Koko & Kira's Cozy Easter 🐼🐣 Calm Kids Sleep Stories

[00:00:00] Hello and welcome back to Koala Moon, a podcast of original children's bedtime stories and meditations designed to make bedtime a dream. And I'm saying a big hello to Amos and Isaiah from Massachusetts today for joining for yet another year of the Coco Club. Yeah, great. I'm so pleased that you've joined up again.

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[00:02:42] In tonight's story, we are going to join our favorite siblings, Coco and Kira, for a snoozy Easter Sunday surrounded by family, nature and, of course, chocolate. Now then, before we get too excited, just jump into bed. Wiggle around a little bit. Close your eyes and breathe. Or sigh.

[00:03:11] Or yawn. Or blow bubbles. Or smile. Just lie in bed and relax while I'm going to get started with Coco and Kira's Cozy Easter by Jane Thomas.

[00:03:38] Have you ever woken up so early that you've been able to watch the sunrise? It's an extra magical time of the day, especially when it's a clear sky and there's the promise of something wonderful in the air. On this particular day, with the sky getting lighter and brighter in the east, and the stars slowly stopping their twinkling one by one, Kira is up to see the sun rising over the horizon.

[00:04:06] She jumps out of bed and does her best to pad quietly across to the window to watch it properly. But pandas find it hard to be silent, even when they try very hard indeed. And she's woken up Coco too. He's come to investigate, rubbing his big koala eyes with the back of his paws, and yawning and stretching his way into the early morning light.

[00:04:33] It's Easter Sunday, whispers Kira as he comes alongside her. Kira has opened the window, and the bird songs are pouring into the room, announcing the arrival of a brand new day. A single owl floats across the tops of the trees, heading home after a night soaring through the skies. Easter Sunday is my absolute favourite day of them all.

[00:05:03] Coco raises a little koala eyebrow and decides not to remind his sister that just a few months ago, Christmas was her absolute favourite day of them all, and just a few months before that it was Halloween that was her favourite, and before that it was Midsummer. Kira is the sort of panda who lives very much in the moment, with as little attention paid to the past as to the future.

[00:05:33] And in this moment, on this beautiful morning when the sun rises to reveal a garden dressed with glistening gems of dew, of course Easter Sunday is her favourite of all. In the distance, a rooster crowed to announce the arrival of a brand new day. Kira could almost feel the chickens fluffing their feathers in excitement.

[00:06:01] Easter is, of course, a pretty big day in the chicken calendar, when eggs are needed far and wide. As soon as the hands of the grandfather clock downstairs showed that it was nine in the morning, Coco and Kira would take their woven baskets and go hand in hand through the forest and down the lane towards the farm. And, as on every Easter Sunday,

[00:06:28] the farmer's wife would let them fill their baskets with warm eggs picked straight from the straw. Waiting for nine o'clock involved a lot of pacing up and down the room, checking it every few seconds to see if perhaps time had rushed for once and they could finally go. And Coco tried to distract Kira by talking about the lunch they would have later that day. But she just,

[00:06:59] hmmmed, and said, That's nice, in the sort of way people make noises and say things when they aren't really listening at all. But, of course, nine o'clock arrived, as it does every day, and Coco and Kira picked up their baskets and went off through the forest, then down the lane, breathing in great mouthfuls of the fresh new day

[00:07:27] that was scented with honeysuckle and sage. The chickens had done an excellent job and the baskets were soon filled with warm eggs, carried carefully home by a panda and a koala, taking great care not to trip over stones or slip on any mud. Safely back home, their mother boiled the eggs and helped them prepare everything

[00:07:57] for the egg decorating ceremony. Chalk was brought out of the art box and food dyes of every colour imaginable were taken from the baking cupboard. And once the eggs had cooled enough to be held, Coco and Kira set about the task of making them beautiful. They drew patterns in the chalk, stripes and circles and squiggles and wiggles,

[00:08:26] and on some eggs they drew faces with smiles that stretched from one side to the other. And on other eggs they wrote things like Hello, sunshine! and Hi, buttercup! And once that was done they dipped the eggs into the bowls of dye, the top half in one colour and the bottom half in another. The white chalk left all the swirls and whirls and spots and dots

[00:08:56] and magical messages and the dye turned the eggs as pink as flamingos and as blue as the sky, as yellow as sunshine and as red as the plumpest freshest strawberries. They put the coloured eggs back into the baskets and placed them just by the front door. While they were away on their next Easter Sunday mission they knew

[00:09:25] that a white rabbit would come bounding along and take their baskets out into the garden and hide the eggs one by one slipping them beneath bushes and popping them into flower pots and piling them in small rainbow heaps near the pond. Kira had added golden glitter to the largest of her eggs and she knew the white rabbit would hide that better than all the others together

[00:09:55] for it was the greatest prize of all and had to be the hardest to find. And their next Easter Sunday mission is, of course, to go and make their Easter bonnets. And where in sleepy forest should a creature go to make their Easter bonnet? The sleepy forest hat shop heavenly hats of course. Winnie and Patrick

