it?”
“I can see the sunset from here!” There was an immediate scramble for the balance beam. “Wow!” Everyone sat down as they watched the rose-colored, lavender, orange and pink sunset disappear beyond the treetops.
