Flat Stanley

Back in March

the 2nd Graders started their

Flat Stanley Project!

For those of us from small towns that missed the

Flat Stanley Craze,

it's about a little boy that got flattened by a bulletin board

and then he was able to make use of his "flat" state

to do all sorts of fun things

like being mailed to different locations for adventures.

Well Anden's teacher had each child pick a relative/friend

to mail their Flat Stanley to.

Anden and I were brainstorming.

I started with the usual suggestions...

Idaho...Las Vegas...

Anden quickly interrupted me and exclaimed,

"Chicago!!  To Aunt Brookey!!"

Perfect suggestion bud!

So I gave Brooke a heads up that Stanley was heading her way.

Well let's just say that Flat Stanley had quite the amazing trip in Chicago!!

Brooke took him everywhere!!

Literally...like 696 pictures type everywhere! lol

Then she mailed Flat Stanley back to the school

so Anden could finish the project and display his adventure.

Well Aunt Brookey had forewarned us that the package was a little large.
She wasn't kidding!
She went above and beyond and mailed Anden

the hugest package with all sorts of goodies for him and his class!

Anden was beaming when we walked out of school

holding that massive box the size of him!! lol

(yes that's the stroller (and Laiklyn!) being crushed underneath it while hauling it home!)

As soon as we got home Anden ripped that right open

and delighted in all it's glory!

Well we then had a couple of weeks to pull together all 

of the information, pictures, etc

for his poster project.

(Of course that meant we didn't start it until 2 days before it was due!)

He narrowed down to 86 pictures for me to print.

Of which we managed to somehow shove 40 pictures onto his poster.

The project assembly took over most of my bedroom floor for 2 days!

(ok disclaimer I quickly realized a regular poster would no way fit this project

so Ryan got sent back to the store for a massive tri-fold project board!)

Anden was extremely particular which pictures went where

and how the layout should be.

Then later I "tweaked" it a bit to less resemble 

the aftermath of a tornado :)

And finally...

The Flat Stanley Project was complete!

We I carefully carried it to school that morning.

I handed it to him at the gate

and wished him well that he could carry it the last 100 yds alone

without tripping and crushing it! 

He literally couldn't see over the the top of the board! lol

So Taylee helped lead the blind.

Which is worrisome in itself!

But they made it into school safely

and Anden's Flat Stanley was a huge hit!

Later Anden told me that after their presentations

they had an open house where all four 2nd grade classes

were able to walk around and see each other's posters.

He tells me smiling,

"Mom I don't know why but everyone liked my poster the best.

I had like 30 kids hanging out at my desk!"

I told him it was because he and Aunt Brookey did an awesome job! :)

(and not at all because he had authentic Chicago candy and a poster the actual size of Willis Tower!)