Summer Adventures with Kate & JR Read online

  Summer Adventures

  with Kate & JR

  By Edith Hawkins

  Summer Adventures with Kate & JR

  © 2013 Edith Hawkins. All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, digital, photocopying, or recording, except for the inclusion in a review, without permission in writing from the publisher.

  This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, names, incidents, organizations, and dialogue in this novel are either the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

  Published in the United States by BQB Publishing

  (Boutique of Quality Books Publishing Company)

  www.bqbpublishing.com

  Printed in the United States of America

  978-1-937084-93-6 (p)

  978-1-937084-94-3 (e)

  Library of Congress Control Number: 2013930716

  Book design by Robin Krauss, www.lindendesign.biz

  Illustrations by Delphine Lacas

  Dedication

  This book is dedicated to my family who were the inspirations for the stories within this book.

  Stories

  School’s Out!

  Kate and the Giant Sunflower

  JR and the Shiny White Car

  Blue Skies, Gentle Wind, Wet Sand

  Let’s Go Fishing

  The Doll Quilt

  The Perfect Day

  Acknowledgments

  I would like to thank the dedicated staff at Boutique of Quality Books Publishing for their assistance and guidance with my first book: Terri Leidich, Allison Itterly, Julie Breedlove, Heidi Grauel, and Katy Whipple. And, especially Megan Miller for her patience and direction during the editing process and Delphine Lacas for the beautiful illustrations that brought the stories to life.

  To the members of the Chapin Writer’s Group who listened and critiqued my stories even though I was the only children’s author in the group: Elaine, Ellen, Vonnie, Cathy, Madelyn, Sue, Laura, Phillip, Wayne, and especially to Arlene who introduced me to Terri at Boutique of Quality Books. Thank you so much for your guidance and support.

  But I would particularly like to acknowledge the love and support of my family, who were the inspirations for my stories: my parents, Miriam and Clyde; my sisters, Susan and Gail; my brother, Patrick; and my grandparents, Herbert (Grandpa) and Grace (Granny) and Maxie (Papa) and Lula Mae (Grandma). Grandma helped me learn to sew my first doll quilt when I was nine or ten. To my nieces and nephews, Josh, Lauren, Claire, and Ben, with whom I shared and still share many stories as we grow together. And, to Joel, Melanie, Shannon, Ana, Tyra, and all of my extended family members and friends, thank you so much for always being there.

  School’s Out!

  “Hello, my name is Kate.” Everyone in the second grade was quiet as Kate began her life story. Everyone except for Jerry Slate, who was making faces and odd noises at Kate.

  Mrs. Calhoun pointed her finger at Jerry and put it to her lips, asking him to be quiet. “Continue, Kate.”

  Kate took a deep breath. She was nervous. She was the first one in her class to tell her story. The whole elementary school had been challenged by the principal, Mr. Steele, to tell their life stories on the last day of school. “Tell us about when you were born, what you like to do, and what you are doing this summer,” Mr. Steele said. So Kate had been thinking all week long about what she would say and the photographs she would show. Kate was a little shy, and the thought of standing in front of her class made her afraid. Sometimes she wished she were more like her little brother, JR. He always had something to say; he was never afraid.

  “My name is Katelyn Suzanne. My parents named me after my grandmothers. My Grandma Sue called me Kate from the start. That made Grandma Katie very happy. I was born in April, which makes me eight years old. I have long, strawberry blond hair and blue eyes. My eyes are the same color blue as my father’s. Dad says I have my mother’s smile.” Kate held up a photo of her mother and father for the class to see. The photo showed her mother and father outside their house, sitting on the front porch swing.

  “When I was two, my parents told me I was going to be a big sister. This is the tee-shirt I wore to the hospital to meet my baby brother, JR.” Kate held up a tiny white tee-shirt with pink flowers and the words “I am the BIG SISTER!” scrolled across the front. “I didn’t like him much at first; he cried a lot. Now he’s bigger, and we can play together.” Kate held up a photo of her brother JR for all to see: “This is when he was just a baby.”

