Empty Nester – Extraordinaire

Posts Tagged ‘flat stanley’

Flat Sapphire – Return from Cali

How exciting to return home after a particularly brutal day at work to find a package from California.  Flat Sapphire [Ravynn’s Flat person] had been on a several week trip to Lake Elsinore, California where they spent time with Lauren and Nicholas. She came home with a lot of gifts for the girls, which were incredibly appreciated.  We tried to get photos of them all, but realize we forgot to photograph the CD-R of Sapphire’s Travel Journal.  That was a great addition that we look forward to sharing with you.

Included in the packet with the journal were two really cool tshirts with tarantulas and and animal footprints decorating them, two pair of sunnies [Ravynn is modeling them in the photo with Sapphire], a flash drive, frisbee, and a lot of postcards and travel magazines/books.  The girls are really excited to dive into them.

 We tried to copy some of the pictures from the journal into this post, but I’m not that adept at working with PDF files.  And I don’t want to insert the whole thing as there are pictures of minors who aren’t mine.

Suffice it to say that this Flat Sapphire trip was an overwhelming success 🙂

28-34/365

Yes, we got behind again. Life… you know…

WEEK 5, YEAR 1

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The girls wanted to take a walk around town looking for Walking Men Project statues.  As we hunted around AU for their contribution, the girls took the opportunity to walk the fountain.  Ravynn was a little more sure of her footing than Whisper was.

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PIZZA!!!  Homemade 🙂

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Nature at Shadyside. 

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No matter where you go in Anderson, you WILL be stopped by a train.  When we stopped for our third of the day, we decided to take a picture.

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More nature at Shadyside.  I love when ‘in color’ photographs look black and white.

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Flat Stanley [from Cali] with the big grafitti eyeball we found in an alley downtown. 

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Researching and writing at Panera.  In fact, those are my plans for today as well. 

 

And they’re off…

Our Flat People  have hit the streets via Priority Mail and are off toward their destinations.  We’re waiting patiently for their arrivals, but we wanted to update you on their plans.

Flat Sapphire has made her way to California.  She’s very excited as Cali was on her “must visit list”. 

She is looking for a place to visit after she returns.

 

Flat Spring is on her way to Valparaiso, Indiana.  She’s visiting old famly friends and we wish we could have gone with her.

She is also looking for a place to visit after she returns.

 

Flat Stefan is travelling with Alek to Texas and then is heading to New York City.  The flat dancer is looking forward to this artistic journey.

He will be looking for a place to visit after he returns.

 

Flat Jordan was also lucky enough to find a host in one of his dream locations. He’s on his way to France and we can’t wait to share his adventures.

He will be looking for a place to visit after he returns.

 

Flat Ophelia is on her way to Massachusetts.  I don’t know how close she is going to Boston or Salem, but hopefully it’s not too far and she can check a dream destination off her list.

She is looking for a place to visit after she returns.

 

The Flat Gothlings had initially scheduled a trip to New Hampshire with plans to make a road trip to New York City.  I just got an email from the coordinator of this trip who reported interest in flying the Flat Gothlings to Afghanistan to visit with the father of one of the girls in the NH group.  They might be gone for awhile, but that’s okay.

Where Do You Want to Go?

I don’t remember when I first learned of Flat Stanley.  I’ve never read the books and the kids have never done Flat Stanley projects for school.  I suspect a friend mentionned it or it was featured on one of the blogs I follow.  I do know that it’s popped under my radar several times since then and several times I thought about doing a home version.  Neither of the boys were especially interested and the project was too intended for their benefit for me to do all the work.  Ravynn and Whisper, however, are incredibly interested.

So far, they’ve designed Flat Stanleys for themselves and one for each of their brothers.  I have one ready for me and the girls have completed the pair that I was going to do.  We have trips scheduled for a couple of them and are signed on to serve as a host family for someone else. We really look foward to that.

After browsing the website, it seems there aren’t rules so much as suggestions, so it’s up to each participant to decide how they want their Flat experience to go.  I’ve talked with the girls and at this point, this is the plan.

