Last Day of School

Thank you all so very much for participating in our Flat Stanley Project! We have enjoyed reading your posts and seeing all the exciting things our Flat Stanleys have done! We wish we had a Magic School Bus to magically go and visit every place they have been too! Since this is our last day of school, Ms. Appl will make sure she gets the Flat Stanleys back to each child if you already mailed them. If you didn't mail them out, then please mail them back to the student!
Thanks again,
Love,
Ms. Appl's Second Grade Class

Moose swims at the "Lindy Lane Inn"

Dear Moose,
One last activity that I had to make sure Flat Stanley tried before heading back to Castlewood Elementary School was swimming in our pool.  Every summer we have people come and visit and they love to relax in our pool.  We nicknamed our house the "Lindy Lane Inn" because we live on Lindy Lane and have lots of guests visit every summer.  It was great having Flat Stanley stay with us.  He can visit again anytime!

Goodbye, from all of us in New Jersey.  Flat Stanley is traveling back to South Dakota today.  Have a fun summer. 

Love,
Aunt Mary

Moose and Aunt Mary (finally) get the the Jersey Shore

Hi Moose,
On a beautiful, sunny day last week I finally drove the short 20 minute drive from my house in Lincroft to Sea Bright, New Jersey and showed Flat Stanley the Jersey Shore.  Flat Stanley is standing on a skim board.  It's like a surfboard, but shorter in length.  Instead of riding the big waves as they come in, a skim boarder waits at the edge of the beach for the wave to come in and then skims across the water, parallel with the surf.  I have never tried it...but Zack and Lauren's other cousin David is just learning how to do it and let Flat Stanley check out his new board.

From, Aunt Mary

Moose Joins Thompson Middle School's Field Trip

Hi Moose and friends,

Flat Stanley loved hearing the Thompson Chorus at their annual performance in Freehold New Jersey.  The mixed chorus earned a "superior" rating and won a trophy.  Then the more than 400 performers who participate in the school chorus and band, boarded the 7 coach buses and celebrated their hard work at Six Flags Great Adventure.  I was one of the parent chaperones so I brough Flat Stanley along for the fun!  It was the first time I had been to the amusement park, so it was a big adventure for me, too.
Love, Aunt Mary

We made it to Watertown!  We drove for 10 hours to get here from our home in Brookfield!  Boy is it windy!  Here are some pictures of us in Sparta, Wisconsin and at the Mississippi River, which separates Wisconsin from Minnesota.  We are so happy to be here and visit with Rhino and return Flat Stanley.

Rhino - here we come!

Rhino and friends!  Since we are driving to South Dakota this weekend to attend the Castlewood graduation, we are just going to bring Flat Stanley along in the car with us!  He will get to drive all through Wisconsin and Minnesota before arriving in SD.  Hopefully I can post some pictures along the way.  See you soon!

Returning Flat Stanleys!

Dog's Flat Stanley returned from Montgomery, AL

Donkey's Flat Stanley returned from Derby, KS

Tiger's Flat Stanley

Jellyfish's Flat Stanley returned from California

Jackalope's Flat Stanley returned from Grinnell, IA

Yesterday we went through a few of the Flat Stanley's that we received back from their host families. We still have a few on my desk to go through this afternoon since we ran out of time yesterday. Thank you for taking care of Flat Stanley and sending him back with interesting things from his trip! For those of you who haven't sent Flat Stanley back yet, please do so ASAP since our last day of school is next Tuesday, May 22nd! Thanks!!

Jackalope's Flat Stanley goes to the Tulip Festival

Hello again 2nd grade!

Jackalope's Flat Stanley got to go and visit the Tulip Festival in Pella, Iowa. He had a lot of fun. He got to watch a parade with lots of bands, Dutch costumes, and floats. He also got to eat a funnel cake and a snowcone. We went to the Dutch bakery and got some yummy Dutch treats like dutch letters, puff pillows, and almond patties :) He also bought a little Dutch souvenir to take home to Castlewood! Flat Stanley is excited to go home and should be there in a couple of days.