[00:10:25] had been waiting for weeks for this day getting in supplies of flowers and straw and fluffy chicks and bunny rabbit ears ready to be stitched and sewn and glued and hung on hats with wide brims and narrow brims tall and small. Patrick was as serious as ever for he is a very serious peacock and Winnie

[00:10:54] was as excited as ever for she is a very excitable warthog. Winnie had made a special daffodil hat for the day and it jiggled and wiggled as she opened the door to heavenly hats that morning peering down the street to see who would be the first to come and make bonnets with her. Coco and Kira may not have been the first but they weren't so very far behind. They stopped

[00:11:24] along the way distracted by the hot cross buns in Betty Badger's bakery taking their time eating the toasted buns with butter dripping and running down their paws. By the time they reached heavenly hats the table Winnie had set aside for bonnet making was covered in bits of straw and flower stems and fluffy dyed feathers and all of the cut-offs left over from other

[00:11:54] creatures' Easter bonnets. Winnie showed them everything they had to work with and Coco decided to make a hat that looked like a giant nest. He would fill it with bits of broken eggshell and then tiny fluffy yellow chicks and have the chicks bursting out of the eggs excited for Easter Sunday. He added some green felt around the edges to look

[00:12:23] as if the nest was resting in the grass and he stood by the long mirrors that hung in the centre of the shop and admired his special bonnet. Kira wanted to make a flower garden and Winnie helped her take lollipop sticks and paint them all white to make a fence that would go around the edges and she filled the centre with huge piles of green moss to look

[00:12:53] like grass and wove flowers around the fence and bursting from the moss with daisies and daffodils growing alongside lavender and lilies. It was a beautiful hat and Kira tried it on turning this way and that to see how it looked but deciding it had something missing. Coco's hat was so much fun with the straw and the chicks

[00:13:23] and the nest and hers was beautiful but nowhere near as exciting as his. She looked around the table for an idea and there it was a huge pair of pink bunny rabbit ears. They were the perfect touch and she added those growing out of the moss alongside the flowers with one ear standing up straight and tall and the other

[00:13:52] flopping over the edge of the fence. She tried the hat on again and had a giggle to herself. This was it she knew. This was the perfect Easter bonnet. Coco and Kira walked slowly back home carefully not to dislodge their new bonnets. They walked almost as slowly as they had when they'd carried the little baskets

[00:14:22] of eggs earlier that day. They passed by Prickles' house who declared they were the bonniest bonnets he'd ever seen and he trotted down the garden path to hand both Coco and Kira a little silver foil wrapped chocolate egg each. They balanced the silver eggs on their hats and carried on down the street bursting with pride and smiling broadly.

[00:14:53] And so it was that Marshall the giant tortoise eased his way blue foil wrapped chocolate eggs to each. Then Arlo and Louis the pair of foxes who usually moved too fast to notice anything gave them both red foil wrapped chocolate eggs. By the time Coco and Kira arrived at home they were

[00:15:23] each balancing ten little foil wrapped chocolate eggs on their Easter bonnets and trying very hard indeed not to a single one of them. The baskets they had left on the doorstep had been emptied so the white rabbit must have been and hidden everything around the garden. The brother and sister carefully removed their bonnets and one at a time

[00:15:53] placed the chocolate eggs into their baskets. They both knew that Kira would Coco would still have a few left in a month's time. She found it impossible to wait for treats while Coco liked to spread his out over as long a time as possible. They were just getting ready for their egg hunt when their mother appeared and clapped

[00:16:23] her paws together announcing it was time for Easter lunch. They had quite forgotten. How had they forgotten one of the very best parts of Easter Sunday? Coco and Kira followed her through the house and out onto the back veranda where a long table had been created by putting lots of shorter ones together and over it all was a huge

[00:16:53] white cloth that hung almost to the floor. The table was covered in vases of flowers and colourful bottles that spilled the sunshine out onto the white cloth in beautiful dancing rainbows of light. There were plates piled high with sandwiches and puff pastry tarts and a huge white bowl of meringue in the very centre of the table was filled to

[00:17:22] overflowing with fruit. Cupcakes and cinnamon buns and cookies and flour dusted bread rolls were in any gaps on the table and honestly there weren't many gaps at all. Around the table sat all of Coco and Kira's family who had come from far and wide to spend Easter Sunday with them. What a beautiful

[00:17:51] bonnet said their grandmother smiling across at Kira. Lovely ears she said with a grin pointing at Kira's and then with a mischievous wink pulling her very own set of bright blue bunny rabbit ears out of her handbag and popping them on her head. Lunch was long and lazy and filled with laughter everyone passing plates

[00:18:21] back and forth as they asked for more sandwiches or cake or wedges of yellow cheese and bundles of purple grapes. Kira almost felt as though she may never eat again by the time she was finished and Coco was to what was being said and smiling at comments

