Episode 1:

All Dolled Up

Kris is sitting in a chair reading a book while Rick sits on the floor building blocks with Tracy. Coming to a period in the book, Kris decides to go get the mail. She opens the door to find a package on the doorstep.

After picking it up, she says, "Look, Tracy, something for you from Aunt Kelly".

"Aunt Kelly sent me a box?", Tracy asks, a pair of curious eyes shifting toward the package in her mother's hand.

"No, there's something inside the box.", Rick informs her. "Pop will get a knife and cut it open, OK?"

"I do it.", Tracy declares, confidence present in her voice.

"No, I don't want you using a knife. Knives are dangerous."

"Yes, Pop.", the toddler replies.

Rick cuts open the box to find the item inside - a peach silk short sleeved dress, with peach dots on it. The skirt is white lace, with little holes through it, shaped like flowers.

"Petty.", Tracy comments, eying her gift.

"I know, it is pretty isn't it?", her mom agrees. "I'll tell you what. Later on, I'll write Aunt Kelly a 'Thank You' card and you can color on it with the new crayons that Grandma Harriet bought for you. OK?"

"Kay.", replies Tracy in agreement.

Kris looks briefly from the dress to her husband, subtly biting her lip. "She's got'a have some reason to wear this.", she comments, noting how fancy the dress was.

"I know. Why don't we have a formal dinner party here next Saturday night and invite everyone in my family?"

Kris takes a pad of paper and a pencil off an end table and says. "Great idea, what should we serve?"

A brief silence falls over the room as Rick ponders the question. "How about a hamburger with no onions, fries, and a chocolate malt.", he suggests.

"At a formal dinner party?"

"I'm sorry, I was thinking about how I was supposed to meet Wally at the malt shop."

His previous engagement having returned to mind, he walks out the door, closing it carefully behind him.

Harriet is sitting in a chair knitting when the phone rings.

"Hello?", she answers. "Hi Rick.", her voice a little higher in tone after recognizing the voice in her ear. "Oh, that was nice of her."

Ozzie comes out of the kitchen, locking in on the conversation. At least one side of it. "What was nice of who?", he asks curiously.

"I'd love to."

"You'd love to what?", he continues persistently.

Harriet waves her hand at him, as a way of saying 'bug off'.

"OK, well thanks for inviting us. Say 'hi' to Kris and kiss Tracy for me.", she says just before hanging up the phone.

"What was that all about?", Ozzie questions, finally able to gain his wife's attention.

"That was Rick."

"Yeah, I know. For one thing, I kind of figured that when you said, 'Hi Rick'. What'd he want?"

"Kris's sister sent Tracy a formal dress, so he and Kris want to invite us to a formal dinner party at their house next Saturday night and they want me to make the dessert."

"They want you to make Apple Pie alamode? That's great!"

"What makes you think it's gonna be that?", she wonders, a little thrown.

"Because.", he answers simply. "I'll go to the market to get the apples and the ice cream."

"OK. I think I'll wear that dress that I was gonna wear to the Woman's Club Banquet last month.", Harriet considers, her mind already spinning around the upcoming gathering.

"You mean the one that Clara Randolph was gonna host, but had to cancel because she had such a terrible cold, so I spent a good twenty minutes on the phone with her, trying to figure out what she was saying?"

"That's the one.", she tells him with a nod.

Kris is in the kitchen pouring apple juice for Tracy in her bottle, when Dave and June come in through the back door.

"Hi Kris. Hi Tracy.", June greets them as she ventures into the house

Tracy takes a drink of her juice and says, "Hi."

"I brought back the casserole dish I borrowed.", June says, as she hands it too Kris.

"Thank You." She places the dish onto the counter-top before turning her attention to the guests. "You guys are coming to Rick's and my formal dinner party next week, right?"

"Sounds great.", Dave answers enthusiastically.

"Sure.", agrees June.

"OK, well dress formal. Bring Danny too and be here at 7:00 next Saturday night."

"Aunt Kelly gave me a dress.", Tracy chimes in.

"Yeah, what color is it?", Dave asks her, leaning down slightly to bring himself closer to eye-level with the girl.

"I don't know. It's a dress."

"We need to learn our colors yet don't we?", her mom notes, leaning against the kitchen counter. "Tell them it's peach."

"Peach, I 'so' you.", informs the child with some slight mispronunciation.

"Hold on. Mommy will help you take it down.", says Kris.

Holding up the dress, Tracy announces, "Here it is."

"That's pretty.", June tells her through a warm smile.

"Sure is.", agrees Dave. "A pretty dress for a pretty girl."

Tracy grins from ear to ear, pleased with his comment. She doesn't, however, think to verbalize.

It falls to her mom to remind her of manners. "What do you say?"

"Tank OOh."

"Dave," June begins, shifting her attention to the man at her side. "Speaking of dresses, I want to go shopping at the Emporium and get a dress myself for the party."

"OK, I should get something new too.", he agrees. "But before we go, where's Rick? I want to say hi to him."

As if on que, Rick comes in from outside. "Right here", he says as he pours himself a glass of juice.

"You can have my 'duice', Pop.", Tracy offers, holding out a tiny bottle toward him.

"No, thank you."

"Why?"

"Well, because Pop doesn't drink from bottles, OK? He's not a baby."

"I not a baby.", Tracy insists proudly. Even at her young age, she'd picked up on the implication. "I a big girl."

"OK, then Pop doesn't drink from big girl bottles, or in my case big boy bottles."

At the Emporium Dave finds, pretty much right away, what he wants to wear for the party.

"June, I found what I want to wear for the party.", he says. "Any luck on finding anything for yourself?"

