Flat Stanley Comes to Jacksonville to See Caroline and Kevin

I was so excited when I got to Florida, but I was a little nervous because I stayed at the post office for a long time.  When Caroline and Kevin finally opened my envelope, I was so thrilled to meet my new friends.  They were excited to meet me too!  It turns out they were on vacation and just got home.  

They were so good to me and made me my own little bed. With a pillow, blanket and stuffed animal to keep me company at night.

It turns out they both wanted to sleep with me so bad.  To make it fair, they put me in a little bed between their 2 rooms.  It is nice how they compromised.

In the morning I was surprised to learn that we were going to Disney World.  Everyone was so excited.  Caroline and Kevin's cousins were visiting from Pennsylvania, so we went to visit them.  We were all very excited.  Kevin and I were looking out the window of the monorail trying desperately to see Cinderella's Castle.

Here we are in front of the castle.  It is so big.  We even got to see Mickey Mouse.  He was telling us a story about dreams coming true.  We have to believe in our dreams.  He's right, you know.

Here I am with Kevin on my first Disney ride.  We are getting ready to go on the Aladdin ride!  Weeeee!!!!

We also got to see Nemo and talk to Crush the turtle.  How fun is that!!!!

It was a really hot day for all of us.  Caroline and Kevin were very worried about me because I had a long sleeve shirt and jeans on.  They were nice enough to let me ride in their Mommy's bag and share their fan with me.  They even sprayed me with some nice cool water.  Boy did that feel good!

I even got to meet Belle.  She shook my hand and everything!  She is such a nice princess.

Caroline and Kevin were so nice to share their adventures with me, but I am looking forward to meeting new friends.   They are sad to see me go, but look forward to my next visit.  First they want to answer some of my questions:

Stanley:  "What do you think happens to the sun at night?"
Caroline:  "The sun goes down in Florida and comes up in like China"
Kevin:  "It goes in the clouds"


Stanley:  "What is your favorite thing to eat for breakfast?"
Caroline:  "I'm going to say something unusual...for a healthy breakfast - a bagel and sausage"
Kevin: "PopTarts" (He was quick to answer and put up one finger when he said this excitedly)


Stanley:  "If you could change into an animal, which animal would you like to be?"
Caroline: "Horse"
Kevin:  "Hippo because hippos eat water and hippos eat grapes and swim.  That's all."


Off to my next adventure!

Flat Stanley Meets Evan and Chloe

It's pretty exciting when a new friend shows up at your house in an envelope! 

Evan and Chloe were thrilled to show Stanley a few of their favorite things while he was here in Pennsylvania.  Whenever we needed to go somewhere, he was able to ride in the car with us and share a seat with Evan.  Since he's flat he didn't need his own booster seat.

The day Stanley came, we had just gotten our Jeep Wrangler running again, and since Stanley is the adventurous type, Evan figured he ought to love riding in this.

We had to figure out where Stanley could sit if he joined us for a Jeep ride, and this hood loop looked like the perfect spot, but only if you are flat!

During an afternoon rain shower he went out to play in the puddles with the kids.  He was a bit worried that jumping in puddles with them might stain his clothes so he just watched while they got soaked.

Evan and Chloe both really love to climb things, so one thing they could all climb together was the tree in our front yard.  Stanley could do a few tricks that regular kids can't do!  See him there?

We wondered what Stanley could climb that regular kids couldn't, so we took a walk around the neighborhood.  On our city block there aren't a whole lot of trees, but there are a lot of stop signs and telephone poles.  Stanley was really brave climbing up so high.

On the curb, someone had left this great box which Stanley thought was a house, so he jumped in. Hi Stanley!

After all the excitement of hanging out together, Stanley had a few things he wanted to know before he left to go visit Caroline and Kevin.

Stanley:  Chloe, could you tell me what your favorite tree is and how many leaves you think are on it?
Chloe:  Oak!  but, I don't know how many leaves.
Evan:  Chloe, it's about five hundred.
Chloe:  Five Hundred!!

Stanley:  Evan, how about you?
Evan: Sumac's are my favorite.  They probably have about six thousand leaves on them.

Stanley: You both really like being outside and catching bugs, so if you caught a grasshopper and made it your pet, what would you name it?
Evan:  I'd name mine Lark.
Chloe:  I'd name mine ................................ HOP!

Stanley:  Those are great names.  I have one more question I was thinking about.  If you had to pick one vegetable to eat every day for ever and ever, just one, what would it be?
Evan: Definitely a red pepper.

Stanley:  And you Chloe?
Chloe:  A lettuce leaf!
Stanley:  Really? Your mom told me you liked something else even more than that.  Something you already do eat every single day, dipped in hummus or something..... can you think of what that might be?
Chloe:  Carrots!!  But I do like lettuce leafs too.