The only tulips we could find were dead :( All the other tulips were just stems.

Since we couldn't find any live tulips, we bought some made of wood.

Flat Stanley with his Dutch Letter from the bakery! This bakery is very popular and we had to wait in line for almost an hour, but it was worth it!

Hi Moose!

I went out for Mexican food at a local restaurant in Red Bank, New Jersey and who did I find stowed away in my purse?  You guessed it...our pal, Flat Stanley.  The restaurant had large painted murals on the walls and the waitress let us tape Stan onto the wall.  Can you find Flat Stanley in the paintings?  He doesn't hide as well as Waldo, in Where's Waldo, does he?  But, I think he had fun!

Hi Moose!

After Flat Stanley rested up from his marathon adventure, he attended a Sweet 16 Masquerade Birthday Ball for our family friend, Paige.  There were over 130 people who attended the party!  It was like a wedding.  Flat Stanley danced with the teenagers, tried on the fancy feathered masks, and posed with the birthday girl and her mom.  It was a fun night of dancing and celebrating.

Hi Moose!
Flat Stanley went on a big adventure to California.  Lauren and Zack's Aunt Susan ran in a marathon (that's 26.2 miles) in Big Sur, California and Flat Stanley joined her.  They ran along the Pacific Coastline, as you can see from the photo below.  Susan had fun introducing Flat Stanley to fellow marathon runners, who thought he was very "cute".

Jellyfish-Flat Stanley going home

My trip is coming to a close!

Well it is time for me to return back to South Dakota....I had a wonderful time, have learned many things while in California.  I have learned that California is a state that is always short on getting rain and when it does rain, the roads become like ice causing many accidents. On one given day there were 750 accidents.  I have learned there many different cultures and that some areas have been named for them like Korea town, Little India and Little Vietnam. I have learned that if you are late in getting some place you can always use the excuse.  "I got caught in traffic".  All in all it is a beautiful state with many mountain ranges and many beaches along the ocean, but the traffic is something you have to get used to.  Learned in California you use minutes instead of miles when telling a distance and that left and right is used instead of north, south, east and west. 
When wanting a soft drink, it is called soda.
We did have one earthquake will in California.  It was a 4.1 and centered 25 miles south from our house.
Uncle Clarence and Aunt Faye have been very good to me, taking me on an airplane to Portland, Or and staying in Vancouver, Washington along with all my time spent in California.
It has been fun just hanging around the house, watching the golfers and watching Uncle Clarence and Aunt Faye play Yahtzee every day and waiting at home while they go to the clubhouse to workout and swim.

Aunt Faye added the KINGS!!!

Thanks to everyone and "God Bless America".
Love and Hugs!!!!

Flat Stanley-waiting to be put in the envelope to be sent back home.

Giraffe's vacation in Rapid City!

   I had a great time visiting Rapid City and Aunt Janice and Uncle Brian.  Did you know that Rapid City is home to Mt. Rushmore, Bear Country USA and the Cosmos?  Man was it ever cool to see those!  We also played some ping pong, chucko and went on the Go-carts.  Wow, what a blast it was to see everyone and do all the fun stuff.  I'm on my way home tomorrow so I'll fill you all in then.  Hope you all are doing great!

Donkey's Flat Stanley to Hawaii!

After serving his country faithfully in Afghanistan, Donkey's Flat Stanley took a well-deserved 14-day cruise to Hawaii where he went to a botantical garden, the beach and whale watching!  What a good time he had!

Lemur's Flat Stanley goes to the Georgia Mountains

Hi Lemur and classmates! Flat Stanley and I went on a Motorcycle ride through the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains.

We took off in the early morning and rode all day. He saw beautiful mountains, lakes, rivers and waterfalls. We stopped for lunch at Big Pete's BBQ which is known for having a 12 foot pink pig on it roof.

After lunch we got back on the motorcycle and rode to Helen, GA. Helen is a Alpine Village in the Blue Ridge Mountains. In Helen we went shopping and saw different tourist attractions.

We had a great day and really had fun time in the Georgia Mountains.