Flat Stanley visits Ohio

There is a beginning reader novel series based around the story of a boy, Stanley, who becomes "flat" when a bookcase falls on him.  Stanley has several different adventures and experiences some strange things since his body is now flat.  He can slip through small cracks, his brother uses him as a kite, and his dad folds him up and carries him in his briefcase.  At one point in the first story, Stanley visits a friend who lives in another state by fitting into an envelope and being mailed.

Early this month Grace received a Flat Stanley from the son of one of my high school friends. She has twins - Brooke and Christopher - who are also in 3rd grade.  

When Karen sent me a message on Facebook asking if we would help with the project, I agreed....then, I found out that Brooke sent HER Stanley to San Francisco.  I wasn't sure we could compete with the Golden Gate Bridge, but we really did try!

Like a lot of my friends from high school and college, we keep up with each other through photos and posts on Facebook.  Karen assured me that we do a lot of cool things and Christopher's Stanley would have a fine time in Ohio.  We had already said, "yes" so there was really no other option but to make our journal as good as it could possibly be. 

We started out with a tour of downtown Cleveland and hit a few of the sites that we thought a 9-year old boy would care about:

Lake Erie

Quicken Loans Arena where the Cavaliers play

First Energy Stadium where the Browns play

 Progressive Field where the Indians play

(do you see a theme here?) 

Opening day was in two days but it was FREEZING out the day we did this.  It turns out they postponed the season opener due to the weather!

We also made a stop at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Grace wrote about Bruce Springsteen getting a start in music in Cleveland.  

We were only supposed to keep Stanley for a week, so the following day we did one of our favorite things - we went for a hike in the Cuyahoga Valley National Park on the Ledges Trail.  Did I mention it was a COLD weekend?  Yes, snow in April!

And, here is the journal page....

Karen told me that Christopher's Stanley arrived safely back in New Jersey but his teacher is waiting for all of them to return before opening the envelopes.  I can't wait until he sees it and I hope he thinks we did a great job.  It was a fun project...and Grace did some writing - win, win!