• Write a bio for each of our Flat People [posted below]
• Ask hosts to fill out travel logs and sign signature pages [encouraging them to decorate the pages]
• Allow return of digital picture files
• Plan visits for 1-2 weeks. 
• Create a binder to hold the travel logs and signature pages. 
• Blog their trips!

First, though, let me introduce our Flat People to you.

Flat Sapphire [designed by Ravynn]

Birthplace: Anderson, IN
Birthdate: 6/9/2012
Favorite color: Blue
Lucky number: 5
Hobbies:

• Drawing
• Reading
• Exploring nature

Where she wants to visit:

• Japan
• Caliornia
• Manhattan

She wants to learn about:

• Nature
• Museums
• Famous people

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Flat Spring[designed by Whisper]

Birthplace: Anderson, IN
Birthdate: 6/9/2012
Favorite color: Orange
Lucky number: 7
Hobbies:

• Ballet
• Volleyball

Where she wants to visit:

• France
• Africa
• China
• Texas

She wants to learn about:

• Science
• History
• Your schools

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Flat Stefan[designed by Ravynn]

Birthplace: Anderson, IN
Birthdate: 6/9/2012
Favorite color: Orange
Lucky number: 7
Hobbies:

• Dance
• Acting
• Flirting with girls

Where he wants to visit:

• Moscow
• New York City
• Virginia

He wants to learn about:

• The Arts
• History
• What teenagers do for fun

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Flat Jordan [designed by Whisper]

Birthplace: Anderson, IN
Birthdate: 6/9/2012
Favorite color: Blue
Lucky number: 16
Hobbies:

• Tennis
• Hanging out with his girlfriend
• Computers

Where he wants to visit:

• France
• Canada
• China

He wants to learn about:

• Technology
• History
• Colleges

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Flat Gothlings[designed by Whisper & Ravynn]

Birthplace: Anderson, IN
Birthdate: 6/9/2012
Favorite color: Orange & Purple
Lucky number: 7 & 5
Hobbies:

• Dance, volleyball, and tennis
• Canoing, making people laugh

Where he wants to visit:

• Canada
• Japan
• Texas
• Europe
• New York

He wants to learn about:

• History
• Food

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Flat Ophelia [designed by Sheila]

Birthplace: Anderson, IN
Birthdate: 6/9/2012
Favorite color: Black
Lucky number: 13
Hobbies:

• Gardening
• Dancing in the moonlight

Where she wants to visit:

• Salem
• New Orleans
• Ireland

She wants to learn about:

• Urban legends
• Old cemeteries
• History
• Famous people

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If you know anyone who would be interested in hosting one of our Flat People, please let us know.

21-27/365

Yes, I plan to post these 365 updates on Saturdays, but I’ll be honest. Yesterday was difficult for me.  It would have been my dad’s 85th birthday.  I really just wanted to sit around and snuggle my kids.

But, we’re back at it and I have some photos from this past week to show you.

WEEK 4, YEAR 1

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Last Saturday, Ravynn decided to start a 3,000 piece puzzle.  She made quick work of most of the border, but then decided she didn’t like sitting on the floor to work on it, so she boxed it back up. After spending a couple of days rubbing her sore back, I thought this was a great idea. 

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After feeling really proud of myself for going to bed early, I was slightly annoyed with Eric when he woke me up to see this “really cool thing” in the living room.  I got over that immediately when I saw this incredible dragonfly on the ceiling fan.  I wish the camera had captured how gold it was. 

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Sweet snuggle bug waiting patiently for her turn on the computer.  She got a little sun.

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Yes… those raspberry bushes that I planted in the fall and keep stressing over [we need more rain!!] finally produced fruit.  Two little berries.  I let the girls have them.  I understand they needed sugar.

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Ravynn completed her Flat Person and wanted a photo of the two of them together.  After watching the first two seasons of Vampire Diaries, she was understandably upset when I referred to her creation as a doppelganger. 

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Whisper go a foot tattoo to remind her while I was at work that I love her CRAZY BIG.

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THIS is what happens when I let Alek make his own lunch… spaghetti salad. I don’t even know what to say about it…