We were telling stories today so Daddy could make books and we could draw the pictures. Here they are.

Rosie:

Once Upon a Time...

...there was a princess and king and queen. They had a daughter called Thumbelina. They had an office and in their office was a very hungry dragon. They had a key who locked the dragon into the office, but one day the King and Queen locked the dragon in with the key but the key went right through the door of the office. The Dragon ate the key all up!

And then... the dragon had a claw who fitted right through the key hole. And then when the King and Queen noticed the office they came up the stairs and they noticed they could see the dragon and - do you know what colour he was? He was a bit of black, really black on his tummy, and his colour of his skin not on his tummy, on his back and his face, was red and yellow and green and red.

And then, all of a sudden, the King and Queen noticed a little golden ball flying in the air! And it was strange but when all the fairy dust came out from the ball, there was standing a little human. And it had wings and hair and it was a fairy! The fairy said to the King and Queen, "I will help you from this terrible dragon." The King and Queen said that this dragon had ate it all up. And then the fairy said that "it would grow you a big big big big big painful as high and high as the clouds. Plant."

And do you know? From that day, a Prince rode past the castle, but the fairy had planted it with tall sharp trees with thorns on them. And there was thorns that twisted and made knots and bows all around the castle. Then the Prince chopped down the trees and chopped down the thorns until he got to the door,and knocked, and it opened. And the King and the Queen's heads poked out.

And the Prince said " I have come to save your daughter the Princess. I would like to marry her and I will get married to her properly in her wedding vows."

Then he said "I love princesses. Your daughter is so beautiful, I want to marry her. Then I will dress up in my really wedding things and my ball clothes, then I will come out from behind the curtain and I will dance with your daughter for the whole day long." And then the King and Queen said, "I will do that, but if you do that and promise, we will, but upstairs in the room, the fairy is trying to get the dragon really comfortable. It's our pet... but it ate up the key to our door.

The Prince said nothing, but inside his heart, his heart was breaking. He really wanted to marry the Princess. Then the Princess heard a funny noise. She heard "THUMP THUMP". She saw the dragon thumping near her. She ran downstairs and went into some of her Dad's comics and made a little box. A BIG box, but it really was brilliant. But then... THUMP THUMP THUMP THUMPTHUMPTHUMP THUMP THUMP THUMPTHUMPTHUMPTHUMP came the footsteps again.

It was the DRAGON! It came after her. The princess was really scared. She had her most beautiful Sellotape in her pocket, and she made the box all Sellotaped and the dragon couldn't stick his claw into it. The Sellotape was magic and when she held it it was all squidgy, but when she let go it was all hard. Then the Prince said "THUMP THUMP THUMP" in a really really kind voice. And then the Princess heard the kind footsteps. She ran all the way downstairs so when she say the Prince, she fell in love. Then the Princess said in a REALLY kind voice "Heelloooooo." And the Prince said "Hello" in a man's sort of voice.

Then the Princess wondered all about her King and Queen. Then she said "What about my King and Queen, they can't just leave the castle without missing the comic box that I made for them. Then she wondered all about them. They would like to go to the ball too, cos she heard that the Prince had been talking with the King and Queen. And then she wondered again "I think", she said, "I will wear my best ballgown, and for the wedding I will wear my best wedding dress with a silver tarara."

Then the King and Queen married, but the King's Queen died, cos she had been spelled on by a wicked witch who said "When the sun sets you will be dead for a hundred years." Then the King married again, but this was an ugly lady and soon later she had two ugly nasty babies. One she named Statue. One she named Mrs Roberts. And the next one was called Blossom.


Holly:

Once Upon a Time...

...there was a King and Queen and they did not have a daughter. And one day the Queen did have a baby, and the Queen's baby did grow up to be a lovely beautiful Princess. And soon it was the time for the fairies time to bring their magical presents to the baby. The first gived grace, and the second said she will dance like an angel, and when the last fairy stepped up to give the baby her gift the eighth fairy pushed in front of her that did not been invited to the celebration. She was wicked and old. No-one had seen her for years.

The nasty fairy (the eighth fairy) did say "The Princess will prick her finger on teh spindle of a spinny wheel and die." And the ninth fairy "This is MY gift" she said. "The Princess will not die. Instead she'll fall asleep for a hundred years. And after that time a prince will come to wake her up.!

The King and Queen were despaired. They could hardly bear to have something hurting their daughter. And a hundred years went past, and after that time, a Prince did come to wake her up, and "a Princess!" He cried, and he kissed her. And he kissed her and everybody in the castle waked up too! And celebrated with the fairy's spell was broken. And the King and Queen was delighted.

And the Princess and the Prince were married! And the Prince and Princess lived happily in the Prince's castle. And they lived happily ever after!


Once Upon a Time...

...there was a Mother with a little girl called Little Red Riding Hood. And she did have a little basket, and her Mother did say "Your Granny is not feeling well today. Will you give her a basket of all these things to her?" Little Red Riding Hood did say "Yes." And Little Red Riding Hood didn't know that a crafty fellow was near a tree hiding in the path. It was a wolf. And Little Red Riding Hood did peer around to see where she was going. She stepped on a puddle wearing trousers and she hurt her knee.

The wolf did jump out at her! The wolf went along to Granny's house and said "It's little red riding hood!" In a voice like hers. And Little Red Riding Hood's Granny said "Just lift the latch dear, and come in." So the wolf did lift the latch and swallowed Little Red Riding Hood's Granny, UP. Then Little Red Riding Hood did come to Granny's house and, do you know what she saw...? The wolf said "Just lift the latch dear, and come in." "Oh Granny, what big ears you have!". "All the better to hear you with" said the wolf, in Granny's voice. And then Little red Riding Hood's Daddy did come and he was a huntsman. A woodcutter. And he did always chop down wood for them to make a fire.

He did saw the wolf. Cutted open him, and out looked Granny, and Little Red Riding Hood! And they lived happily ever after.

The End.