"Are you kidding?", she replies without need for hesitation. " I'm shopping for a dress. This could take hours."

"As long as it doesn't take days, I guess.", Dave mutters under his breath. "How about this?", he says, as he points to a dress on the rack.

"That dress is as pink as Pepto Bismol."

"So? What's wrong with that?"

"Because, the last time I had a shirt that pink, Danny called me Pepto Bismol Mommy."

After six hours of shopping, June finally finds a dress. A creamy white sleeveless one, with big creamy white buttons going vertical, with a big silver shiny belt, and a charcoal gray short sleeved buttoned up blazer, over the dress.

"I finally found something. It's about time.", she says, relieved.

Dave rolls his eyes behind her back. "Tell me about it.", the poor guy mutters under his breath.

Harriet is in the kitchen making the dessert when, much to her dismay, the oven breaks. Wally knocks on the back door, in seemingly perfect unison with the oven's untimely demise, and Harriet lets him in.

"Hi, Mrs. Nelson.", he greets her.

"Hi, Wally", she says glumly.

The visitor immediately picks up on the tone in her voice. "What's wrong?"

"I was making a dessert for Rick and Kris's formal dinner party tonight, when the oven broke on me."

"Well, I can pick up a dessert for you, on one condition... that you save me some. What would you like?"

"Apple Pie alamode.", she answers at first. Though following some thought, Harriet backtracks. "Actually, just get the apple pie. There's already vanilla ice cream in the freezer."

"OK. I can... Did you just say, you had vanilla ice cream in the freezer?"

The words send a light-bulb flashing in Wally's mind.

"Yeah.", Harriet confirms.

"Can I have a bowl?"

"Sure, go ahead."

"Thanks Mrs. Nelson. I'll leave plenty for the pie, I promise.", he says as he scoops some into a bowl.

"Do you want some chocolate syrup on it?", Ozzie asks, stepping casually into the kitchen.

"Sure, Mr. Nelson."

"This is what I used to tell Rick, when he was Tracy's age.", Ozzie comments, thinking back on years past. "This is snow," he says, referring to the plain vanilla ice cream. "This is snow with dirt on it." He continues as he pours the chocolate syrup on top of the ice cream. "Then I stopped when Rick put chocolate syrup on top of real snow one day."

"OK, well, just give me some money and I'll pick up an apple pie for you.", Wally says, shifting his gaze back to Harriet.

She gives him the money and says, "Here Wally. Thanks, this is really nice of you."

"No problem. Back in a flash," he says as he heads out the door.

Kris and Tracy walk in the living room, with Tracy holding a teddy bear in her hand. Kris dressed in a white long sleeved blouse, with a long deep blue spaghetti strapped jumper.

"Look, Pop!", Rick's daughter announces proudly. "I got dressed 'aw' by myself."

"Yes you did", he notes, taking a look at her outfit. "But you know what? Your dress is on backwards and inside out." A subtle smirk appears on his face, though he tries his best to hide it.

Kris gives a shrug. "That's what I tried telling her, but..."

"It's not on 'backards' and inside out.", the little girl insists.

"...she said just that."

"Tracy, can Pop fix your dress, please?", Rick asks in a kind voice as he lowers himself to one knee.

"No!" No hesitation what so ever. Tracy would have none of it.

Taking the teddy bear from her, Rick says, "Let me ask Teddy. I'll bet he would give me a different answer." His attention shifts to the little plush bear in his hand. "Teddy, can I fix Tracy's dress?"

Kris takes the teddy bear from Rick and asks, "And can I brush her hair?"

The grown-ups lean close to the bear, pretending it's whispering to them. Their heads nod a little as Tracy looks on at the three confurring. "We can?", Kris says at last. "Thanks Teddy, that's really nice of you."

"Teddy says we can.", announces Rick.

Rick and Kris ask in unison to their daughter, "Please can we?"

Tracy giggles and nods.

Dave, June, and Danny come in and say, "Hi." Tracy points to something she sees Danny wearing and asks him, "Is 'dat' a bow on your sirt?"

"No, it's a bow tie.", he tells her.

"And tell them whose bow tie it is.", Dave instructs, looking down at the boy.

"Pop's, when he was my age."

"I found it in my closet.", Dave says to the group gathered around. "I forgot I even had it."

"Well, all we have to do is wait for Mom and Pop to get here, then we can eat.", Rick says.

Ozzie and Harriet are standing right behind Rick when he says that. Though he isn't aware, the growling of Ozzie's stomach should've alerted him.

"We're here! Let's eat.", the eldest man announces eagerly.

Harriet, who's dressed in a long sleeved, Kelly Green velvet dress, says, "Now Ozzie, what kind of example is that for Danny and Tracy?"

"I'm sorry.", Ozzie corrects. "Let's eat please."

The family is sitting at the dinner table. The meal laid caringly out before them consists of roast beef, mashed potatoes and brown gravy, and glazed carrots. Red wine to drink for the grown ups and red cherry Kool Aid for the kids.

After finishing, June says, "OK, well thank you for inviting us. But, we need to get home now and put Danny to bed."

"It's time for Tracy to go to bed too.", Kris notes, eying a clock on the wall.

"I don't want to go to bed.", objects Tracy. "I not 'seepy'."

"But you don't want a visit from the sleeping fairy.", June tells her. "Danny, tell her about the sleeping fairy."

"The sleeping fairy is someone that if you don't sleep, or argue about going to bed when you're supposed to, then she'll come and tickle you in the morning."

"Who tode you 'dat'?", Tracy inquires.

"Pop.", Danny says to her.

"I told him that once and it works every time.", Dave says proudly.

With the party wrapped up and the kids off to bed, everyone says good-bye.