The Prodigal Stanley Returns

Wow - of all things to arrive in our mailbox, I did *not* expect to see any more Flat Stanleys... but lo and behold, a nice crisp manilla envelope arrived bearing our long-lost friend :)

This is "Spikey Bat Stanley" that Reed made. It was sent to Bend, Oregon almost exactly 2 years ago. Spikey Bat had quite the adventure. He played in Oregon for a bit, but his host family was unexpectedly transferred to Virginia. He and his family missed Oregon, so went back for vacation - but eventually Spikey Bat Stanley got homesick for Asheville and came back.

Here's his pictures from his extended stay - thanks to the Lippy family for taking such good care of our friend for such a long time!!


Caving and playing in the mountains of Bend, OR.

Exploring the Oregon coast.

and other random oregon fun spots...

In the plane to Virginia as well as enjoying rainy Virginia days:

Very Cultured Flat Stanley goes to Netherlands and Rome!

This Stanley's trip was SO cool - I am seriously considering smooshing myself with a bulliten board and being sent through the mail to the Netherlands and Rome!! This *wonderful* family took SO many great photos - I'm sorry not to have space to share them all! I'll try to share the best ones - (at least by the boys' votes ;)

The letter:
Dear Boys,
Your FLAT STANLEY came all the way to my city, Rotterdam, Netherlands.

While he was here, these are some of the exciting things he saw and did:
went on vacation to Rome, zoo, windmill, park, played with playmobile, got the chickenpox.

The distance between North Carolina and Netherlands is approximately 6548 km or 3535 miles.

If FLAT STANLEY should come back to visit, he should wear jacket and hat and rainboots, because the climate here is cold, wet and cloudy.

Some other interesting facts about my city include:
The people speak Dutch. They like to eat french fries with mayonnaise, and Loempias or bitterballen. We celebrate SinterKlaas day on Dec 5 and not Christmas.

First some good play time:


These are just a few of the amazing photos from Rome:









Then back to the Netherlands and the zoo (with possibly the coolest playground I have ever seen!):




THANK YOU so much to our Netherlands hosts - you guys were wonderful - we all thoroughly enjoyed each and every picture, and your trip and hometown are just amazing!!

Middle East Ambassador Stanley returns!

I think this is the Stanley that has ventured the farthest from home - and we're glad to see his safe return! His hosts were wonderful and welcoming, here's what they had to say:

Your FLAT STANLEY came all the way to my city, Manama, Bahrain.

While he was here, these are some of the exciting things he saw and did:
Stanley climbed Palm Trees, swam in the Persian Gulf, celebrated my sister's 5th Birthday. Stanley was here for the Prophet Mohammed's Birthday which is a Holy Day here and a National Holiday.
Flat Stanley attended several homeschool meetings, including "Young Authors Club". It's getting very hot here, so he wants to go home (110 degrees yesterday). We saw a herd of camels today but couldn't go close - some camels are mean! :(

The distance from Asheville, NC, USA to Manama, Bahrain is 7,208 miles!

If Flat Stanley should come back to visit, he should wear loose cotton clothes, because the climate here is very hot (desert).

Some other interesting facts about my city include:
This is an Islamic Country. There are also many Sri Lankans and Indians here who are workers. There is a bridg that connects Bahrain to Saudi Arabia (about 30 m away)

Here's Stanley and his host having fun climbing a palm tree:


Here is Stanley with a Reem Al Khalifa who is a member of the royal family in Bahrain:


And here they are again with his host's Cricket Coach, who is from South Africa:


Host Family's house:


Some great postcards:

Tattoo Stanley has a BLAST in New Jersey & Florida!!

These photos to the left are Stanley being strapped onto a rocket ship and shot off! Then there they are looking for him in the forest ... Quite a ride!

I can't describe Owen's Tattoo Stanley's adventures any better than the host family did, so I'll just go straight to their letter!
Your Flat Stanley came all the way to my city, Ridgefield, New Jersey.
While he was here, these are some of the exciting things he saw and did:
We saw the Empire State Building from across teh river. We went to the Statue of Libery. He went to Knight class with me and to the library. He also took a ride on a rocket into space. Then we went to Florida on vacation. We went to Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge. Stanley laughed when my mom fell in the ocean. The next three days we went to Kennedy Space Center. Then we went to Sea World in Orlando. It was a busy week. We arrived home at 2:00 am on Thursday morning.
If Stanley should come back to visit, he should wear a jacket or sweater, because the climate here is starting to warm after a cold winter.
Some other interesting facts about my city include:
We are about 10 minutes from New York City. Ridgefield was incorporated as a borough May 26, 1892. In 2000, the population was 10,830 even though the town only covers 2-6 square miles. According to our librarian, we have the only homeschooled child in town

This family took Stanley on wonderful adventures and sent him home with so many photos and postcards. Thank you SO much Ridgefield family!!

A few of the postcards:


View of Empire State Building and NYC :


Sea World:


Kennedy Space Center:

Bat Stanley went to Disney World!

I apologize to all who've been waiting for a Stanley update - they've been home getting some R&R from all their travels and are now ready to share their adventures :)

Clay was thrilled to welcome his Bat Stanley home from all his travels! He visited with a family in Madison, NJ, who then took him with them to Disney World in Orlando, Florida! Cool! He returned home with great photos from Disney as well as Epcot Center. He also brought back great souveniers of pirate coins and stickers which he generously shared with everyone.

