Myrtle Mouse: Lightening Bolt

Hi Primrose,

School is here again and I'm happy about that because school means characters. And guess what characters bring: crime, drama, mystery! No lunch money will remain unfound when Detective Myrtle is on the scene.

Oh right. But today I am writing to you about my summer, which was awesome by the way.

Yup, that's me all the way up there on the high dive. All the way up at the top. It was so high that I could see the roof of the grocery store down the street. So high that I had to fight through gale force winds to get to the top ladder rung. So. High. It was 10 degrees colder once I got to the top! Really. I promise. It was. 

That's me zipping through the air like a streak of silver. Like a silver lightening bolt! My tail was like a knife. Do you see that splash? Nope, I didn't think so. 

Yours truly,

Myrtle Mouse

Professional Detective 

Award Winning Diver 

Dandelion Duck: My Heart is a Broken Pencil.

 Dear Primrose,

School is starting and my summer of art is over. My heart is like a heavy, grey paintbrush. No, it's like a crayon with no color...a watercolor tray with no water. I suppose you get the idea. Do you?

I spent every single day drawing and painting. I made 87 masterpieces. Well lucky for my family all my drawings and paintings are beautiful because I hung ALL of them up all over the whole house. My mom says that it's a temporary installation, but I told her you can't keep true beauty in a box somewhere. 

This was my view all summer. Just a duck and her sketchbook. 

Love, 

Dandelion

PS: My mom got me a pocket sized sketchbook to take to school with me. Cool. 

Farewell to Summer

 Dear Fans,

Some people are sad to see summer go, but I see cooler temperatures and changing leaves as my call to action! So much to prepare for - school, dance lessons, science club, art club, band, homework, friends and so much more. I've been extremely busy organizing my new backpack, decorating all of my notebooks, and picking out an unforgettable outfit for the first day of school, but Myrtle and Dandelion asked if they could post some of their summer memories and, well, friends come first.

So I'll take a break from my very important business to remember the summer of 2012 when I went camping. At nighttime!

There were so many noises. But I wasn't scared or anything of course. I was just curious. Yes, that's why I kept my flashlight on all night. Because I was very curious. 

One night I needed to use the latrine in the middle of the night. This would have been a big deal for some people, but not Primrose. I could feel the eyes of the hungry bear right on me, but I was brave and stepped out into the darkness. Just me and my flashlight. Suddenly I heard a ravenous HOOT! HOOT! from the trees. I think it was a bear. Or a mountain lion! 

What do YOU think it was?

Well, maybe it was an owl. A hungry owl! I was so brave that it didn't even bother me. Whatever it was. I mean...I'm Vice President of the Science Club. I'm obviously not afraid of a little animal in the woods.

That's my tent. Under the stars. It looks pretty scary, right? Well, it wasn't. Not for someone as brave and smart as me anyway. 

Signing off,
Vice President Primrose

Dandelion Duck: Breakthrough Artist

 

Dear Primrose,

If Myrtle can look for clues before she has a mystery, well then I can paint before I have an inspiration. My sketchbook is full and I have moved on to any piece of paper that I can find. Nothing can stop me! I don't even need a beret with glitter on it! I am an artist. Naturally.

Please join me for my first opening at the Duck Family Gallery on this Wednesday afternoon. There will be lemonade and tons and TONS of masterpieces.

The kitchen is Gallery #1. These are my early works. I didn't want to include them, but Mama insisted. She said that they will provide my audience with a little history and context - you know, my artistic struggles and all. This talent wasn't handed to me on a silver spoon, after all. Siiiiigh.

My bedroom is Gallery #2. These are from my Yellow Phase (known to my closest friends and family as my waiting-for-my-big-sister-to-drive-me-to-the-art-store-to-buy-more-paint phase).

The living room is Gallery #3. These are my best works, so bring your camera.

Creatively yours in every color imaginable,
Dandelion

Dandelion Duck and Her Empty Sketchbook

Dear P,

Oh defeat! I had saved my perfectly clean, white, glittering sketchbook for endless summer days of painting and drawing. Such big plans to fill it every day with beautiful artworks that I would bring to our first day of sixth grade and Mr. Cerulean would take one glimpse and then faint onto to the art room floor. Then, after I wake him with the smelling salts that I will have ready in my backpack, he will hand me a black beret with the word "artist" written in glitter across it and promote me to high school art - no, college art!

Oh! My plans are at risk! Now summer is here and I am sprawled on the living room floor staring at the blank pages. What should I draw? Something from my imagination? Something from my daily life? Whatever it is, it should be perfect. Right? Or else, what is the point? 

Signed,
A doomed duck, alone with her empty sketchbook.

PS. It also doesn't help that Myrtle has been trailing me with her magnifying glass and clue notebook every day. Thank goodness she has been obsessed with that cookie. Did you ever learn who took the bite? 

"M" is for Mystery. "S" is for Solved.

Dear Primrose,

The clues were everywhere and now I have my mystery! I, Detective M. S. Mouse ("M" is for Mystery, "S" is for Solved), am in the process of unraveling "The Case of the Cookie with One Bite Missing." Who took that bite only 36 minutes and 22 seconds before dinner? Was it...MUSTARD? Probably, but I need hard evidence before I can make my collar (that's police talk for catching him red-handed and TELLING!). 

I have notes and drawings of the scene. Now I will wait until the culprit returns to finish what he started. Gotta go! I hear footsteps and they sound hungry for cookies. It could be the perp (that's police talk for big brother).

Over and out,

Detective M. S. Mouse 

 

Myrtle Mouse Finds Her Calling

Primrose, 

The mean streets are calling to me. I'm not yet sure of the crime, but I'm quite certain that my brother Mustard is the culprit. The clues are everywhere and I've been recording them. 

