The Olson Zoo Weblog

The Story of How the Kids Caught the Mouse

 by Laura E. Olson 2/11/10

            One Christmas night, the kids hung up their stockings. Then the mother and father put them to bed. They said their prayers and hoped that they would get lots of good things from Santa Claus. Then they went to bed. They all had good dreams. In the morning, they got up and ran to open their stockings. They found good things to eat, and they each got a new book and a doll. They ran to tell mother and father. Mother and father smiled. “Why, what nice things!” mother said. “Yes.” Said father, “Now let’s go have breakfast.”

            After breakfast, they got to have a little dessert of their candy. Then they played with some toys that they had gotten. When it was finally time for lunch, they had their favorite meal. It was tuna fish sandwiches. Then they went to a Christmas party with their Papa and Grandma. They opened more presents and found that they had both received board games. It was a good day! Then they went home and had supper. They had salad, and spaghetti and meatballs. Then Mama gave them dessert which was chocolate brownies that she had made the other day.  “Delicious!” said the kids.

            Suddenly, the kids screamed! Dad said, “What’s going on?”

            “There is a mouse that just ran under our bed!”

            “Oh my goodness!” said Dad. “Go get me the flashlight.” When the kids did, Dad went into the bedroom to try to catch the mouse. He saw it scamper right behind him. He chased it out into the living room. They had a cat. The cat tried to get it too. Suddenly, the kids had an idea. “Hey, let’s surround him.” So that is what they did.

            They finally got him put under a bowl. Then the cat went sniffing the bowl. The dad said, “All right, I will give him to you for your supper.” So they killed the mouse and then they put it in the cat’s bowl and she licked it right up.

The END.

Merry Christmas to all!  We wish God’s best to you at this special time of year.

Here is our 2009 Christmas card:

All three of our girls LOVE books! I am not really sure if it is genetic but they all love to be read to and to read on their own. Helen has even been known to be browsing through chapter books without many pictures - probably a direct result of wanting to imitate her big sister who wants to have her eyes in a book at all times. Laura is just starting about the 25th book in our collection of the “Box Car Children” series! She is so engrossed in her reading that she has been known to run into walls while reading a book and walking. When I went to pick up Esther a couple of weeks ago from the nursery at church, she was sitting in a chair and “reading” a book all by herself.

They really do love hanging out with other kids and people as well, just to quell the thought that they are all anti-social book nerds. A couple of weeks ago Esther made friends with two different children at the library all by herself. Helen makes friends wherever she goes - even in the elevator at the mall. Laura makes friends quickly as well even though she is a little quieter.

As most of you have heard, we have another girl in the making. Since all three of our girls that we have met so far are so different in personality, I really am looking forward to meeting this new one and getting to know her as well.

Well, we are having another girl!  Rachel had an ultrasound today (she’s at about 22 weeks) and the evidence was very clear.

Laura thinks it’s really funny that I’m going to be “even more outnumbered” in my “girlie family”!

I’m excited!  Now to pick out another girl’s name…

We’re happy to announce that we are expecting a new addition to the Olson family, due in April 2010!  Here are the first snapshots of the new little one:

That’s all the pictures for now, but in the future we’ll add more photos to Baby Olson’s Photo Album.

Laura says, “I love babysitting while you are in the shower!!” I went downstairs to take a shower and when I came upstairs this is what I saw.  I think that her skills will be a sought after commodity in about 6 years.

Today, we had friends over to play for the morning. Esther skipped her morning nap. At lunch, she was so tired she couldn’t make it through.

This afternoon Helen was so tired that she fell asleep on the stairs while Laura was practicing piano.

Helen sorted all these pieces by herself! What a accomplishment! Yeah Helen!

Laura says, “I keep on having new ideas.” She has taken initiative to start doing some things on her own. We have a list of things that she needs to do for everyday. I direct her to the list and she marks them off by herself. It is pretty nice to just be able to ask her if she has done the things on her list instead of asking about each individual thing. She is growing up so much!

Laura wanted me to write, “Mom puts me in charge of the dust mop. It takes a little of my time.”

Esther has starting getting on her hands and almost knees to reach for things. She also has been playing on her stomach without getting upset - unless she sees you watching her and then she wants to be rescued.

Laura and I had a really deep conversation in the van about Easter and why it was such an important event for us as Christians even more so than Christmas. We talked about how when Jesus died on the cross and took the penalty for our sins it made us free of sin so we could be in the presence of God in heaven. After the question and answer time was done, Laura said, “Mom, I really understand why people like to color Easter eggs and have Easter egg hunts.”

Mom - “Why is that Laura?”

Laura - “Because they don’t want to think about all that serious stuff!”

Isn’t she right on! I suppose it is fun to do those things in celebration as well but they really do not get at the crux of the whole event.