Princess stories

Sometimes, we make up stories. Little a has her favourites, and I'm always amazed what she remembers. A bit perilous because a lot of the time I don't remember myself. Unsurprisingly, the stories normally star the princess a.

Princess Story part II (14 June 2010)

[little a: "tell the one about the rain and the cat feet!!" We first made up this story in the bath, using those counting cups with holes in the bottom to play at raindrops and sploshing ...]

One morning, princess a woke up to find it was pouring with rain. Princess a loved the rain, so she ran downstairs, pulled on her welly boots [we act this bit out, even lying down in bed], put on her big raincoat, tied up her rain hat and grabbed her umbrella. And shouting a quick 'goodbye' to her mummy the queen, she dashed outside. She jumped and she splashed and splooshed and sploshed her way down the road and in to the forest. Sometimes she tipped her head back and drank the big fat raindrops when they fell on her tongue. And sometimes she twirled her umbrella. And always she found the biggest deepest puddles to jump in.

Princess a was just starting to get a bit too wet when she came to the edge of the trees. Under their canopy of leaves, it was much drier, and she put her brolly down because there was only the occasional big splot as a particularly fat raindrop barged its way through. It was very quiet in the forest, because all the animals were sheltering from the rain. It smelled of earth and mushrooms.

Princess a tip-toed on through the trees. She didn't need to tip-toe, and in fact it was quite difficult in her wellies. But it didn't seem right to stomp when all the animals were being so quiet and shivery.

Very soon, she came to a stream through the forest, and saw some very happy ducks. But on the other side of the stream, she saw a very curious sight indeed.

Balanced on top of a very large tree-stump, there was a house. Well, more of a cottage really. It was a very pretty cottage, just like you'd want a cottage to be, with shutters on the windows and roses round the porch and a lovely thatched roof. Only, in the rain, it looked a bit bedraggled. The thatch was all drippy, and the shutters closed up, and princess a could have sworn, if she looked closely, that the letterbox looked rather - well - sad.

What was a house doing on top of a treestump? it was very peculiar.

Princess a splashed through the stream, saying hello to the happy ducks as she passed.

As she got closer, the little house twitched, and water gushed off the roof in a big SPLOOSH! And as she got closer still, she noticed, tucked underneath the bottom of the house, what looked like - yes - cat's paws! The pretty little thatched cottage had feet! And of course it was miserable in the rain, because they were cat's feet, and we all know how cats feel about water.

Well princess a was very curious indeed. She climbed up on to the treestump, reached up under the porch and knocked on the door.

Very soon, she heard footsteps. The door opened, and there stood a little round fairy!

"oh hello, princess a, dear" said the fairy. "Do come in out of the rain, you'll catch your death out there. I've just put some scones in the oven and hot chocolate on the stove".

Well, princess a had to admit that although she loved the rain, she loved the idea of a warm and cosy kitchen filled with scones and hot chocolate even more. So she put down her umbrella, took off her wellies and left them under the porch, and followed the bustling fairy through into the little cottage.

When the serious business of eating and drinking was done, princess a said to the fairy: "I hope you don't mind me asking, but why is your house sitting on a treestump?"

"oh dear" said the fairy. "you see, he does hate the rain so. He wishes we could go somewhere warmer, but I don't want to leave my friends in the forest"

"But I love the rain!" said princess a. "Perhaps it's just because he gets so wet. He needs welly boots and a brolly like me!"

"Do you know? I think you're right!" said the little round fairy with a twinkle in her eye. "Let's see what we can do."

And without further ado, she began rummaging in the cupboard under the stairs. All kinds of rubbish and junk came tumbling out, until "ta-da!" she shouted "I knew I had them somewhere". And there in her hand, the fairy held the tiniest pair of red rubber wellies. "I've had them since I was a baby. My dear mama never did throw anything away". Then back into the cupboard she went, until - "And this will do perfectly!" - she popped back out holding a little paper cocktail umbrella, the kind you get in your drink at parties.

On the stove, next to the hot chocolate pot, there bubbled a cauldron. The little fairy grabbed a pinch of this, a sprinkling of that, and a dash of the other. Into the cauldron they went, and she stirred and stirred it round until steam started to shoot up into the air.