Little does my careless brother know that he has left me a blazing hot trail of muddy footprints, crumbs, and something pretty gross that I have not yet identified in my crime lab.

Stealthily yours,

Myrtle Mouse, Neighborhood Private Detective (for hire now!) 

PS: Could you bring your chemistry set over later? My crime lab is horrifyingly underfunded and understaffed. How can a mouse accomplish anything in this sorry excuse for a town?! 

Dear Fans, 
The following set of urgent notes were written on the back of Dandelion Duck's Swan Lake program. Both were received during intermission and were super-secretly passed inside a box of Jujubes. Or maybe it was the Reese's Pieces. 
Happy Reading, Primrose

--- 1ST INTERMISSION ---

Dear Prim,

Oh. My. Duck. Myrtle called her Granny-Mouse during the spinniest part of the ballet. On her PHONE - right HERE in the THEATER. I showed her my sternest duckbill and said SHHHH, but she went on chatting like she was in her bedroom. Act Two is about to start. What to do with our little friend?

Will write again at next intermission. What some candy? Isn't this box the best note delivery disguise? 

Dandelion  

--- 2ND INTERMISSION ---

Dear Prim,

Your plan worked! I asked Myrtle if she would like it if we talked on our phones during her neighborhood hula hoop performances. She said she wouldn't care, but her ears turned pink. Like, woah... as pink as your new rain boots. P, the ears of a mouse never lie. I put M's phone in my ballet slipper and she can't find it! She's crawling under the seat...uh oh...OUCH! She found it.

Oops, the lights are blinking. Gotta go! Wait, did you see my ballet slippers? I've been twirling for weeks. This dance should be called Duck Lake. Let's rewrite it on the way home. Okay, see you on the bus.

Spinning, twirling, whirling - your swaniest-swooniest-dancing-duck friend,
Dandy

Attempted Interview with Lena-Dog

Hello all, Alyssa here. 

Technically, this isn't a letter, but Primrose has graciously invited Lena-Dog and me to post on her blog today. Lena is dictating and I'm typing. Here goes:

Lena-Dog: What's a bloog?

Alyssa: You mean a blog?

Lena-Dog: Oh right. I totally know what that is. Can I eat it?

Alyssa: aksdnlksanlkfaehjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjfkjdalkbfalsndflknaaaaaaaaa....Woah! Woah! Lena, no licking the keyboard!

Lena-Dog:  ...

Alyssa: Lena-Dog?

Lena-Dog: There are SNACKS in the kitchen. My leash is in there too.

Alyssa: Well, let's start blogging first.

Lena-Dog: Jogging? I LOVE TO JOG! Let's go to the park. I'll just meet you there.

Alyssa: What? No one jogs in this house.

Lena-Dog: *SIGH* Don't remind me. Wait, what's that smell? It smells like a sweet ball of claws and cat food. IT SMELLS LIKE RADISH-CAT AND I LOVE HER. I LOVE HER SO MUCH. Be right back.

Alyssa: Lena? 


Lena-Dog:  ...


Alyssa: Lena? 

Alyssa: Okay, I think that's it for our attempt at blogging. Oh, wait, Lena? You had something to add?

Lena-Dog: Lick, lick, lick, lick, lick, lick, OUCH! 


Alyssa: Okay folks, see you next time. 

A Note from Myrtle Mouse

Yo P! So, they said a mouse couldn't hula. Even Mustard said that mice are too small to handle a hula hoop and he IS a mouse. But what do big smelly brothers know? I say that until today mice just hadn't found the RIGHT hula hoop. That is, the custom-made Myrtle-Moop-Mouse-a-Hoop. That bracelet we found outside Dime-Mart worked perfectly. I mean it was soooooo perfect. Especially with the red and silver tape we put on it.

I was on fire. I told Coach Bimble to blast my song and flicker the lights. He had to ask what song - does he even listen EVER? Duh, it's "Mickey." Get it P? Because I'm a mouse. Anyway I hulaed my little mouse tail off and I won. I can't wait to tell Mustard. I won! I won! I won! I won! I WOOOOOOOON!

Your hula hero,
Myrtle
First Place, Annual Hula Competition, Coach Bimble's Fifth Grade Gym Class

PS: Actually Coach B wouldn't play the song and he definitely didn't flicker any lights, but I did hula for 8 minutes and 37 seconds straight. 24 seconds longer than Pemberton and he's a pony. Everybody knows about ponies and hula hoops. Am I right P? Well now they know about mice and hula hoops. Woo.

PPS: Wanna come over this weekend and help Dandelion and me make my first place trophie? Then my mom says we have to make Milly a Mouse-a-Hoop too. Little sisters. Always copying!

PPPS: It would have been way cooler with flickering lights, don't you think?

Primrose's Mailbox: A Welcome Message from Our Host

Dear soon-to-be devoted reader (yep, that's right),

I get a lot of mail. I mean A LOT. Like the Queen of England a lot. Well, I'm assuming the Queen gets a lot of mail because she's a QUEEN and famous and stuff. Plus, she seems like the kind of lady who would write a really great letter on fancy paper - the kind of letter that you can't wait to open so you read it standing in front on your mailbox. Right there on the sidewalk with your backpack still on, which is probably full of a ton of heavy books and homework. Those are the kind of letters that demand a reply. Those are the kind of letters that my friends and I write. 

Anyway, since I get SO much mail, Alyssa asked me if I would share some of my favorite letters with you on her blog. She even named her blog after me. Letters to a Lamb. That's ME! I'm the lamb! Primrose Lamb! So come back each week to see what interesting mail my friends have sent me. 

Yours truly with the coolest stamp I could find at the post office,
Primrose Lamb