Bedtime with Mrs.
Honeybee.
Today in the Honeybee neighborhood,
We'll be going on an adventure into a new world made of chalk.
Have you ever drawn with chalk before?
I love chalk.
With a little magic,
Anything that we draw can come to life,
Right,
Mrs.
Honeybee?
That's right,
Melody Bee.
We can go anywhere in Chalk World.
We're only limited by our imagination.
Hmm,
What about this?
Whoa,
That's a beautiful flower,
Melody Bee.
But why would you want to visit a flower?
You're a bee.
You visit flowers every day.
Flowers,
It was the first thing I thought of.
Here,
I'll make a few adjustments.
Oh,
A bouquet of flowers?
Ah,
Is that for me?
Yes,
Mrs.
Honeybee.
You are so sweet,
Melody Bee.
Thank you,
My dear.
For this adventure,
We're going to be thinking a little bit bigger than flowers.
I've got a special idea in mind.
All you have to do is close your eyes,
Get cozy,
And listen to the sound of my voice.
Mrs.
Honeybee will be your guide.
Let's begin.
You are here,
Walking down the sidewalk to our house.
The sun is shining down on this beautiful afternoon.
Take a slow,
Deep breath in through your nose.
Feel your chest and your spirits lift.
Then,
Slowly,
Breathe all the way out through your mouth.
You notice yourself looking down at your feet as you walk today.
Right foot,
Left foot,
Right foot,
Left foot.
Along the way,
Under your footsteps,
You see something unusual.
First,
A big,
Yellow,
Happy face with a winking eye.
After that,
You see a galloping purple unicorn with a rainbow mane and sparkly boots for its hooves.
The closer you get to our driveway,
The more intricate the images become until you get all the way to our front porch,
Where you can hear Mr.
Honeybee and Melody Bee in the backyard.
Melody Bee,
Can you please hold the other side of the tape measure?
About here?
Or is that too big for the squashes?
You said zucchini likes to spread out with big leaves,
Right?
Oh yeah,
Definitely.
Zucchini leaves are so big that they conceal the squash from birds and other hungry friends.
Then,
This seems like plenty of room.
You peek your eyes over the fence and jump up to wave your hand so that they can see you,
But they don't.
You're taken by surprise when I open the wooden gate.
Hello,
My little honeybee.
Did you see all our chalk art on the driveway?
Mr.
Honeybee,
Melody Bee,
Harold,
Our little honeybees here.
Hello,
My little honeybee.
Here's a piece of chalk.
Like always,
We need your help.
We've learned this afternoon that I am not the best creature to help draw a straight line.
I'm excellent at hexagons,
But straight lines?
No way.
Can you help us draw the outlines for our new garden boxes?
The zucchini are almost ready to be transplanted.
You walk all the way to the garden before Harold finally wakes up from his nap in the sun.
When he sees you,
He rushes over to you for pets and kisses.
He's always so happy to see you,
Just like we are.
With Harold at your feet,
You walk over to the patch of grass where the garden boxes will go and help Mr.
Honeybee trace out a perfectly straight line that will form the edge.
While you're doing that,
Melody Bee is over in the sandy soil where she grows succulents,
Drawing something of her own.
Look at this.
I drew us a new friend.
I call her Rosie.
She's a rose,
But with hands and feet and a big smile.
Rosie lives in a rose garden that lost its color,
But because she's so bright and smiley and happy,
She brings the color right back.
Oh,
Hello,
Rosie.
It's nice to meet you.
We're the Honeybees.
Here,
Let's see what I can draw.
Mr.
Honeybee grabs as many colors as he can hold in two hands,
Then gets to work.
First,
He draws a circle for a head with a little yellow antenna at the top.
He draws another circle for feet because this friend rolls everywhere he needs to go.
He draws a little circle for the head and he draws a little red heart in the center of his belly.
Mr.
Honeybee finishes the details of a robot he's just about finished prototyping.
The chalk he used has ground down to stumps against the sandy soil.
When Mr.
Honeybee finishes drawing,
He stands back to present a new friend.
I call him Roger,
Roger Robot.
Mr.
Honeybee wipes the palm of his hands together and clouds of chalk dust fill the air surrounding us like fog.
When the dust settles,
We look around to see who said that,
But don't see anyone.
We look back at the chalk drawing of the robot,
Roger Robot,
And see that he's changed position.
Now he's waving and is turned around with his back facing us as if rolling away.
Whoa,
Did Roger Robot just come to life?
Well,
The chalk version of him did somehow,
But he seems to have rolled away.
Roger,
Come back.
I just need a few more pieces and your prototype should be finished.
Can you help?
We look down at the chalk drawn robot,
Which is laying perfectly still on the sandy soil.
A light breeze kicks up and blows his antenna away into the garden.
Aw,
Bye for now,
Roger.
I'm sure you'll figure out how to bring Roger to life,
Mr.
Honeybee.
You're a tinkerer extraordinaire.
Maybe Roger went into the mysterious chalk world.
Oh,
I know that one.
It's the world that waits in the palm of our hands and beneath our feet.
We see them all over the Honeybee neighborhood.
You try,
Mrs.
Honeybee.
Take us somewhere far,
Far away.
Hmm,
I think I can think something up.
I pick up some of the chalk and hand some for you to help.
All that's left in big usable pieces is the white chalk.
