The Twinns at the Continuum were bored. Winter was dragging on and on It seemed as if spring would never come. It was another icy, snowy day and all but the very bravest Twinns were stuck indoors.Jane and Taryn put on their heavy sweaters and boots and went outside to look at the garden. "Reading Ralph was right this year when he predicted six more weeks of winter," sighed Taryn, looking around at the spot where the tomatoes had grown so nicely and Harmony's pole beans had flourished until one of the outdoor critters decided to eat them. "I don't think spring will ever come. And I am ready to wear my shorts!"

“I’m sure it will get here sooner or later,” said Jane, mushing through the snow to where Cavendish’s strawberries were buried. “And then we will be complaining about how busy we are.”
“I guess so,” Taryn agreed. “Jane, do you know Cavendish got two strawberry cookbooks on eBay for Rory and Cathy? He is so looking forward to his plants having berries this year. I hope they’ll come through for him.”
“If they don’t, maybe we can sneak some berries from the other side of the patch into his side when he is asleep. He’ll probably be guarding his plants again this year.” Jane attempted to scoop up a handful of snow to make a snowball, but the snow was just too icy. “I didn’t know Cavendish had a computer.”
“He used Reading Ralph’s.” Taryn jumped up and down, trying to crack through the ice with her study boots. “The one he uses for his weather forecasts.”
Jane laughed. “And all this time I thought Ralph just made up those forecasts out of his head. Now I’m disillusioned.”
Just then, the Fed Ex man drove up in his truck. “Girls,” he called to Jane and Taryn, “I have a box for you. Sign here.”
“Wow,” said Taryn, as Jane signed for the box. “What could it be? I hope it’s not the plants Annette ordered! She’ll never get them in this early.”
“I hope Randy didn’t order more power tools.” Jane looked at the address. “No, it’s addressed to Mie and Paris. Let’s take it inside and find out.”
Jane and Taryn lugged the box inside, and Paris and Mie were summoned. Everyone watched excitedly as the girls opened the box. “Oh, good,” said Paris happily. “It’s the dresses we ordered!”

“Thank goodness we can finally take off these dreary Christmas outfits,” added Mie. “Six weeks after Christmas they get so boring. These two are mine. ” She took two very fancy dresses out of the box and left the room. “Now to get my new shoes, and some hair ornaments, and I guess I’d better re-do my nails so the polish matches my outfit. I’ll see you girls later.”
The girls all laughed. They knew that Mie would primp for hours and then make a grand entrance later on.
Meanwhile, Paris continued to look through the box. “I ordered enough dresses for everybody,” she announced. “Dig in, girls, and help yourselves!”
As usual there were a few squabbles over various prints (“I look better in red!” “Look at this pink one!” “Let me see that!”) and disagreements over who got to wear the two pairs of red sparkly shoes that the girls shared, Flannery and Kaitie finally had to draw straws to decide who got those prized shoes

Soon nearly everyone who wanted a dress had gotten one. There were even several left over for Twinns who were away on various projects or doing their chores.
“Let’s have a Valentine party!” suggested Paris. “We can make decorations; Rory and Cathy can bake cookies. We can even invite the boys and have a Valentine king and queen!”
“Sounds like fun,” said Quinn. “I’ll help. Who else knows how to make origami hearts?”
“I do!” Lindsay spoke up.
“I don’t, but I’d like to learn,” added Marcy.
“Ok, the three of us will make origami hearts for the decorations,” said Quinn.
“I could make some heart leis,” offered Kelani.
“No, make strings of hearts that we can hang,” said Paris. “That will be really cool, Kelani. We’ll put the origami ones on the table with the food.”
“Will do,” said Kelani. “I’ll get Lucy and Molly to help.” She headed off in search of construction paper and scissors.
“Oh, won’t it be exciting?” Pat was doing a little dance holding the dress she had picked out. “I have some chocolates I got for Valentine’s Day that I can share.”
“I can’t believe you still have them, Pat” said Carin.
“It’s only because Sally went to South Africa,” giggled Pat. “Otherwise they would have been eaten up right away.”
“Well, you get the chocolates and we Emmas will hang the strings of hearts.” offered Carin, who enjoyed any excuse to climb.
“I’ll go invite the boys,” said Candace, heading off.
“But Valentine’s Day was over a week ago,” pointed out Libby. “It seems kind of odd to be celebrating now.”
Everybody booed Libby, who was always very practical and literal minded.
“Oh, Libby, Tedi’s Twinns had a belated Valentine celebration and so can we!” Paris replied. “After all, we don’t want to have to wait another whole year to wear our new dresses! Here, look at this one.” She held up a pretty white dress with red hearts. “ It would be just right for you!”

