Things Changing

My how things have changed since I got here.  Today was the first day that I can rember it being 65 degrees outside.  The kids had a wacky Wednesday and wore PJs to school.  After they got home they changed into shorts and played outside.  Riding their scooters and bikes was a blast to watch.  The family keeps talking about a vacation they are going on and I get to go along, I think it is Puerto Rico.  Hope they remember me and take alot of pictures so I can share them with you guys in South Dakota.  Hope all is well in the class and I will post agian soon.
Love
Tiger

Kangaroo's Flat Stanley goes to San Antonio

From February 13 - 17, 2012, I had the opportunity to travel to San Antonio, Texas.  Do you know what San Antonio is famous for?  

The Battle of the Alamo!

This is a picture of the outside of the Alamo, which was originally a mission.  It was named Misión San Antonio de Valero, and it served as home to missionaries for nearly seventy years. In the early 1800s, the Spanish military stationed a cavalry unit (basically soldiers who fought on horseback) at the former mission. 

The soldiers referred to the old mission as the Alamo (the Spanish word for "cottonwood") in honor of their hometown Alamo de Parras, Coahuila. 

The Battle of the Alamo was an event where many men fought bravely against overwhelming odds and died for their freedom. The Alamo is where Texas liberty was born!

San Antonio and the Alamo played a big role in the Texas Revolution. In December 1835,  Texian and Tejano volunteers fought against Mexican troops in San Antonio. After five days of house-to-house fighting, they forced General Martín Perfecto de Cós and his soldiers to surrender. The victorious volunteers then occupied the Alamo and strengthened its defenses. Mexico held authority over the Alamo in 1821, and tension grew between the Mexican style of government and the Texans. Hostilities over his leadership style continued to grow until Texas revolutionaries began to battle Mexican troops. A twelve-day battle ultimately occurred at the Alamo and hundreds were killed. The Alamo is considered a place where men made the ultimate sacrifice for freedom. In 1845, the United States added Texas to the US Territory. Eventually, the U.S. government purchased the Alamo's chapel and other buildings.

Here I am by one of the windows of the mission.

One famous member of the battle of the Alamo was David "Davy" Crockett, who was famous for his abilities as an adventurer, bear hunter, and Indian fighter. His life would make him the subject of many a tall tale, but he really did wear a raccoon cap! Crockett's very real role in the Alamo was to keep up the team spirit for the fighters defending the mission. He played his fiddle to encourage the troops and provided advice to military commanders. He died at the Battle of the Alamo.

Teddy Roosevelt spent a lot of time in San Antonio, too.  

He recruited "Rough Riders" here at the historic Menger Hotel. Mr. Roosevelt gathered a diverse bunch of men consisting of cowboys, gold or mining prospectors, hunters, gamblers, Native Americans and college boys; all of whom were able-bodied and capable on horseback and in shooting. Among these men were also police officers and military veterans who wished to see action again. 

The Menger Hotel overlooks The Alamo and people have reported seeing the ghost of Teddy Roosevelt in the Menger Bar! 

A modern attraction of San Antonio is the "Riverwalk".  The San Antonio Riverwalk is in downtown San Antonio. It consists of a network of walkways on the banks of the San Antonio River. The walkways, one level below street level, are lined with many restaurants, shops, and hotels. They connect many of downtown San Antonio's attractions. Here I am taking a break from all the sightseeing.

I hope you enjoyed sharing my experience in San Antonio with me!

Hi Snake and classmates

Stanley and I have had a very busy February. We started out by going to..... Castlewood South Dakota! It was Snake's Great-Grandma's 91st birthday party. Stanley had a lot of fun seeing Snake and Castlewood again.

 We were having so much fun that I forgot to take very many of pictures, but here is one of Stanley enjoying the best spot in the car on the way to Castlewood. He liked being able to see out the windows!

Stanley told me that he had never made cookies before so we decided to make peanut butter chocolate chip cookies together.

 I am helping Stanley put the cookie dough on the cookie sheet

Then we flattened the cookies with a fork

 Stanley enjoying a cookie with milk! He really like it!