What can we do with white?
We get right to work on a new chalk wonderland.
And when we finish,
We stand up to reveal a lifelike drawing of all four of us standing in a cloud world surrounded by clouds and stars that we cannot see,
But know they are there.
We wipe our palms together to get the chalk dust off of them.
And once again,
Chalk dust surrounds us like a fog.
Before we realize what happened,
We look down to see that we are now standing on puffy white clouds,
But they don't look like regular clouds.
They're the chalky clouds that we drew.
Not only are we standing on them,
But we can jump and twirl too.
That's when we realize that we aren't quite ourselves.
Now we're chalk people with colorful chalky outlines.
Mrs.
Honeybee,
My dear,
Did you forget to draw my ear?
Look,
I only have one.
I'm so sorry,
Mr.
Honeybee.
Here,
Let me draw you another one.
I reach out and begin drawing Mr.
Honeybee an ear,
But not just any ear.
He will now have one giant floppy elephant ear that has an earring.
Well,
I guess this works.
Ooh,
I need some ears.
You can't really see mine.
Will you help me draw ears for Melody Bee,
My little honeybee?
Together,
We draw Melody Bee two bunny ears on the top of her head.
Hey,
Look at these.
Wait,
These do this.
These get in the way of my antenna.
All I'm gonna pick up is static now.
Where do bunnies keep their antennas?
I don't think bunnies have antennas,
Melody Bee.
Sure they do.
They're probably just hidden like my ears.
Where are we gonna go next?
I have my ears on.
I'm ready for anything.
Oh,
I know.
The chalk version of Mr.
Honeybee begins to draw,
But hides what he's drawing from us,
So it's a surprise.
While we wait,
We jump and play in the chalk clouds that are just as soft and puffy as real clouds.
Take a slow,
Deep breath in through your nose.
Feel your chest expand out round,
Making more and more room for your breath.
Then slowly breathe all the way out through your mouth.
You can jump up high into the sky from the cloud and bounce like you're on a trampoline.
The three of us hold our chalky hands out to form a circle,
Then jump as high as we can.
While we're floating,
Mr.
Honeybee finishes his chalk drawing.
Instead of dropping back down into the puffy chalk cloud,
We drop down onto a gigantic castle on a grassy hill surrounded by a moat.
We land on the roof of the castle and run over to the wall to peek over.
When we look down,
That's where Mr.
Honeybee presents the dragon protector he drew.
This is Cecil the Sizzler.
Cecil the Sizzler immediately shows us why she's named that and lets out a fiery roar.
She alone is in charge of protecting us and this castle up on the hill.
On the opposite wall,
There's an old door.
We creak it open,
Wondering where it leads.
Because it's so dark,
Melody Bee draws us a single candle on a tiny golden plate so we can walk down the stairs slowly,
Watching our step.
Right foot,
Left foot,
Right foot,
Left foot.
When we get to the bottom of the spiral stairs,
We open two humongous doors onto a luxurious palace that is fit for royalty.
We look out the window and see Cecil diligently protecting us,
But on the other side of the castle,
We see our horses.
Mr.
Honeybee thought we could have some fun today,
So he also drew us to be knights in shining armor.
Armor appears plate by plate and fortifies you in this chalky castle world.
Take a slow,
Deep breath in through your nose and strengthen every single one of your muscles.
Feel how strong you are as a knight in shining armor.
Then,
Slowly,
Breathe all the way out through your mouth and let your body be squishy in your armor.
Our horses approach the door as we walk out to their stables.
I quickly draw us some carrots to offer our hungry horses before we take off on a knightly mission to rescue a prince and a princess who have been tricked by a devious forest fairy.
We ride our chalky horses through the forest,
Jumping over streams and fallen trees.
When we get to the pit where the princess and prince are stuck,
We dismount our horses and pull them out.
They are so grateful to be saved.
They think we deserve to relax after such an important mission.
So the prince and princess take some chalk and draw us something special,
An island paradise with plenty of sunshine and crystal blue water.
When they finish the drawing and wipe their palms together,
The chalk dust surrounds us like a cloud and we're off into another world before we can even wave goodbye.
We land in the sand and enjoy the warm sunshine on our faces.
As the waves roll in and crash on the sandy shore,
We prop ourselves up on our elbows and realize that we miss our furry friend,
Harold.
Adventures are so much more fun with him around.
How can we get out of the chalk world once we're in it?
Hmm,
That's a good question.
I guess we should have figured that out first.
Oh,
I think I know how.
I get right to work drawing all of us back in the garden in the honeybee neighborhood where Harold should be waiting for us.
In the blink of an eye,
We land back on the grassy ground where the new garden boxes will go.
The straight line is still drawn out on the grass and by now the wind has swept away the other chalky friends.
Harold is so excited we're back.
Since we had so much fun today,
We refresh our chalk and set out to cover the neighborhood sidewalks in delightful pictures for our neighbors to drop into whenever they would like to.
We can draw a castle world here,
A cloud world two streets over,
Another world that's full of bubbles,
And maybe even one that's deep underground with all the lava that will explode out of a volcano.
The possibilities are endless and the more people that walk by,
The more their imaginations will add to our pictures.
It's the gift that keeps on giving and going and giving.
Always remember,
Mrs.
Honeybee believes in you.
You are special and you are loved.
I can't wait to see you again.