  “I have a big white cat named Samson. His fur is long and soft. He likes to rub up against my legs and purr.” Kate showed a photo of Samson curled in his favorite spot beside her bed. “I got Samson for my sixth birthday. JR and I have a dog named Buddy. I’m a little scared of him. He likes to jump up and give you a kiss. Once he knocked me down. It was an accident. After that, I decided he could be JR’s dog to run and play with. I just pat him on the head.” Kate glanced around the room. She spotted her best friend, Susie, who was nodding in agreement.

  “I like school. Learning new things is fun. I also like to play with my best friends. We ride our bikes and sometimes we dress up like grown ladies to have tea and cookies. My Grandpa Jim built me a dollhouse. My Grandma Sue and I decorated the windows with curtains and bought furniture for the rooms. My friends and I play with our dolls and pretend that the dollhouse is their home. My brother gave me a red toy convertible for my birthday that the dolls can ride in.” Kate paused before proceeding. She felt better about speaking in front of the class. Their friendly faces made her feel at ease.

  “I love to go outside and play with JR in the backyard. We have two swings, and we try to see who can touch the sky with our toes by going really, really high. Sometimes JR lets me come up and play in his tree house. I like to go up there and listen to the birds sing in the trees.”

  “This summer, I am going to spend some time with my grandparents. We have a lot of things planned to do. Then my parents are taking JR and me to the beach for vacation. I plan to keep a journal and take photos of my summer vacation.” Kate returned to her seat as the class clapped.

  “Thank you, Kate,” said Mrs. Calhoun, as Kate went back to her seat. “You did a very good job.”

  Kate leaned back in her seat with a big smile on her face. She couldn’t wait to start summer vacation. There were so many things to do.

  Down the hallway, Kate’s brother, JR, was waiting his turn to tell his life story. He was in kindergarten. When the teacher called his name, JR walked quickly to the front of the room. “Ladies and gentlemen, my name is JAMES RONALD!” JR shouted. His teacher, Ms. Smith, said, “Now, JR, use your inside voice to tell your story.” Everyone in his class laughed, because JR hardly ever used his inside voice. But this did not bother JR. He continued on with his story.

  “My nickname is JR, pronounced Jay R, not Junior. My Grandpa Jim gave it to me when I was real little. I was born in November and am six years old. My mother said that I had to wait a year to start school because of my birthday. When I was born, I didn’t have any hair.” JR held up his baby photo to prove that he had no hair. “Now my hair is dark brown just like my dad’s. I have green eyes and about a million freckles.” JR leaned forward so that the class could see his freckles. “Grandpa Ron says I get my eyes and freckles from him.”

  “Oh, I almost forgot. I have a big sister, Kate. She is in the second grade.” JR held up a photo of Kate. The photo showed Kate swinging in their backyard under the tree house.

  “I like school, especially recess. I like to play ball with my friends.” JR turned to his teacher and said with a grin, “I like to
talk with my friends at recess so we don’t get in trouble during class.” Ms. Smith gave him a nod to show she agreed with him. “My dad and I built a tree house in the backyard. I like to play with my friends in the tree house. We play with toy race cars. When we get hungry, my mom brings us lemonade in a canteen and peanut butter sandwiches. She puts them in the bucket at the bottom of the tree house, and we pull them up using a rope.” JR pretended to pull up a bucket by a rope. He then pretended to eat a sandwich and drink from a canteen as he said, “Mmmm.” The class giggled. Ms. Smith held up one finger to let JR know it was time to finish, but JR was too excited to stop.

  “I have a train set and track in my room. I like to watch the train go around the track. I want to ride on a train one day. I have a dog named Buddy. His fur is brown, the color of chocolate. He lives in the backyard. Dad and I painted his doghouse. He likes to play catch with me. I throw balls and Frisbees, and he catches them in midair. Kate thinks Buddy is too rough. He likes to jump up and give you a great big wet kiss. He’s just happy. She has a silly old cat. All he does is purr and sleep. Don’t tell Kate, but I like Samson, too. When she is sleeping over at her friend’s home, I let Samson sleep in my room. I have a bike without training wheels that I can ride really, really fast.”