I am really sad that Snake is moving and that Stanley needs to go back to Castlewood Elementary already. But for our final post Stanley want to show you all where Snake is moving.

 Here is Stanley pointing to South Carolina

Stanley showing how far away South Carolina is from South Dakota

Have fun in South Carolina Snake! All of us here in Minnesota are going to miss you!

Ape's going to Oklahoma

Hi gang.  These pictures are from 2010 when my new friends went to Oklahoma to visit their Grandma.  Another 'Flat Stanley' friend was able to go with them in 2010.  And now it's MY turn!  I'm so excited and we're busy getting ready for the big trip.  Tell "Ape" I miss her and Katelyn would really like to come play w/ her again and maybe even ride horses.  

Ape goes skiing

I ventured out to Alexandria, MN w/ my new friends.  You can't see me because I am bundled up inside my friends' coats to keep warm.  It was sooooo cold that day!!  But, we had lots of fun, and i enjoyed watching these 3 girls ski for the 1st time.  I hope I can be here when they try again before spring!

Jackalope's Flat Stanley loves country music!

Stanley with Allen's ticket! Shhhh don't tell anyone but we snuck Stanley in without a ticket ;)

Hi Jackalope and friends! Flat Stanley and I had a very fun weekend. Jackalope's cousin Allen came down to Grinnell to visit for the weekend! We had a great weekend and went to a concert in Cedar Falls, Iowa Saturday night. We went and saw Jason Aldean, Luke Bryan, and Lauren Alaina in concert at the UNI dome. Stanley really liked listening to Luke and Jason and he even sang along to some of his favorite songs. The dome was packed with over 23,000 people but it was a great adventure! Have a great week Jackalope :)

Waiting for the concert to start!

Listening to Luke Bryan!!!

Kookaburra's Flat Stanley

In January I went fishing at Lake of the Woods in northern Minnesota. Woo Hoo!
We drove our truck 8 miles on the frozen lake to the place we were going to fish.


Here is a picture of me with a fish I caught through a hole in the ice. It was cold outside. Brrr.

This fish is a Walleye.

We sat in a little house on the lake ALL DAY! It was very warm in the little house and I was bored most of the day, but it was fun to catch fish!

Here is a picture of the little house and our truck with all of our supplies. My friends called the little house a shack.

There were so many shacks on the lake I could not count them all. If you look closley you can see a bunch of them in this picture.

Here is a picture of my friends fishing. There is an open part in the floor where you try to catch fish through the holes in the ice. The shacks were not very big.

This is me with my fishing pole. Can you see the holes in the ice and the cracks in the ice?

What a fun trip!

100th Day of School

On Monday, February 13th the second grade class celebrated the 100th Day of School! Each student had to create a 100 display that we put in the hallway to share with the other classes. These are some of the different 100 displays that the students created!

Jackrabbit

Flat Stanley has been busy in Omaha. He has been to knitting classes and fitness classes. He sleeps with Garfield, an orange tabby cat. He went to Denver for a business meeting this week. Flat Stanley is very easy to have around. We hope to have some photos later.

Kangaroo's Flat Stanley in Costa Rica!

Hello!
I am Kangaroo's Flat Stanley.
From January 22, 2012 through January 28, 2012, I went to Costa Rica.  Costa Rica is a country in Central America where the people speak Spanish.  Lots of people speak English, too, luckily!
I was able to go on a few tours and adventures and I am excited to tell you about them.

I arrived in Costa Rica in the early morning and my Costa Rican friends Ronald, Sally and Laura made tortillas for me and my US friends.  Many Costa Ricans eat tortillas with every meal. Here I am keeping on eye on the tortillas.

One of the first trees I learned to identify was the mango tree.  Mangos are fruits that grow in Costa Rica and they are yummy! My Minnesota friend Connie is lifting me up so that I can get a good look.

My Costa Rican friend Laura asked me to sit on something called a "pilon", which many years ago, the native people used to process rice.  Rice is another thing that Costa Rican people eat a lot of.

