Mom and Perry wrote story starters and we passed them around, each person adding a little more to the story. The starter is in bold, then every other person's section is bolded. At the end of each story, credits are given in order so you can figure out who wrote what...
Tea party
Sisters AnnaPatrice and MaryBeatrice loved teapots and teacups of all types. AnnaPat favored dainty floral bone china such as the Queen of England would set her own table with. Small pink flowers and real gold on the rim, blue cornflowers with silvered rims—the prettier the better. MaryBea’s style made for a lot of conversation.
She stored her collection in a variety of shoeboxes kept under her bed. On this particular day, AnnaPat and MaryBea were taking out their favorite teapots and cups, gathering spicy-smelling tea bags, and dainty cupcakes.
“The guests will arrive soon!” AnnaPat squealed.
“Good!” said MaryBea. “I wonder who should get the Mary Jane teacup?” A few moments later, she was wondering, “Where should I set the tennis shoe teapot? And which guest should get the Sparkly Red High Heel tea cup?”
For, AnnaPat’s style in teacups was shoes! Before, she had had an obsession for shoes, so many that she didn’t know what to do with them (until Katie O.’s mother came and burned them all!). So after that she had turned to collecting teacups, but, somehow she had kept buying teacups that looked like shoes!
In fact, she had relicas of the shoes the elves wore in the story of “The Elves and the Shoemaker,” the Queen of England’s christening booties, and the ones that Ferdinand Magellan wore when he sailed around the world! On girl, named Tristy, always drank out of the Dutch shoes because she was part Dutch.
The sisters’ tea party was going pretty well until their cute little dog, Marigold, brought one the guests’ shoes upstairs. Moments later, Tristy looked up and said to Ellie, another guest, “Oh, how funny!” Your tea cup reminds me very much of my shoes!”
“Really?” Ellie said. She repeated the remark to MaryBea.
MaryBea’s eyes grew very wide as she said, “Uh, oh! I don’t think I have a teacup like that!” Ellie sputtered on the tea she had just drunk.
“Look!” said AnnaPat, pointing to Marigold, who was just coming upstairs with another shoe.
Needless to say, MaryBea, although she still collected unusual teacups, decided to host parties using teacups that looked more like teacups!
Starter (by Mom); Perry; Aimee; Kate; Perry
The Funny Family
A long time ago, there was a funny family who lived in a funny house. Even the large backyard was funny because there was an old Model T with daisies grown up through the floorboards parked right near the walnut tree.
And the clothesline was very crooked! The dog had short ears! The kids’ names were Peanut Butter, Chocolate, and what do you think the youngest kid’s name was? Cry Baby! And the cat’s name was Salsa!
Every day, the mom and dad, Peanut Butter, Chocolate, Cry Baby, and Salsa went for a ride in their old Model T. So far they’d visited California, Ireland, the Galapagos Islands, and Washington D.C. When the children told their neighbors about their adventures, the neighbors thought they were weird.
Of course, the family was just pretending. California was really the clothesline, the playhouse was the White House, and the Walnut Tree was Ireland. The parents of the Chili family had decided, way before Peanut Butter was born, that to save money, they would vacation in their own backyard!
They had so much fun and learned so much about the countries they “visited,” that they did it every summer until the kids were grown. When Peanut Butter grew up, he became a renowned historian, when Chocolate grew up he became a congressman in Washington D.C., and when Cry Baby grew up, he played fiddle in pubs all across Ireland! And Mama and Papa Chili stayed quietly in their old homes with Salsa, and Papa collected Model Ts and Mama grew flowers!
Starter (by Mom); Anna; Perry; Kate; Aimee
A Feel-Good Story from PETA
There once was a mommy who had mounds of laundry to do. She thought she should get started washing it all. But when she took the first load of the washer, she found that something had dissolved all the clothes!
She inspected the washer to make sure it was working right, but everything was in place. Her soap was just fine; she had used the same brand for seven years, and nothing had ever gone wrong. As she leaned down to inspect the washer again, she was astonished to see a little black spider with a blue diamond on his back, crawl out of the soap drawer! She ran up the stairs to get her spider encyclopedia, and sure enough, it was called a “Laundry-Eating Super Spider.” She called up Pest Control, but the office wasn’t open Tuesdays, so she called the Animal Catcher.
“We’ve never heard of that kind,” they told her. What was she to do? She called her husband at work.
He thought for a few moments and said, “Why don’t you put it in a jar since they’re only harmful to laundry, not to humans?” So the mommy went back to the laundry room with a jar, only to find... no spider! Where had it gotten to?
Then she heard a squeal. She ran to the workshop and there sat the oldest girl in a bucket of paint! With the spider on her!
