Tiptoes, Jeremy Mouse, Pine Cone & Pepper Pot

Tiptoes sat on a lily pad at the edge of Soggy Mire. She swished her feet in the water and sang her Water Lily Song:

'I wish to be a water lily

A-floating on a pool,

And have the goldfish

Swish my feet

And make me feel all cool.'

We have been enjoying "The Tales of Tiptoes Lightly" by Reg Down lately. While this book was published just a few years ago, in 2004, it is written in the spirit of the simple past. It is about a fairy named Tiptoes Lightly and her friend, Jeremy Mouse, who help others on their adventures, overcoming challenges by working together. It is sweet, imaginative and simple. The stories are broken down into two or three page chapters, encompassing three tales: "The Bee who lost his Buzz", "Pumpkin Crow", and "Lucy Goose and the Half-egg". There are several Tiptoes books in the series. The short chapters make it wonderful for bedtime reading - though I've found that the girls will often want me to continue past each chapter of each tale...

The characters quickly came alive for the twins. They immediately loved the two gnomes who help Tiptoes and Jeremy Mouse - Pine Cone and Pepper Pot, so I decided I'd felt some characters for them to act out the scenes with...hence I began with the two gnomes...

I decided to make them with pipe cleaners, wooden beads, and felt. I also wanted them to stand freely, so I cut cardboard feet and held them in place with a paperclip while the glue dried the two cut outs together. Here is my progress:

Afterwards, I roughly stitched on some felt clothes for them.

This is Pine Cone. I deviated from their colors listed in the book to go for more of a representation of what their names meant to us. Pine Cone had to be in the brown tones...here he is up our pine tree!

And for Pepper Pot, we decided the grey flaked fleece looked like ground pepper...

Then, I set to work on Jeremy Mouse, but since the girls are such animal lovers, they each wanted their own Jeremy Mouse, so I made two. Here is the first one.

And finally, Tiptoes had to come to life...I based her coloring off of the book cover.

When we read from the book, the girls will act it out with their characters and it has really endeared them more to the tales. I'd highly recommend this series for those young children with one foot in the creative fantasy realm.

And for the Waldorfians out there, in chapter 1, Tiptoes says her prayers upon waking up and says the beautiful verse written by Steiner in loose translation from German:

"Angel of God who is guarding me

Be thou a bright flame before me

Be thou a shining star above me

Be thou a smooth path below me

Be thou a kind shepherd behind me

Today, tonight and forever."

Sweet dreams...