  “JR—” The teacher started to speak, but JR continued. He had one more thing to say.

  “This summer is going to be very exciting. What do you think I am doing?” he asked.

  The class laughed and shouted, “Fishing!” They all knew. JR had talked about going fishing with his grandfather for weeks.

  “That’s right! I am going to sports camp next week, too.” JR bowed to the class and returned to his seat as they clapped and giggled. JR’s teacher had to applaud also as she said, “Well done, JR.”

  The bell rang. School was out for the summer! Kate and JR said goodbye to their friends and teachers and ran outside to the car pickup lane. Their mother was waiting for them in their blue SUV. They couldn’t wait to start their summer adventures.

  Kate and the Giant Sunflower

  On the first week of summer vacation, Kate went to visit Grandma Sue and Grandpa Jim while JR went to sports camp. She and Grandma Sue discussed planting a special flower bed. Kate planned to keep a journal and take photos with her new camera of the flower bed as it grew. The bed would be beautiful and attract birds, bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds. Every flower would be a source for gathering seeds, pollen, and nectar.

  As they were planning the bed, Grandma told Kate, “Not only will we have beautiful flowers to pick, but it will be great to provide food for our little visitors.”

  “I like that. And I can give some flowers to Mom when she picks me up.”

  Grandma Sue set a box of seed packets on the table. “I have seeds for wildflowers, zinnias, and sunflowers. Which do you like best?”

  Kate looked at the seed packets. The flowers pictured on the fronts of the packets were beautiful, with all shades of yellow, orange, red, pink, blue, white, and even green. “I like the sunflowers the best,” Kate told her grandmother as she held up two packets of seeds. Each packet showed a large flower with bold yellow petals and dark seeds in the middle.

  “You are officially in charge of the sunflowers, Kate!” Grandma Sue said. “Read the backs of the packets to find out how to plant the seeds.”

  Kate read the information on the back of each packet and soon realized that she had two different kinds of sunflowers. One would grow four feet tall, but the other would be six to eight feet. “I had better plant the taller ones in the back row and the shorter ones in the next row. What will we plant in front of the sunflowers?” Kate asked.

  Grandma Sue held up the packets of zinnia and wildflower seeds. “I think these will work well in front and provide flowers for cutting.”

  Kate agreed. “I can’t wait to get started. Has Grandpa Jim finished plowing the bed?”

  “Yes, it is time for us to gather all the grass and weeds. We don’t want those in our special bed,” Grandma said as she handed Kate a pair of gardening gloves. “We will use gardening rakes. I have the perfect one for you. Let’s go to the potting shed and get our gardening tools.”

  Grandma Sue handed Kate a rake that was just right for her. The handle was shorter than Grandma’s and the rake was lighter. Off they went to the flower bed and started to work. The rakes made the job easy, but there were still some weeds that needed to be pulled by hand. Finally, she and Grandma Sue looked over the bed and decided their work was done. They asked Grandpa Jim to plow through the bed one more time. “It’s ready,” he said. “Plant those seeds.”

  Kate planted the sunflower seeds, one by one, ten inches apart, as the instructions suggested. She planted the taller sunflowers in a row at the back of the flower bed and the shorter ones in the next row. Grandma Sue planted two rows of zinnia seeds next. Then they scattered the wildflower seeds over the remainder of the bed and covered the seeds lightly with sand. Grandma Sue took a thin, wooden board about two feet long and placed it over the wildflower seeds. She pressed the seeds into the ground with the board.

  “It’s time to water the bed. Kate, would you like this honor?”

  Kate sprinkled water over the bed with the garden hose until the ground was wet. “Our work is done for the day,” said Grandma. “We will check the bed every day and water it when it is dry. With the warmth of the sun, we should see the plants start to emerge very, very soon.”