She had been painting some beads when the spider appeared and scared her! Just then, there was a knock on the door and in stepped a handsome young man from PETA, who was so proud of the daughter for not killing the spider that he married her, removed the spider to a “safe habitat” where it ate scraps of upholstery in the junk yard, and bought the mommy a new washer and dryer and new clothes to replace the ones that were eaten! Thus, the mommy lost a daughter, got son-in-law, a new washer and clothes, and helped one little endangered critter find happiness in a world of tyranny!
Starter (by Perry); Kate; Perry; Anna; Aimee
Duct Tape
Ivan was a ten-year-old boy who liked contraptions and gizmos. He liked paperclips, rubberbands, glue, and most of all, he liked duct tape! One day he found a roll of Intensely Sticky brand lime green duct tape.
Ivan decided to save it. Several years later, war broke out. Everyone was fighting against each other; Ivan had an idea. He got out his green duct tape and went to make peace. Ivan went straight to the commander of the enemy and told him he would tape all their guns together if they didn’t stop fighting.
The commander just laughed and told him to run along home to his mother. “You’ll see,” said Ivan, and whipped out his Intensely Sticky brand lime green duct tape. In two seconds flat, the commander’s arms were tied, his mouth was gagged, and he was taped to his desk! Ivan un-taped the commander said, “Now do you believe me?”
“Yes,” said the commander. Then he signed a peace treaty that if he did not duct tape them up, that they would feed them popcorn and the new kind of food that was salsa, fudge, peanut butter, and cookies! And there was peace for a long time.
Until... another boy came up with a stickier duct tape and he and Ivan had to fight about that!
Starter (by Mom); Paul; Aimee; Anna; Kate
A Knight, a Princess, and a Logger
Once there was a very chivalrous knight. He was strong and brave and very good at sword-fighting. But he had a problem. He couldn’t find a lady!
He was very handsome: he had brown hair and light blue eyes, and was very kind but the problem was... nobody knew it! He had met a flirtatious girl when he was 12 and had been scared of girls ever since! “Tanyen,” said his sole friend, the shepherd, “Thou canst not be a knight if thou art afraid of rescuing damsels in distress, and have no lady!”
“I know,” Tanyen replied, “but I am afraid.”
“Knights are not afraid,” the good shepherd said. “You must conquer your fear!” So one bright summer morning, Tanyen set off with his heart in his throat, to seek a lady and conquer his fears.
He stopped at a cottage. A very pretty lady came out and stared at him (he was royal). He jumped off his horse and came into the barn it smelled so good. It smelled like soda and French fries! “Nummy!” he said.
“You like soda and French fries?” the lady asked. She had followed him to the barn. The knight’s eyes flew open and he was about to run away when she said, “Wait! I’ll feed you good soda and French fries if you do me one favor.” As she spoke, she gestured with her hands, and the knight saw that she had a wedding ring on.
“Whew!” he thought. “This one’s married.” He was much relieved!
She brought him soda and French fries and told him that she had a lovely sister who was locked in the tower by an evil dragon. “She has been hoping that some knight brave enough to conquer his fears would save her, but as yet, none has even tried!”
“Oh, I could never do that, as much as I love French fries and soda, but you see,” he pushed the food away and leaned over the counter, “when I was twelve, this girl wouldn’t stop talking to me, and ever since, I have never stood up to one.”
“Aren’t you a brave knight, though?” the lady asked.
“Oh well, maybe, but...”
“But what? She is beautiful!”
“But most girls talk too much.”
“Well, Tanyen, this one does not. She is mute.”
“Mute? A mute princess? No way!”
“Way! She is.”
“Well, then I may give it a try... if...”
“If what?”
“If it’s not some spell that can be broken,” Tanyen said.
“I do not know about that... are you willing?”
“Okay.” After eating his French fries and soda, he started on his way.
Soon he came to the tower. There was the dragon guarding the door. So the knight went around back. There was a window high up so he tried to scale the wall, but the dragon had rubbed the wall with soap! The knight walked into the woods a little ways to think. There he found spiked boots and a cable like loggers use. He put on the boots and took the cable to the wall. The knight climbed the wall. He motioned to the princess to climb down on the cable he had tied to the bedpost.
Once they were down, the dragon spotted them and began to chase. The dragon chased them into the woods, breathing fire and catching trees on fire. All of a sudden, a logger jumped out of the woods and cut the dragon in half with his chainsaw! Now, Tanyen did not know it, but the princess was just under a spell, and when the dragon was killed, the spell was broken. As soon as the logger finished calling the fire department on his radio, she thanked him for saving their lives.
As soon as the knight heard her speak, he ran away. The logger and the princess fell in love, got married, and lived happily ever after. As for the knight, he fell in love with a lady because he heard of a guy named Ivan who used duct tape to gag people. The knight tried using flour paste, since he didn’t have duct tape, but she just ate it. So he decided to not get married.
Starter (by Perry); Aimee; Anna; Perry; Kate; Paul
