Benny and Nanea Get a Rainforest House

Trudy here. The big day has finally come! After months of dreaming, Nanea and Benny have finally gotten to build their new Rainforest House. This is Islandshire's newest building and a great place for parties.

The house had actually arrived here in the middle August, as some of you long-time Gazette readers may remember. Grampy brought it home is a huge box one afternoon, and this sat in the living room for several days. It was the talk of the whole island --- everyone wondering what it would look like, etc. But even peaking inside the box wasn't very much help, except that you could see the beautiful tile floor way down in the bottom!

Nanea and Benny trying to see their new house!

Benny and Nachito trying to see a bit more -- without success.

Benny is a very handy fellow, so he was pretty ready to start building the place. Mina (being the sole owner and employee of Islandshire's fix-it shop) volunteered to help, so she and Benny decided to consider a brick foundation. There's a large pile of bricks in the garden outside, so they went to have a look around.

Benny and Mina consider bricks for building the foundation. 

While the bricks were certainly sturdy (and very heavy), they didn't seem like a truly "island style" foundation. Benny decided that the traditional bamboo stilts would look neater --- and keep the floor of the house off the ground. Having made that decision, the two adventurers needed to get some tools. They looked at some things in Grampy's garage . . . but everything out there was too big!

 So, Grammy and Grampy came to the rescue. It had been decided that the new house should really be able to move around a bit, because Henry the Kitten likes to chew on things --- so the house needed to be able to move from the closet to the open room. Grammy surprised Mina with a new tool kit (just the perfect size), and Grampy helped to build a wooden platform on wheels (covered over in really nice green "grass").

The new tool kit!

Building the platform . . .

You always have to check the wheels to make them secure!

Then it's time to open the box and figure out how to pull that heavy house out of there! Last minute measurements are always a good thing, too --- and Nanea can hardly control her excitement!

Boy, the house sure had plenty of packing in it. Nothing was going to break, that's for sure!

With a little help from the big people, we all managed to get that house out of the box. It was HEAVY! Nanea and Benny were so excited that they had to stop to celebrate this great moment.

Once the house was on the nifty platform, it was time to put on some fancy rails and paint the walls. It was certainly great that the new tool kit had a hammer, a saw and some paint!

This house was a real deal, because it actually came fully furnished. You don't find a gem like that on the market just every day . . . but Islandshire is an amazing place. It took a lot of work and help to get all the furnishings out and set up, because the box they came in was packed in such a way that you could barely get it out. So, Mom and Aunt Elizabeth helped us with that.

Benny and Nanea got to work hanging the curtains in the doors. They're so pretty, and since there are no bugs on Islandshire, you can leave them open all the time.

A really amazing thing happened at this point -- a parrot showed up and perched on the rail of the house, obviously wanting to be adopted as a special pet. Nanea couldn't have been happier, and she has named the parrot "Coucou". This is a very special pet, because she likes to eat fruit treats, and she talks sometimes.

Benny and Nanea love adopting pets, and they had been dreaming of a pet parrot since Jill got a pet Toucan. Another dream come true on Islandshire.

While Nanea made the parrot welcome, Benny got to work putting a roof on the new house (with a little supervision from Nanea). At first glance, you might think it's a little flimsy, but this roof keeps out all kinds of weather. Of course, it helps that there's no bad weather on Islandshire -- never rain or heavy winds -- but it really is a great roof!

Now came the fun of decorating their new place and turning it into a home. Benny decided to set up his outside grill while Nanea took care of the inside stuff. First, of course, it was time to make the bed. Nanea had a brand-new beautiful homemade quilt for the bed, and there's nothing better than that for making that good old "home-y" feeling!

Nanea's plush monkey, Janie, loves the new bed.

And everyone knows that it's the personal keepsakes and decorations that make a home special. Benny and Nanea's most special "family heirloom" is a metal clock in the shape of a seashell. That found a special place on one of the wall shelves.

While Nanea was busy inside, Benny was busy with his grill. He got it all set up and started making some really delicious kabobs and corn, roasted veggies, burgers and fries! That's just about everything you need to make a great lunch in your new house, right?

The big moment was finally here. They could step back and admire their new home, put their feet up, relax and have a bit of something to eat. Never were a brother and sister happier than this!

After such a hard day's work, Benny and Nanea decided they could both use a nap. Now that the house is all ready, there are only two things left to do -- set up Nanea's clothes closet, and host a house-warming party. Stay tuned for the reports . . . coming to you by the only source of news here: the Islandshire Gazette.

Harriet and Eliot Gather Chestnuts

Trudy here. We've really been needing something to happen around here, so Eliot and Harriet volunteered to go on an adventure! It's Autumn at their home (of course, Islandshire has only one perfect season), so they decided to take Eliot's scooter out for a ride. We're holding a benefit for the "Islandshire Adoption Fund", and everyone is going to help out. A couple of the girls want to make marron glacé and can it to sell, so Eliot and Harriet offered to go out to hunt for chestnuts!

Off to find some chestnuts!

They took a ride on Eliot's scooter and didn't really have to go too far. It was a bit of a ride, but they enjoyed it. The old chestnut tree is over on the edge of the garden, near the hedge. You have to go through a bit of woods to get there, but they didn't mind the dark.

Once they got to the tree, Harriet really got down to work. She gathered all kinds of nuts and found a little log to perch on while organizing them. Eliot wasn't really much help, because he just kept riding around on his scooter -- but he's fun to have around!

Harriet checked all the chestnuts to make sure that they were good (no worms!).

Eliot rode around while Harriet sorted the chestnuts . . . he said that he was looking around for more, but he was sure driving pretty quickly to spot nuts hidden on the ground.

After a while, Eliot came over to help Harriet load the nuts into the compartment on the back of the scooter.

As soon as all the chestnuts were stowed in the back of the scooter, Harriet got back on, and they started for home. It was a bit of a darker ride now, because they'd been gone for quite a while, but they are really brave!

At the house, Eliot parked his scooter and helped Harriet climb the stairs inside. It was a very successful trip, and the Benefit will be a great success with these great chestnuts!

Don't forget to check back for more Islandshire fun!