The Rainstorm Brainstorm

Happy Birthday, Aunt Miranda!

On the big day, all five girls go up to Aunt Miranda’s door and knock together. When she opens the door, the girls break out into a big song of “Happy Birthday.” Aunt Miranda thanks them for the wonderful song. Then Ashlyn says there’s more, and the girls lead Aunt Miranda to the first present.

Willa explains how she knows Aunt Miranda loves animals, so she made some cozy homes for them. She shows Aunt Miranda a birdhouse made out of the old mailbox. Then Ashlyn leads them down a pretty path, where she strung vines and cables through the trees and laid potted plants on the path edges.

Then Emerson comes in and skips backwards until they get to the garden stage. She explains how they made toys out of the stuff that looks like a kitty and a puppy. They can be used like puppets. And then Camille says her gift is an animal, too. She made a weather-vane chicken that spins in the wind.

And lastly, Kendall brings everybody to her gift. Kendall says she originally wanted to gift a garden house, but she realized that perhaps a signpost would be more useful. So, she took the original signpost they used to announce Aunt Miranda’s birthday and repainted parts of it. So now, it points in the direction of different parts of the garden: one arrow for the playhouse, one for the tea table, one for Carrot’s hutch, one for the garden stage, and one for the gate. Now, visitors will always know where to go and what path to take.

And then, they all lead Aunt Miranda back to where the Tomorrow Pile originally was. Kendall explains how they used the items from that pile to make all of the gifts.

Aunt Miranda is quite surprised! They cleared away her junk, recycled, and made incredible gifts all at the same time. These were the most creative and insightful gifts she’d ever received, and all thanks to Kendall’s rainstorm brainstorm.