story Easter Surprise! by Leone Castell Anderson

As usual, Mrs McGillicuddy is so absentminded that her Easter gifts turn out to be bigger surprises than she means them to be. The missing words from this story are listed below. Copy them onto slips of paper, mix them up, and put them in a pile. Then as you read the story, fill in each blank with a word picked at random from the pile.

rubber boots   
a mustache and beard
potato peelings
long pink ears
flannel  underwear
feather grass
green foil wrapping paper
dandelion greens
a dab of perfume
old nylon stockings
her yellow Easter dress
a bag of cracker crumbs
her flowered bonnet
walnut shells
a striped umbrella
onion skins
marshmallows
a fat duck
Dutchman's breeches


It was the day before Easter and Mrs. Aloysius McGillicuddy had been busy, busy, busy as usual, making Easter dinner for all her friends. Suddenly she stopped. There was something else she had meant to do.  "Oh, thumpnoodle!" she said, thumping her forehead with her finger to clear her thoughts. "Now I remember," she declared. "I must dye some eggs."  So she set some eggs to boil.
"Now what can I use to dye the eggs some absolutely scrumptious colors?" she asked herself. "Oh,  thumpnoodle!" she said and rummaged about in her pantry and cupboards and closets and back yard. She set four pots of water on to boil. Into one she stirred ________. "That will make a beautiful dye," she said.
Into the next pot she threw ___________. "Bubble, bubble, " she saing.  "I can just see how lovely the eggs will look dipped in that color."
Into the third pot she put ___________. "Now there's something that will turn out pretty eggs," said Mrs McGillicuddy.
And when the last pot was boiling she tossed in ________. "What an elegant color that will make," she said beaming.
Mrs McGillicuddy finished dyeing her eggs. Then she decorated the eggs extra nice for each of her friends.
For little Martha Mathilda, she drew a face on the egg and added ____________. She glued __________Jeremiah Jones' egg. "That'll tickle him," she chuckled.
She wanted the eggs for the Terwiliger twins to look especially pretty, so she spent some time wrapping them in ____________. "Now they're really handsome." she declared.
There were so many eggs for all the members of the Frazzlefrump family--severn boys, six girls, four dogs, ten cats, two gerbils, and a tarantula spider in a glass jar--that she put their eggs int ________so they wouldn't crack. "That will keep them safe," she said.
By this time she was running short of eggs, and she still had friends to remember. "Oh, thumpnoodle!"  she exclaimed as she began a search through her cupboards. "Ah, just the thing," she said and added ______________ to another family's basket. "I just hope they don't eat too much of it and get a stomachache," she said with a worried frown.
Mrs McGillicuddy thought a long time before she came up with an idea for Sam Snoof. She decided to make something different for him. She put together _____________ and  stuffed it with ____________. He'll enjoy that, she thought happily, particularly when he knows I made  it with my own hands.
To Sam's parrot Goof who always cried out, "Arrrrr, you goofed!" she decided to give ___________.  Maybe he'll stop saying I goofed, she thought.
Then at the last minute Mrs McGillicuddy remembered the family down the street and quickly filled a bowl with ___________. That will look nice on their dining  room table, she decided.
The next morning Mrs McGillicuddy hurried to dress and join her friends on their way to Sunday School. All the fussing and preparing the day before had left Mrs McGillicuddy so flustery and breathy that she didn't pay much attention to how she dressed, for that was Mrs McGillicuddy's way.
First she put on _____________. That will keep me warm, she decided.
Then she donned _____________. "For I do want to look pretty!" she declared. She decided to add
_________________ behind her ears.  There! Now I feel like spring, she thought.
And at last she put on _______________. "So I will look like spring," she said. She decided to carry
______________. "For you never know when it might rain," she said.
Just as Mrs McGillicuddy was going out the door, she exclaimed, "Oh, thumpnoodle!" and hurried back in and pulled on ______________ over her shoes. For I do want to keep my feet dry, she told herself.
She thought she looked as pretty as a speckled pup and she joined all her friends marching down the street in their bright spring clothes. But no one really cared what she wore, for everyone loved Mrs McGillicuddy.