Picnic at the Office

It was a perfect and beautiful day outside! So we spent most of it indoors.

Ah, the life of church work. We have so much to do for Easter and the upcoming series that we had a "day at the office" again. We got a lot done, though there is still so much left to be accomplished.

This time, at least we brought a picnic with us. Yes, we had an office picnic! Why bother with the bothersome travel to fresh mountain air, lakeside views, green pine trees, running brooks, flowers in bloom, and various wildlife darting here and there? We can have a wonderful picnic meal at a conference table under the invigorating glow of fluorescent lighting, with well-worn carpet beneath our feet and a vast panorama of office furniture, computers and desk supplies before our very eyes!

We worked most of the day inside, but did allow ourselves a slight moment outside at the playground, where Madison ran around trying everything in sight, from swings to slides to the rock climbing wall. She is getting very good at that, I must say.

For an occasional break, Madison and Daddy played Disney Princess Dominoes a couple times - and also we had a few rounds of Barnyard Uno. But other than that, it was a pretty dull day to write about. Bedtime story was rather unique though, and all based on a true story. You probably don't need to know any of the details: the story is "The Mystery of the Missing Pants." Here now, is our latest edition of Madison's Bedtime Stories!

Once upon a time on a golden afternoon, Princess Madison was having tea with her friends Alice and Minnie Mouse, as was their usual custom. It was a pleasant affair, that is, until Mr. Peanut came in with Papi the dog. You see, he was in a serious dilemma: Mr. Peanut's pants were stolen! Not only his pants, but also some of Princess Madison's pants.

It was the Mystery of the Missing Pants!

Immediately, Princess Madison, Alice, Minnie Mouse, Mr. Peanut and Papi formed a search party. They looked over Snowcap Mountain, scanned the Pyramid Desserts and followed Rio River down to Castaway Bay. There, they spotted a passing pirate ship.

"Ahoy there," Princess Madison called out.

"What do ye want, land lubber?" a pirate replied.

"I'm Princess Madison, and these are my friends."

The pirate responded, "My name is Captain Feathersword, and we're in a bit of a pickle!"

"Have you seen a large collection of pants?" Alice asked the pirate.

"Arrrr!" the pirate responded. "No, I haven't! I be looking for pants myself - half my crew is down to their last pair! Let me know if you find anything!"

"We most certainly will," Princess Madison replied.

"Before you go," the pirate added. "Let me give you a little something that might come in handy."

They had to wait for the pirate to row ashore, but it was certainly worth the wait. For in his hand was a collection of very valuable feathers.

"These are magic feathers," the pirate said as he handed everyone a glowing feather. "They be awful tickly."

Despite "tickly" not being a word, they were all very grateful for the gift. Soon, they parted ways with the good captain, waving goodbye to both he and the shoreline by the bay.

And so, the search party turned and headed into the jungle, where they followed a path they had never seen before. Along they walked, exploring and searching high and low - when suddenly, they spotted the pants!

Right there in front of them was a massive, ginormous tree with branches outstretched to the highest of heights. Hanging from each branch all around were all kinds of different pants, from all over the world - the biggest collection of pants the world has ever known in one place!

"What do you want?" a voice boomed out.

"We want our pants back!" Princess Madison answered. She had spotted her pants, and Mr. Peanut's pants also. Both were dangling from a low-hanging branch.

Slowly, a ginormous troll appeared from behind the tree. He was quite tall, and quite unpleasant.

"Uh-oh," Papi muttered.

"My pants!" the troll thundered. "You will never see those pants again!"

That's when the search party got into a huddle. Yes, a plan was in order! They most certainly will get those pants back, but they needed a cunning plan. They whispered to each other, nodded back and forth, decided upon a perfectly agreeable plan of action - and began a countdown.

"Three...", they said.

The troll looked confused.

"Two...", the search party continued.

The troll looked worried.

"One!" they called out, and suddenly Minnie Mouse, Mr. Peanut, Princess Madison, Papi, and Alice raced forward and began to tickle the troll with magic feathers. The troll began laughing quite hard as everyone tickled him all over - it was such a sight!

Soon though, Minnie Mouse and Princess Madison snuck away from the others as they tickled the troll. The two climbed into the tree, and collected many of the pants that hung there.

The troll could see this happening, but could do nothing but laugh as he was tickled by Alice and the others.

When all the pants were retrieved, it was time to go. Princess Madison gave the signal, and everyone that had joined her on this expedition ran away as fast as possible. They fled from the horrible pants tree and that naughty troll, and followed the jungle path quickly, all the way back to the bay.

"Ahoy there!" Captain Feathersword called out once more. "I see you found the pants!"

Indeed they did. But before they could do anything else, the large pants-stealing troll had emerged from the jungle, quite clearly upset.

"My pants!" he hollered.

"You have more than enough pants on that tree," Princess Madison scolded him. "You shouldn't go stealing pants from other people!"

Still, the troll was unmoved. He thundered towards them with much anger, at which point Princess Madison and her friends did the only thing they could: they jumped in the water and started swimming towards the pirate ship.

"Come back here!" the troll barked at them. It was at this point that they all realized that this troll could not swim. Ah! They were safe!

The pirates were quick to help their friends out of the water, and worked hard to fish the pants out as well. The pirates with hooks for hands tended to do better in that regard.

"My pants!" the troll yelled.

"Arrr!" the pirates called back. For a pirate is not very happy when someone steals his pants. But despite all this, Captain Feathersword instructed them all not to fire their cannons at this naughty troll. Instead, the pirate ship sailed off with Princess Madison and all her friends aboard.

It would be a long journey home, but at least everyone had their pants.

THE END