  Kate took a photo of the freshly planted flower bed. She placed the empty seed packets in her journal and wrote down what she and her grandparents had done that day.

  Kate remembered she could only visit two days a week for the rest of the summer. This would be the only full week that she would spend at her grandparents’ home. “Who will water the bed if I am not here?”

  “Don’t worry, Kate. I will water the bed, when needed, on the days you are not here.”

  The next morning, after she finished breakfast, she raced from the car to check on the flower bed. It needed water, and she sprinkled the ground while looking for signs of green. But only brown soil was visible. Kate was worried. She was anxious to see the seedlings appear above the soil. “Grandma Sue, when will the seeds come up?”

  “I am sure that when you come back on Monday of next week, there will be signs of green everywhere in the flower bed. By next Friday, the entire bed should be green.” Grandma Sue knew that it would take at least seven days for the plants to break through the soil. She showed Kate how to draw a calendar in her journal to mark off the days.

  “I’m glad I will be able to come on Mondays and Fridays to visit with you and Grandpa Jim this summer. I want to take a lot of photos of the bed as it grows.”

  The first weekend after they had planted the flower bed was the longest for Kate. She told her friends about the flower seeds she had planted with her grandmother. “I will bring photos and flowers to show you soon.”

  Just as Grandma Sue had said, on Monday of the second week, Kate found green seedlings appearing all over the bed. She ran into the house and exclaimed, “Grandma, the bed is all green! The flowers are coming up! Come and see!”

  “Let me finish the dishes, Kate,” Grandma Sue replied with a smile. “Get your camera and journal. We can spend some time in the garden looking over the bed.”

  Kate took a photo of the bed. The wildflowers and zinnia seedlings were small compared to the sunflowers, which had larger leaves. Kate made a note in her journal and marked the calendar with a green smiley face. She lightly watered the bed. “When will we see the flowers bloom?” Kate asked her grandmother.

  “They will bloom at different times. Some will only last a day or two, and some will stay for weeks, like the sunflowers.”

  “I can’t wait!”

  “The secret to gardening is patience, Kate,” Grandma Sue said.

  “That is a hard one!” Kate said as she wrote the word patience in her journal.

  As the weeks of summer quietly came
and went, Kate kept busy taking notes and placing photos in her journal of the growing garden. She had a lot of photos of the wildflowers and zinnias. She had photos of butterflies and bees as they tasted the sweet nectar the flowers provided. But she was never quite quick enough to capture the hummingbird.

  The sunflowers had not bloomed. The only photos of the sunflowers Kate had were of green stalks with big leaves. It had been weeks since the plants had come up. “When will they bloom?” Kate wondered.

  Finally, one Monday morning when Kate arrived at her grandparents’, she discovered something new happening to the sunflower plants. “Look, Grandma Sue, something is different about this plant,” she said, pointing to the top of the stalk where a round green ball had formed.

  “That’s the flower head,” Grandma Sue explained. “It will produce the sunflower filled in the center with seeds.”

  Kate was excited. She took a photo of the top of the plant. The taller sunflower plants were now the same height as Kate, about forty-six inches. “How much taller will they grow?” Kate asked her grandmother.

  “Let’s look at the seed packet you saved in your journal,” replied Grandma Sue.

  Kate read the height out loud. “Six to eight feet. How tall is that?”

  “Well, let’s see. Grandpa Jim is six feet tall. Maybe a little taller than he is.”

  “Wow!” exclaimed Kate. “That is really, really tall. I hope they wait until Friday to bloom. I want a lot of photos.”

  On Friday, Kate got her wish. Some of the sunflowers had begun to open, while others were still tightly covered by the green outer leaves. Kate had to stretch up on her toes to get the best photo. She snapped photos of the sunflowers in different stages of opening. Soon, the bees found the sunflowers and stayed for hours. But Kate did not mind. She was very pleased with the sunflowers, and the work she had done didn’t really seem like work at all. Her patience had been rewarded.