The Lee Family: Olivia's Storybook Pumpkin

Thursday, October 17, 2019

Olivia's Storybook Pumpkin

Every year CES' library offers the kids to decorate their own Storybook Pumpkin and display it until November 1st in the library. The child is asked to fill out a sheet that includes the character's name, what book the character is from, who the author is and a short description of the character. Olivia was so excited to do it this year and wanted to do Rose, a border collie from The Great Escape by Meagan Rix, which we got in London. Olivia has been reading the book to me every night before bed and we are nearly finished with it. The book details the story of a family and their two dogs and a cat as WWII breaks out in London. The dad is a reconnaissance pilot and is sent off to war, while the mom is a nurse and is sent to help out on a floating hospital. That leaves the two kids, 10 and 8, to go live with their Grandma in the country. However, the Grandma is incapable because she is still grieving the loss of her son during WWI and her husband's death. So, they go live with a neighbor and his wife on a farm. Meanwhile, the animals are all given to a random family in London to "look after" and the man decides to euthanize them. They escape and try to make their way back to the kids. Of course, as they travel they encounter a number of adventures. It's a very-written book and heart wrenching to think of what families had to go through during the war.

Rose is Olivia's favorite character in the book and she loves dogs, but especially border collies. She went to Hall's pumpkin patch with Hannah over a week ago and came home with a white pumpkin, so she decided that was the one to decorate as Rose. We are so busy with tennis, piano, golf, etc that we couldn't find time to decorate it, but this evening as I was making dinner, she decided she just wanted to decorate it herself. She had already filled out the description herself and I told her where all the art supplies were located and she laid out the plastic tablecloth we always use when we craft or paint. She got to work, and of course Sofia jumped in and helped her. They did a terrific job and Rose is one cute pumpkin! Sofia did the paws and mouth and helped with the eyes, but Olivia did the rest and it looks great. They had a great time together and the best part: I did NO work! Actually I cleaned out three paint brushes when they were finished, but otherwise they got all the supplies out, decorated Rose, and put everything back! It was perfect! The next day, Olivia lugged Rose into the library!

The Great Escape