“Well, OK,” said Libby, dazzled at the idea of a new dress just for her. “But how will we pick the king and queen?”
“Well, there are only four boys so they can decide who the king will be. What if we girls all put our names on a slip of paper and then someone can pick the winner? That seems fair,” suggested Paris.
So the Twinns jumped into action. Some made decorations,

while others helped each other to change into their new dresses. Lillian and Jessie worked on bracelets to go with the dresses. Paris recruited Carlisle to choose the winner to be queen and then went to look for the Continuum’s tiaras. After they finished the origami hearts, Lindsay and Quinn went around with small pieces of paper for the girls to write their names on for the queen drawing.
Rory and Cathy mixed up their famous sugar cookie recipe. Rory cut the cookies while Cathy rummaged through the box of cookie cutters. “Here, Rory, use this one,” she said, handing Rory a cookie cutter.

“It’s a turkey,” laughed Rory. “This isn’t Thanksgiving, Cathy.”
“No, but somebody said we were inviting the boys. I thought turkeys would be appropriate.” Cathy sprinkled red sugar on the hearts. “After all, whenever we have a party, they always gobble up the refreshments.”
Rory just laughed again, but she did make a turkey cookie for each of the boys. She and Cathy made hearts and stars and stars with smaller stars cut out of them. They frosted some of them and left some plain. They even made a Croc cookie with the left-over dough.
Rory was frosting the last of the cookies when Cathy stuck her head out of the pantry. “Hey, Rory, where is the Kool-Aid?” she asked. “The kids will want something to drink. I’m sure I bought a new supply the last time I went to the grocery store.”
“Uh, sorry, Cathy, I let Wendy use it to dye yarn.”
“Rory!”
“Well, she said she would knit sweaters for both of us.”
“Oh, OK,” Cathy chuckled. “Fortunately we have lots of orange juice left from those couple of weeks when it seemed everybody had a cold. I will make that into punch instead.”
Meanwhile, Jeremy, Peter, Randy, and David were playing Monopoly, one of their favorite indoor things to do, even though Jeremy almost always won.

“And I am going to cut down that old apricot tree with my chain saw as soon as the weather clears up a bit,” Randy was telling the other boys. “Jo will soon need the wood for her Easter bulletins.”
Peter landed on New York Avenue. Jeremy had a hotel there. “That will be $1,000 rent, Pete.”
“Well, for that much I hope you have the roaches cleared out of the rooms,” joked Peter, handing over a wad of money.
“Yeah, but he doesn’t have running water because I own the Water Works,” David pointed out.
"Hi boys," said Candace, coming in. "Who's winning?"

“Don’t ask,” groaned Peter, who always seemed to lose no matter how hard he tried.
“Jeremy,” said David, who only had the Water Works and the Reading Railroad.
“But I am just about to forge ahead,” said Randy. “I have a hotel on Park Place. The trouble is, nobody ever lands there.”
“Are you the banker, Jeremy?” Candace asked.
“No, Pete is. It’s just my natural talent.”
“Well, sorry to interrupt this fierce competition, but I came to invite you guys to a Valentine party that we girls are having.”
“I hate to point this out, Candace, but Valentine’s Day is over,” Randy announced. He was aware of this because he had wanted to send a valentine to Dawn but didn’t know her new address since the Tumbling Twinns had moved so recently.
“Will there be food?” asked David hopefully.
“Cathy and Rory are baking cookies, and there will be chocolates.”
“Sounds good to me,” said Peter. “I’ll be there. Unless we have to dance.”
“No, we aren’t dancing. Just eating and mingling. Oh, and we are going to crown a Valentine King and Queen, so please dress up for a change. Wear your suits.”
“Sorry, Candace, we don’t have suits,” Jeremy said.
“Yes, you do,” said Candace. “There was that one that Peter wore at Easter a couple of years ago.”
“Oh, the one with the knickers? No thanks, if I have to wear that again I won’t come,” said Peter.
“It’s packed away,” said Jeremy at the same time.
“It’s at the cleaner’s,” added Randy quickly.
“OK,” said Candace, rolling her eyes. “You don’t have to wear it. But maybe you could wear red shirts or something. No overalls, Randy.”
“I can’t wear a red shirt. It clashes with my hair,” said Randy, tossing his head like a fashion model.
“Well, I’m sure you can find something to dress up at least little bit,” said Candace, making a face at Randy. “We will expect you at 6:00.”