Transcript for Parent Storytellers
Oni Pepperoni was having the most wonderful afternoon in his backyard on ‘Urf’. He had set up his favorite camping chair next to a cozy fire pit, and he was roasting marshmallows on a long stick.
“One marshmallow,” Oni counted as he pulled the first golden-brown treat from the fire. “Two marshmallows,” he said, adding another perfectly toasted one to his plate. “Three marshmallows!”
Oni loved counting his marshmallows. It made everything more fun! The marshmallows were turning out perfectly – not too dark, not too light, but just the right shade of golden brown that made his mouth water.
“Four marshmallows, five marshmallows!” Oni continued counting as he roasted more over the dancing flames. “I’m getting really good at this!”
Just then, Oni’s mama called from the back door. “Oni! Would you like to share some of those delicious marshmallows?”
“Of course, Mama!” Oni replied happily. He picked up one of his perfectly roasted marshmallows with his stick and started swinging it through the air toward his mama.
But as he swung the marshmallow stick, something unexpected happened. The marshmallow flew right off the stick and went soaring through the air!
“Whoops!” Oni called out as he watched the marshmallow fly in the wrong direction entirely.
SPLAT!
The sticky marshmallow landed right in the bright red hair of Lucky Leprechaun, who had been walking by Oni’s yard at that very moment.
“Hey!” Lucky exclaimed, reaching up to feel the gooey marshmallow stuck in his hair. “What’s this sticky thing doing in me hair?”
Lucky tried to pull the marshmallow out, but it was really stuck. The more he tugged, the more tangled it became in his red curls.
“I’m sorry, Lucky!” Oni called out. “It was an accident! I was trying to give it to my mama!”
But Lucky was getting frustrated. “This marshmallow is making such a mess! Now I’ll have to wash me whole head to get it out!”
Lucky was so busy trying to remove the marshmallow that he didn’t notice a small bee buzzing around nearby. The bee had been having quite an adventure of its own that day.
“Buzz, buzz,” hummed the little bee, whose name was Buzzy. “I’ve been eating marshmallows and pollen all day long. My tummy feels so full!”
Buzzy was the same friendly bee who had helped Oni before, but today he had been feasting on the sweet pollen from Oni’s garden flowers, plus he had found some leftover marshmallow crumbs from Oni’s snack time.
“Uh oh,” Buzzy said to himself, feeling a rumbling in his tiny bee belly. “I think I ate too much!”
And then, just as Lucky was pulling extra hard on the marshmallow in his hair, Buzzy let out the biggest fart a little bee had ever made!
The force of Buzzy’s enormous bee fart was so powerful that it shot him backwards through the air like a tiny rocket!
“Whee!” Buzzy called out as he zoomed up into the sky, spinning and tumbling through the clouds.
Oni watched in amazement as Buzzy disappeared into the blue sky above. “Wow! That was the loudest bee fart I’ve ever heard!”
Lucky stopped pulling at his hair and looked up too. “Well, I never! Where did that wee bee go?”
High above, Buzzy was still flying through space, propelled by his supersonic fart. He zoomed past the clouds, past the birds, and kept going higher and higher until he was flying among the stars!
“This is amazing!” Buzzy called out as he sailed through space. “I never knew farting could be so powerful!”
As Buzzy flew through the solar system, he spotted something orange and furry floating nearby. It was a cat wearing a red cape and a mask, doing somersaults in zero gravity.
“Hello there!” called the cat. “I’m Super Jump Grippy! What brings you to outer space?”
“I farted so hard that I blasted off from Earth!” Buzzy explained, still spinning through the air. “What are you doing up here?”
“I’m practicing my super jumps!” Super Jump Grippy replied. “I can jump so high that I ended up in space. Want to explore together?”
Buzzy and Super Jump Grippy became fast friends as they floated through space. They played zero-gravity tag among the asteroids and raced around Saturn’s rings.
“Look!” Super Jump Grippy pointed with his paw. “There’s the moon! Want to visit?”
“Yes!” Buzzy exclaimed. “I’ve never been to the moon before!”
Super Jump Grippy used his powerful legs to jump toward the moon, with Buzzy buzzing alongside him. They landed on the moon’s dusty surface with a soft bounce.
“This is incredible!” Buzzy said, looking around at the gray moon rocks and the beautiful view of Earth in the distance. “But I can see my friend Oni down there. I should probably get back home.”
Meanwhile, back on ‘Urf’, Oni had been counting more marshmallows while wondering about Buzzy. “Six marshmallows, seven marshmallows,” he counted. “I hope Buzzy is having a good adventure.”
Lucky had finally managed to get most of the marshmallow out of his hair, though it was still a bit sticky. “Well, that was quite the morning!” he said with a laugh. “I’ve never had a marshmallow stuck in me hair before!”
“I’m really sorry about that,” Oni said sincerely. “Would you like me to make you some fresh marshmallows to make up for it?”
“That’s very kind of you,” Lucky replied. “But maybe you could count them out for me? I want to make sure I get exactly three marshmallows – no more, no less!”
“I can do that!” Oni said excitedly. He loved counting, and he was getting very good at it.
Oni carefully roasted three new marshmallows, counting each one as he made them. “One for Lucky,” he said, placing the first golden marshmallow on a plate. “Two for Lucky. And three for Lucky! That’s exactly three marshmallows!”
Lucky clapped his hands with delight. “Perfect counting, Oni! You’re becoming quite the mathematician!”
Just then, they heard a familiar buzzing sound from above.
“Buzzy!” Oni called out as his bee friend came floating down from the sky, carried gently by a small parachute that Super Jump Grippy had given him on the moon.
“Hi Oni!” Buzzy called as he landed softly in the grass. “You won’t believe the adventure I just had! I met a super cat on the moon!”
“That sounds amazing!” Oni replied. “I’ve been practicing my counting while you were gone. Want to help me count the rest of my marshmallows?”
“I’d love to!” Buzzy said. “But maybe I should skip eating any more today. I think I’ve had enough!”
Everyone laughed as Oni continued counting his marshmallows. “Eight marshmallows, nine marshmallows, ten marshmallows!”
“Ten is a great number!” Lucky said. “It’s easy to count to ten using your fingers!”
Oni held up his hands, wiggling all ten fingers. “You’re right! One, two, three, four, five on this hand,” he said, wiggling the fingers on his left hand. “And six, seven, eight, nine, ten on this hand!” he said, wiggling the fingers on his right hand.
“Counting is so much fun!” Oni declared. “Even when marshmallows get stuck in hair and bees fart into space!”
As the afternoon sun began to set, Oni, Lucky, and Buzzy sat together, enjoying the remaining marshmallows (Buzzy just watched) and practicing counting everything they could see – birds in the sky, flowers in the garden, and clouds floating overhead.
“You know,” Lucky said, patting his now-clean hair, “even when things don’t go as planned, they can still turn into wonderful adventures.”
“And the best part,” added Buzzy, “is that we can count all the fun things that happen to us!”
Oni smiled as he counted his friends. “One Lucky, one Buzzy, and one me! That makes three friends having the best counting adventure ever!”
And as the stars began to twinkle in the darkening sky, Oni felt grateful for his friends, his marshmallows, and all the numbers that made counting so much fun.