The Tuxedo Cats settled in well, however there was a slight problem. Henry, Honey and Hopper missed Olive and Ginni. Ever since the Tuxedo Cats got a house of their own, playdates weren’t that often. Olive and Ginni also wanted more playtimes with their newest friend, Grace Hopscotch! Bell Hopscotch, a caring older sister, was the first to realize this. The babies had stopped playing games that used to have Olive and Ginni in them. “Would you like a playdate with all the babies?” Bell asked her little brother, Hopper.
Hopper nods, excitedly. He missed exploring the house with Olive and he knew his twin sister was yearning for another tea party with the always posh Ginni Golightly. “Alright, I’ll see what I can do,” Bell answered.
Bell quickly started discussing this with her Skip and Bellia. As they discuss, Skip kept getting distracted with Grace carrying Honey’s teapot back and forth to the kitchen and then the living room. “Skip! Skip, are you listening?” asked Bellia, waving her paws in front of her brother.
Skip answers, “Huh? Sorry, Grace is distracting me.”
Bellia and Bell turn and see their sister walking back and forth. Bell inquired, “Grace, what are you doing?”
Grace looks up and answers sweetly, “Mommies are big girls and I’m a big girl! Mommies make babies breakfast, except the only problem is I’m too short to reach the sink and get water.”
Skip breaks out laughing and goes and helps his sister out with getting water. “I have an idea. What if the playdate is at the Toy Shop? There’s plenty of toys there and you told me that you bought the tea set at the Toy Shop. Plus, the shelves are always rearranged, so the babies will think it’s a new place,” Bellia explains.
“Hmmm,” Bell says, “That could work! Tomorrow’s Saturday and the Toy Shop’s toys and Play Corner is free on the weekends.”
It was true, the Hopper Kangaroos being some of the nicest critters decided to let the toys and Play Corner be free on weekend’s to all critters, so babies could have lots of fun. It was sort of like a park, but only open on weekends, unless you wanted to rent the Play Corner and toys on a weekday by the hour. “So what did I miss?” Skip questioned coming back from the kitchen.
The twins grin from ear to ear and tell their brother about the plan. After that the kids get the adults’ permission and start telling all their friends about it. “Wow! That sounds wonderful!” Lily and Rose raved.
David agrees and says, “We could ask Mr. H. Hopscotch to watch them for the day.”
Bell nods, “Our dad adores babies and I am sure he would love to!”
As expected, Harlin agreed and packed many snacks into the car that Saturday morning. As he was loading snacks into the Seven Seater, Natalie walked Olive and Ginni to Harlin’s car. “Now I want you two to be on your best behavior when you’re in Mr. H. Hopscotch’s care. And I mean best,” lecture Natalie.
Olive replied, “Yes, Aunt Natalie.”
Ginni answers, “Of course, Mrs. N. Charcoal.”
Natalie smiles and takes them to Harlin. “Good morning!” she greets.
Harlin says cheerfully, “Good morning, Natalie! How are you today?”
“Good, and you?” grins Natalie.
“Doing great! I’m excited about all these babies!”
Natalie claims, “Well, that’s great! Have fun! Ta-ta!”
Soon all the babies are on board and ready to go to the Toy Shop. “Here we are!” announced Harlin as he helps the babies get off the car.
The babies squeal in delight and rush to their favorite toys. Honey and Hopper even brought some of their own toys from home. “Do you want to play house with me?” invited Ginni to Grace.
Grace giggles, “Okay, but I’m the big girl mommy!”
Ginni nods and the two start playing. After a while, Ginni turns her head and notice’s a larger house to play with.
Ginni suggests, “How about we play that big house? Like house in real life?”
“Yeah! Let’s go get everyone!” Grace says, clapping her paws together.
After the babies were rounded up, everyone agreed on playing house with the large house. The Play Corner was the house’s interior and the outside was the exterior. Olive exclaims, “Look, this house has a slide too!"
“I’m the mommy!” yelled Grace.
“Alright, Mommy Grace!” shouted the rest of the babies.
Everything ran smoothly, Honey, Breeze and Ginni had a tea party. Olive went pretend toy shopping and Henry and Hopper played toy cars. Harlin even gave the babies treats, such as sugar biscuits and donuts. “That like the car my mommy has!” Breeze claims, pointing to the red car Henry was holding.
Henry answers, “Vrmmm, vrm! Mini Cherry Cruiser!”
“Mommy Grace, I hungry,” Honey says.
“Me hungry too and mommies have to go food shopping,” Hopper claims.
Grace nods in satisfaction at being called, “Mommy Grace” and grabs the little blue shopping cart. “Time to buy some pots and pans for cooking and mommy jobs,” Grace tells herself.
Grace rolls the cart around and picks up the set of pots and pans. “I be cashier for food store!” volunteers Olive.
As Grace wheels her items over, Olive smiles and tells her how much the pots and pans will cost.
Grace pays with invisible money and goes inside the “house” with the cooking ware and starts “cooking”. She chops the toy carrot up and pretends to put it into the pot.
“Mommy Grace, I want some tea!” demands Honey.
Breeze adds, “Then can you take me shopping, Mommy Grace?”
“And I want to go food shopping with you next time!” Olive yells.
“Mommy Grace, will you make carrot soup or roasted carrots?” bombards Ginni.
“Ooo, what’s this?” Hopper asks, picking up Grace’s pan.
Henry then starts crying because of the noise. Overwhelmed by all the questions and cries, Grace starts crying. “Wah! This is no fun anymore!” Grace sobs.
Harlin immediately quiets everyone down and tends to Grace. “Being a mommy is hard!” wails Grace between sobs, “I thought it would be fun and easy! Then everyone wanted something and I couldn’t do it all at once!”
“There, there, Grace. Daddy is here,” soothes Harlin.
Harlin hugs his daughter and says, “Did you know mommies need help too? Your mother gets help from Bell, Skip and Bellia. Natalie gets help from Rose and Lily. Teri gets help from Freya. Now go get some help from your friends.”
“Okay,” Grace says innocently, “Guys, I need some help. Olive and Breeze can go food shopping, Ginni can decide what she want to eat. Honey, I’ll get you tea and Hopper that’s a pan.”
The babies nod and get to work. Grace smiles, her dad was right, mommies do get help.
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