*********************

I told Evan this morning that today was our last day to play with Stanley before we mailed him off again, and he said,  

"Don't send Stanley away!! I love that guy!!!"

He will be missed.  Until next time....

Flat Stanley Meets Michael & Katelyn

Flat Stanley just visited our house, and we had a great time showing him around our new city! We're still exploring our city and learning where everything is, and Flat Stanley was excited to explore with us. We decided to go for a walk around Old Town...that's what they call the area of the city where we live. We all loaded up in the stroller and started walking with no particular destination in mind.  On the way, we discovered a beautiful old tree that had dropped so many little flower blossoms all over the sidewalk. Michael and Stanley thought it would be fun to run and jump and slide in the blossoms and toss them up in the air.

Katelyn was strapped into her stroller, so she just watched. Michael and Stanley took a quick break from their shenanigans to pose for a picture with Katelyn.

Then, Michael and Stanley thought it would be fun to have a wee bit of a wrestling match, but that pushed the stroller around on the sidewalk and you have to be very careful in a city so that you stay safely on the sidewalk away from the cars on the road, so we stopped wrestling.

After we all climbed back into the stroller, we kept walking and walking, looking for interesting places to stop and explore. We found a book store and Michael and Stanley had fun looking at books, and then we got back to walking. We walked along and found a great big fountain in Market Square in front of a large brick building. Turns out the building is City Hall. It had a big American flag draped across the front that was quite beautiful. Michael and Stanley splashed in the fountain a bit. The water was not too hot, not too cold...it would have been perfect if it was a swimming pool! But it wasn't, it was just a fountain, and we're not allowed to swim in fountains. Bummer.

So, off we went, continuing our stroll through town, when we came to a little teeny tiny toy store.  Stanley and Michael could barely contain their excitement as they ran into the store and ran around checking out all the super cool toys.

After all the toys had been carefully examined and added to our never ending birthday gift lists, we jumped back into the stroller and walked over to the playground. Michael and Stanley played and played, and paused for a quick picture as they built a sandcastle in the sandbox.

Finally, we were all hot and hungry! Time to head home for lunch and naps. All in all, Stanley, Michael, and Katelyn had fun walking around and exploring our new city.  After nap, Stanley and Michael decided to play fire fighter a little, and they put out several fires that afternoon. Stanley asked if we could make a firefighter uniform for him next time he comes to play at our house because all of ours were too big for him. We told him we'd make him one.

Stanley was anxious to get off and meet all of his new friends, so he decided to only stay for one day at our house, but he promised he'd be back to play again another day. We can't wait! He did have a few fun questions for us before he left, though:

Stanley: "Hey Michael, if you were going camping on the beach for a whole week (that's seven days and 6 nights), and you could only bring one very special toy (in addition to Buh-Bear because he's your friend and he doesn't count as your one toy), which toy would you bring?

Michael: "I would bring my, uh, my, uh, army set. And it has lots and lots of toys in it!"

Stanley: "Katelyn, what would you bring?"

Katelyn: "Maa Maa Maa Baa Baa..."
Michael : "Katie said she wants to bring Mac to the island."
Mommy: "You mean Lightening McQueen's friend Mac? She's too little to play with Mac, Michael."
Michael: "That's what she said."

Stanley: "So, Michael, I know how much you like fire trucks and fire fighters. When the firefighters were just little boys and girls, why do you think they wanted to grow up to be firefighters?"  

Michael: "Because they if they wouldn't have firefighters the fire would be inside the house forever."

Stanley: "Is that why you want to be a firefighter, too?"

Michael: "Yeah, because the firefighters need lots and lots of help."

Stanley: "Katelyn is napping and we don't even know what she wants to be when she grows up, so I won't ask her that question."

Stanley: "Michael, do you think the mail man will be gentle with me when he carries me to Evan and Chloe's house?"

Michael: "OK...Mommy, remember this? Mailmans aren't bad guys so they won't squish people up and stick them in a box. They don't do that to envelopes. If a bad guy squishes you up then you tell a policeman and he will take that bad guy away and fix Stanley. The mailman is not a real bad guy. He's a real mail man."

Stanley: "Katelyn?"
Katelyn: "Bah bah bah bah...."

Welcome!

Hi! I'm Flat Stanley! Welcome to my blog all about my adventures visiting my friends! In case you didn't know, they call me Flat Stanley because I am a boy who has been squished just as flat as a pancake. That might not sound like such a great thing, but there are some advantages. My favorite of which is that I can travel around the world in an envelope, with a little help from the mail man of course. Maybe you can help me discover some other great things about being flat when I come to visit you! I'm about to begin my journey, and I can't wait to meet you! I think I'll travel with a few questions that I'd like to ask you, and maybe you can share the answers here on the blog so all my friends can get to know each other as well as I'll know you.  We can share pictures about our adventures and tell stories about our days together. See you soon!