Story Time

Lately, Finn has been telling stories. He always politely asks to make sure he has an eager audience first. My personal favorite so far:

Finn: Jenny, you want me to tell you a story?
Me: Sure!
Finn (in his very quiet storytelling voice): Once upon a time, long, long ago, there was a boy who had a duck.
Me (after a long pause): Is that the end of the story?
Finn: Yup!
Me: Nice.

Today, the kids were playing a game in which Larkin was Finn's cat. This is a favorite, with the particular animal type frequently changed. It usually involves a great deal of tucking the animal in for naps and it waking up extremely suddenly and with great vigor. After the cat was snugly tucked in:

Finn: Would you like a bedtime story, Kitty?
Larkin (affirmatively): Mrow!
Finn (opening the balloon animal instruction book): Once upon a time, there was a girl named Larkin who found a sword. [aside] The story's almost over! [end aside] She lost it again. The end.
Larkin (leaping off the couch throwing cat bedding blankets everywhere): Morning time! MROW!

We recently scored some cowboy boots off freecycle for Finn. I think he liked them okay:

In other news, we've been dealing with a three day (so far) bout of a stomach bug-- no need for details on that one-- and have been talking to an architect about plans for an addition on the house.

Also, we have been reading Patricia Wrede's Enchanted Forest Chronicles with Larkin and they are a Huge Hit. If you are familiar with the books and can think of other fantasy novels with similarly engaging themes (kick-ass princesses, dragons, etc.) we'd love to hear about them. We've only been going through these for a few weeks and we're already half way through the third book, so I'm beginning to wonder what's on deck.