Here's what his host family had to say:
"Your flat Stanley came all the way to my city, Madison, NJ USA.
While he was here, these are some of the exciting things he saw and did:
Flat Stanley came to Madison where he really just hung out on the couch waiting to go to Florida. Flat Stanley flew on a plane on April 1sat. When in Florida, he enjoyed a trip to Disney world. He met Winnie the Pooh, an dthe Tigger. He mostly enjoyed Epcot and went there twice.
The distance from Asheville to Madison is 671 mi, and from madison to St. Cloud, FL is 1,110 mi, and from Asheville to St. Cloud is 610 mi.
If Flat Stanley should come back to visit, in Madison it is cold, not freezing, but in Florida it was hot. So one of his young hostesses recommends that he should wear shorts in Florida.
Some other interesting facts about my city include: (facts about St. Cloud, FL) there is a haunted hotel downtown. It is where my grandparents live and is about 40 min. to Disney World. Central Florida is the lightening capital of the world.

We would all like to thank our Madison friends for welcoming Stanley, even though he was lazy on the couch for a while. He really enjoyed his trip and was glad to have brave travelling companions to protect him near haunted hotels and all that lightening!! Thanks guys!

Here's Bat Stanley with his hosts meeting some fave characters at a restaurant called The Crystal Palace:


And here's Stanley living it up at Epcot Center! He got to go to a Marakesh restaurant, and meet a Scottish rock band:

Vermont Flat Stanley

A great big thanks to the wonderful family in Barton, Vermont who hosted Flat Stanley! He had such a great time. This was Owen's Ninja Stanley. He got to go sledding, make snow angels, tap maple syrup, and even get strapped onto a paper airplane for a ride!





From the questionare:
Your Flat Stanley came all the way to my city, Barton, Vermont.
While he was here, these are some of the exiting things he saw and did: "Stanley had a great time. His favorite part of being here was playing outside in the snow. He really enjoyed making snow-angels, and making planes with me. Stanley also had a great time exploring through the woods and even got to help us tap some maple trees".
The distance between Asheville, NC and Barton, VT is approximately 1050 miles.
If Flat Stanley should come back to visit, he should wear: "mittens, a hat, coat, boots, ski-pants", because the climate here is "cold and snowy from Octover to the end of April!"
Some other interesting facts about my city include:
"The Barton River runs north towards Canada!
In 1810 Runaway pond flooded Barton with millions of gallons of water in the greatest natural catastrophe in Orleans County post columbia history. The whole pond drained!
In 2004, Phish played their final concert. It was the single largest gathering of people in out town with 70,000 people!
There are 85 homeschooled students. 2, 780 people live in Barton.
The early settlers found wigwams by Barton pond. They say an Indian Foosah killed 27 moose by this pond in the winter of 1783.
Around 1900 a granite quarry was located on crystal lake.
Henry Leland who was an inventor, and engineer, created and named both the original Cadillac and Lincoln companies."

The First Stanley Comes Home!

We are so excited to get our first Stanley back! He went all the way to Albuquerque, New Mexico. This was one that Reed sent out, so he was especially excited. His host family took him lots of neat places like Old Town and the Rio Grande Zoo. They sent him back with great souveniers that he's sharing with us, like pencils, cookie mix (yum!), a pepper-shaped cookie cutter, post cards and maps. Thanks so much Albuquerque family!!

We also went to the craft store today to buy scrapbooks so we can keep all the souveniers of Stanley's adventures :)

Today, we took our Stanleys to our friendly, neighborhood Staples store to be protected by a super power force field (aka lamination)... fortunately, the clerk did not seem to mind being hovered over by two 7-year-old boys and being told all about Stanley!



That was easy!!

We got a huge number of responses when we asked for host families for Stanley. We have marked on our maps all of the offers we have gotten. It's obviously too many for one time, but after our first batch of Stanleys come back, we'll probably send them on new adventures! The blue arrows are places that they are going RIGHT NOW ... the red arrows are future destinations :)

My first blog!

I need a way to document a project we're starting - so here's the easiest solution I could come up with! We've read the Flat Stanley book by Jeff Brown, in which a boy named Stanley is flattened by a board falling on him... He finds it quite useful to be completely flat - he can slip under doors, go through gratings, and be mailed across the country to his friend in California in a large envelope.

We are living a bit vicariously through him, and made a bunch of our own Flat Stanleys to send around the World! It works like this - we send a paper boy in an envelope with a short questionaire about the host family and their town. The family treats Stanley as their guest for a week, taking him interesting places and hopefully snapping some photos or grabbing him a postcard to remember his adventures. They send them back to us with photos, the questionaire filled out, and anything else they want to send.

Both Clay & Reed are doing this, along with one of their best friends, Owen. I put a request for host families on a message board of homeschoolers, as well as asking anyone on my email contacts who lives somewhere far away from Asheville. We'll post all the results here :)

So far, we have 35 families that want to help out! An overwhelming response, really ... And this is only about 8 hours after posting the request! These are ranging from right down in South Carolina, all across America from New England to California, to the Netherlands, Germany, Bahrain, India, Rome and Northern Canada. This is making it very hard for the boys to choose! So far they've made 15 Stanleys total - they may make more or just send them on multiples trips.

Reed working hard
Here's the whole clan of Stanleys - more may be added, but this is the work of 3 very motivated boys! True to the town they are from, they are full of the "asheville flavor" and we have Tattoo Stanley, Astroid-Boy Stanley, Ninja Stanley and even Crystal Stanley.