There are lots of coconut trees in Costa Rica and a favorite sweet treat is a small round dessert made from coconut and pastry. They look like little coconut pies and they are delicious. I am sitting next to a package of the little pies and once they were opened, they disappeared.

One night, our friends Laura and Victor asked if we would like to go night fishing.  Here we are in the car - 4 people and me in the backseat.  Chris, Dayton, Vicki, me (all from South Dakota) and Connie.  Everyone went fishing in the dark, except for Connie because she was scared of the spiders on the rocks, the snakes in the water and the bats flying by her head!  She stayed in the car listening to all the nighttime sounds outside.  That made her more scared!  The fishing is done with flashlights that you hold under the water.  The fish are blinded by the light, and that's when you throw a spear at at them.  Victor speared 2, Dayton speared 1.

Our Costa Rican friend Alvaro came one night and played guitar while everyone sang songs and danced. I even danced the limbo.  I had a little help from my friends, though.

Agriculture is important to Costa Rica, just like it is to South Dakota.  They grow bananas, pineapples, coffee, sugar cane, rice, ornamental plants, corn, beans, potatoes, and coconuts.  Coconuts can be used when they are green and later when they turn brown.  Here is my Costa Rican friend Sorelly and me with some green coconuts that her dad cut down from a tree.

Here is a picture of me, Sorelly, bananas and brown coconuts.

Costa Rica's climate is perfect for growing all kinds of fruits.  Here I am with naranjas (oranges), water apples and bananas.  If you live in Costa Rica you can just go right in your backyard and pick a variety of fruits from your own trees. Amazing!

Alvaro made a special food for us one night.  He called them paticones.  I called them M-M-GOOD.

They are his grandmother's recipe and are made from meat and spices all encased in a slightly sweet crust.  

Another food that is very common in Costa Rica is yucca, or cassava.  This can be boiled, fried, made into cakes or put in soups.  Fried is my favorite.  This is what it looks like when it is dug from the ground.  Another amazing food that came from the backyard!

Sugar cane.  Have you ever tried it?  Sugar is made from sugar cane.  We had chunks of it cut from this big branch, and we just sucked on the pieces.  It is sweet and tastes like, well, sugar!

When coconuts are green you can slice off the end, poke a hole, and slurp out the coconut milk.  Very nutritious and it really quenches the thirst.

This is an amazing fruit.  Some people in Costa Rica and others around the world believe it can treat cancer.  It is called "noni".  It is probably one of the worst smelling and tasting fruits on the planet.  We asked my SD friend Dayton to take a bite and lets just say it did not stay in his mouth very long.  

One day our friends Laura and Ronald arranged for us to tour a banana plantation and a pineapple plantation.  Do you know where the bananas were headed that we saw at the factory this day? South Dakota grocery stores!  Can you believe it?  Here they are getting a bath.

My Costa Rican friend Saray was giving me a close-up look at the bananas as they came into the processing plant.

Here is Saray and Sally and me next to a Chiquita truck.

The pineapple plantation was next.  Here is a truck filled with pineapples that were not good enough to be sold as whole pineapples, so they were headed to the juice factory.

This is what a pineapple looks like as it is growing.  Ouch!  The leaves are prickly!

Pineapples getting a bath right before they are boxed.

Me, Saray and pineapples.

These pineapples were grown for Del Monte and were being shipped to the United States.  Help!  Get me out of here!!

Oh, this was a fun day!  We made trip to the Nicoya peninsula, which in on the west side of Costa Rica and is home to some of the most isolated and beautiful beaches in the world.  The Pacific Ocean was so warm.  Ahhh, a nice change from a South Dakota winter.

I saved this for last:  We went to see a volcano one day.  The name is Volcan Irazu, and it is the highest active volcano in Costa Rica.  It has several craters and a green crater lake. What is really neat is that you drive right up to it!

Well, that is all for now my friends!  My next adventure?  San Antonio, Texas - home of the Alamo!