Storytime

Last night we had some nasty weather roll through our area.  It rained really hard, we may have had some hail, and our power was out.  We had known it was coming and had some time to prepare.  First of all, we cancelled our plans to go to the Turkey Trot in Montgomery and see the Kentucky Headhunters concert :(  We'd been so excited to take the boys because they both love music and they're such good dancers!  But we knew it wasn't worth being stuck in the rain (or worse) with hundreds of other people trying to drive their vehicles out of a muddy parking area.

Next thing we did was pack a bag in case we had to retreat to our basement for safety.  As we were packing the essentials for a damp, dark basement hideout, I was again reminded that I should have an emergency kit down there.  That's definitely on my to-do-soon list.  We started researching disaster kits as soon as the power was back on last night.

Although we went ahead and put our bag and a cooler in the basement, we never felt the need to go down there.  The storm was bad, but the worst of it bypassed our area and our biggest problem was the power was out.  Not a big deal, obviously just different from our norm.  We sat around our dining room table and lit some candles for light.  We were trying to save the batteries in our flashlights, but Zachary kept playing with them anyway (seriously, a flashlight is one of his favorite toys!).  He decided we should tell stories.  He went first and of course his story was about dinosaurs.  He used the flashlight to make a shadow puppet of a T-Rex.  It was very cute. 

Then it was my turn.  My story was about two little boys named Zuchery & Erye (not very original) whose electricity went out after they went to bed.  Their nightlight went out and they had to deal with the dark.  Zuchery & Erye had to remember their guardian angels were there and to ask them and God to protect them in the darkness.  After a while they realized they felt better and even drifted back to sleep.  When they woke in the morning, the sun was shining and their power was restored.  Zachary giggled at the names in the story, but when I was done he said, "Aww, that's sweet!  Now my turn again!"

I decided to grab a pen & some paper so I could take notes by candlelight from his next story.  The first one was so cute and I know I don't remember all of it.  Zachary's second story was very cute as well although much shorter.  Here's his story:

THE ELEPHANT AND THE RHINO

Once upon a time, there was an elephant and a rhino. 

They were friends. 

The elephant's name was Trunk because he has a trunk.  

The rhino's name was Horn because he has a horn.  

Trunk and Horn played in the backyard.  

They played bubbles because they like to blow bubbles.  

Then they played inside the house.  

Inside the house they played dinosaurs and they rolled a ball.  

Trunk and Horn had to roll the ball because you can't 

throw a ball in the house.  

The End.

It was fun to hear him make up stories.  It was really fun to hear something that wasn't focused on dinosaurs.  We love that he loves them so much but it's nice that he can have other interests too.  After storytime Zachary played with his battery powered Leapster while Bryan got Eli to sleep.  Poor baby had been up since early morning and had only had a one hour nap.  In addition he got his flu shot yesterday, so the little guy was exhausted and getting crabby.  He fell asleep easily.  Our power was restored pretty quickly considering the weather conditions.  We were only without for around an hour.  Zachary fell asleep on the couch less than five minutes after stating he wasn't sleepy.  

Even though our plans were changed and we were concerned about severe weather, it was a pretty fun night.  It was relaxing to sit around a candlelight and tell stories.  Hope everyone else had as much fun as we did in the storm!