"Abracadabra, we'll have a hoot, please transform this little old boot!" and she tossed her red wellies in to the pot ... "Izzy wizzy let's get jolly, time to grow a giant brolly!" and in went the miniature umbrella. One more stir, and then the fairy took out her wand from her apron pocket, squinched her eyes tight shut, and gave the cauldron a mighty TAP.

Princess a was coughing and spluttering at all the smoke that filled the room, then as it cleared, she saw on the floor the most enormous umbrella, and not two, not three but FOUR giant wellington boots. She clapped her hands with delight!

The little fairy grapped the big umbrella, and poked it up the chimney. As she pushed and pushed, the handle grew longer and longer, just like a chimney sweep's brush, until WHOMP! it popped out of the top of the chimney pot, and FLOMP! it opened up over the top of the house, just exactly the right size to cover the pretty thatched roof.

Then princess a and the little fairy pulled on their own wellies, and each dragging two of the giant boots, they rushed outside.

Well the little cottage was delighted. He opened his shutters and flapped his letter box, and stretched out his paws for the boots. They fit perfectly!

And so it was that the fairy's little cottage found he did like the rain after all. And princess a and the fairy, and her cottage spent a very happy afternoon splashing through the puddles and playing with the ducks.

And when it was time for princess a to go home, the fairy tapped her once on the nose with her wand. And what do you know? in a twinkling of an eye, princess a was sploshing once more: but this time in a lovely hot bath, filled with bubbles right up to her nose!




Usually our stories are about princess a. But tonight it was princess Gracie ...

Princes Story part I (2 April 2010)

Once upon a time there was a princess whose name was Gracie, and she had really really curly hair. One night, Princess Gracie was very tired indeed. She'd been playing with her friends all day, climbing trees and playing catch, and she was very glad it was bedtime. She brushed her teeth, pulled on her pyjamas, and jumped into bed. With a happy sigh, she shut her eyes tight and laid her head on the pillow. But - oh no!! Her head just bounced back off the pillow. Her hair was sooo curly that it made her head bounce! She tried turning over and putting the other side of her head down on the pillow. But - oh no!!! it just bounced again! She tried lying on her back, but - you guessed it: her head just bounced up, so high she bumped her head on the top of her four poster bead! Oh dear ... Princess Gracie didn't know WHAT to do. Would she have to get a bolster, and prop herself up so her head didn't touch the pillow? Or sleep sitting up? Or sleep in a chair? It was no good. With a big sigh, and heavy eyelids, princess Gracie got out of bed and paced to her window. She looked out into the dark dark night, up at the moon, and said "hello moon! I can't sleep! What shall I do?"
Well, the man in the moon beamed down at her, and said "why don't you wish upon a star?"
"oh yes!" said princess gracie "what a good idea" and she looked up across the sky until she saw the brightest, twinkliest star.
[little a: "princess gracie's got wings"]
Now it just so happened that Princess Gracie had wings! So she pushed open her window, and climbed on her window ledge (which is a thing you must never do if you don't have wings ... ) and flew up up up until she was right in front of the twinkliest star. "Hello star!" she said, and kissed him on the nose
"hello, princess gracie!" said the star "what can I do for you?"
"star light, star bright, twinkliest star I see tonight. I wish I may - I wish I might - not have curly hair tonight!!"
"okay!" said the star, and he closed his eyes tight, and bunched himself up with all his might, until he was even more twinkly and a starbeam shot out, right onto princess gracie's hair. In an instant, all the curls had bounced right off her head.
"thank you! thank you!" princess gracie cried, and she flew loop-the-loops in her delight
"careful!" said the little star "you'll bounce the curls back in!"
So with one more kiss and a big "thank you", princess gracie flew back, over the trees and rivers and mountains, down down down until she came back to her very own windowledge. In she swooped, and closed the window behind her. Then with a big, huge yawn, she padded back across her bedroom, pulled back her snuggly duvet, hopped into bed and with a satisfied sigh, gently laid her head, with its much more sensible curls, down on the pillow. She closed her eyes and was immediately fast fast asleep, dreaming of bouncing and playing and hot air balloons. Goodnight, princess gracie!
[little a: no no! it's not the end! then princess gracie wakes up! it's not the end it's not the end!!!!]