[00:18:51] made before they slipped closed again and he drifted into the miniest of mini dreams for a moment. He was nudged awake by Kira who handed him his wicker basket the bottom of which was of course covered in those shiny foil wrapped chocolate eggs they'd been given as they walked back home in their Easter bonnets. It's time for our Easter egg hunt she said and Coco

[00:19:21] managed to feel a little bit more awake as he headed off with her out into the garden. They started together and then separated with Kira going to the left and Coco going to the right. By Kira's side was her little cousin a koala called Kukai. She filled her basket by lifting up leaves and diving deep under bushes looking out for the most

[00:19:50] hidden eggs of all. And beside Coco was their other little cousin Kiki the kangaroo who filled hers by boinging up trees to look in the V of branches and holding back tulips and daffodils so Coco could see all the better. They looked beneath bushes and behind flowers alongside the pond and by the shed and Kira even

[00:20:20] went into the shed and checked the wheelbarrow. She looked behind where the forks and spades leaned against a wall and inside all the terracotta plant pots that were waiting to be used in the summer months. And Coco even went into the garage and lifted down the pots of paint from the shelf and looked behind those and checked behind the piles of screwdrivers and hammers

[00:20:50] and crowbars. Finally he peered into boxes that were filled with the sorts of things adults seem to keep for no reason whatsoever. Piles of old newspapers and clothes they ever wear again and bedding that they don't use any more that is kept because you just never know. And in all of these places they found their perfectly painted

[00:21:20] eggs from that morning with their stripes and spots and faces and messages. And Coco laughed when he found one that said high five you got me. They returned to the table with baskets filled to overflowing. Kira finding that she had room for some more

[00:21:50] food after all and popping an extra cucumber sandwich into her mouth. Coco licked the icing on a cupcake and found that that was more than enough. And who found the special golden egg? asked their mother. And Kira shook her head and said she hadn't been able to find it. And Coco shook his head and said he hadn't been able to find it either.

[00:22:20] They swapped sides of the garden and went back again even looking right into the heart of roses to see if somehow the white rabbit had hidden an egg in there and folding back the petals of tulips to see if the golden egg was nestled inside. Kukai and Kiki trotted after their older cousins and looked all over again too.

[00:22:51] Well, said their mother. I wonder where that could have got to. The Easter bunny promised me he'd hidden everything, but in places you would be sure to find them. How very strange. She looked out across the garden as if suddenly expecting to see the golden egg appear from nowhere. The sun

[00:23:22] was think it it sometimes turns and the sky was playing its part too and filling itself with pink and orange streaks that swept all the way from one side to the other. Behind them the sky was turning darker and darker turning from the bright blue of the day to a deeper and

[00:23:52] deeper midnight blue speckled with silver stars. Coco and Kira were led inside and guided up the stairs one paw at a time lifting slowly and heavily up each and every step their eyes closing every now and then bathtub that overflowed with rainbow bubbles.

[00:24:22] The window was covered in steam and it was impossible to see the sunset clearly but Kira saw a red haze fade and fade until now there was just darkness outside. The voices of those still on the veranda drifted up towards her little waves of laughter coming here

[00:24:52] and there as the family shared stories from years before and when it was Coco's turn to have a bath he rubbed his paw against the misted window so he could lie among the bubbles and look out at the stars making up real ones he decided that one set looked like

[00:25:22] a panda lying beneath a palm tree and drinking from a coconut so he called that Kira's dream and another set looked like a koala swinging in a hammock with a ukulele in his hand so he called that Coco's Haven Coco was fast asleep in his bed almost before his head touched the pillow and his

[00:25:52] mother pulled the soft blue blankets right up to his chin and tucked them around him whispering good night into his ear he had forgotten all about the golden egg and where it instead in his dreams he was once more walking through sleepy forest wearing his wonderful

[00:26:22] easter bonnet smiling and waving as everyone cheered him on but Kira was unable to forget that glittering golden egg she lay in the bed and closed her eyes and did her very best impression of being fast fast asleep so when her mother came in and whispered

[00:26:51] good night and pulled the soft purple blanket right up to her chin she snuggled a little deeper and played the part of a panda who was in the world of dreams and maybe she did fall asleep and maybe she didn't and Kira was never quite sure

[00:27:20] if what she saw was real or not for she looked out of the window and saw a huge white owl sweeping past the and in his feet the owl was clasping a glittering golden egg that sparkled more brightly

[00:27:50] than any star in the sky the owl flapped his wings and rose higher and higher in one to the other as they flew rolling it along their wings until it fell from the very tips and was caught on the

[00:28:20] back of another and Kira watched as the three owls flew high into the darkness until she could barely see them at all and the golden egg became just another dot as if it was a star up there in the sky twinkling brightly with all the others maybe

[00:28:50] the owls would return the golden egg to the garden and they would find it another day or maybe they would leave it out there in the and

[00:29:23] how the lilies and the lavender swayed in a soft breeze and in her sleep she wandered through the garden and found eggs that had been hidden by the whitest of rabbits gathering them into a basket

[00:29:49] and placing them gently inside with a wish and a whispered dream.