Shawn's Flat Stanley Project

Shawn's class had to do a Flat Stanley project over spring break. If you are not familiar with Flat Stanley, Flat Stanley is a childrens book where the main character gets flattened by a billboard. He's not hurt though and is able to travel around the world in an envelope. So Shawn had to color and cut out his own Flat Stanley and send it to someone in a different town so Flat Stanley could see the sights. Shawn chose to send his Flat Stanley to his cousins Jeremy and Chris. They did a great job taking pictures and showing Flat Stanley the sights in Ocean City, MD. We almost didn't have enough room to show all the pictures! First they took Flat Stanley to Assateague Island to see the wild ponies. I was jealous because even though I've grown up my entire life in MD and went to Ocean City at least once a year, I've never been to Assateague. I may make that a mission when I go up in June. After Assateague, they took Flat Stanley to the boardwalk and buried him in the sand, lol. They took him to see a new firefighter memorial which looked pretty neat. They have a piece of metal from one of the world trade center towers in NY along with a statue of a firefighter. The piece of metal is very powerful and really makes you remember that day! Then they took Flat Stanley to Home Depot and Dunkin Donuts before taking him to the Berlin Fire Department to end their tour. We are so grateful for Jeremy and Chris to help us out with Shawn's project and of course their mother, Kandi, who took the pictures and drove them around. Thanks guys! Shawn was really excited to see the pictures and we had fun making the poster. Shawn made the title on the poster, helped place a few of the pictures, and made all the labels on the label maker and placed them on the poster himself. It turned out really good and he was so proud. Here's a couple pictures we took before we turned in the project (I had to use flip pages to get all the pictures on there so unfortunately all the pictures aren't shown). Enjoy!

Garden update

Sorry it's been so long since I've updated. I have no excuse but I'm going to blame Facebook, LOL. Anyway, I thought it was time to share some new garden pictures and report on our progress. Let me first say that we are beginners. I have no idea what I'm doing with this garden; just kind of winging it. The first tomato plant is looking pretty good. It finally has 3 little blooms on it so we hope to see little tomatoes soon. The second tomato plant was transplanted and it doesn't look as healthy as the first one but it keeps growing anyway so we'll see. My green bean plants started off looking the healthiest of them all but something started eating the leaves in the last 2 weeks. I seriously have to spray them with the organic insect spray my friends husband recommended. They do have lots of green beans on them though so I think we had success with this plant. I'll have to let you know how they tasted since I haven't pulled any off yet. My carrots look like they are doing pretty good. I have a few scallions that look like they are healthy. I used to have more but don't know what happened to them...something ate them maybe? The two types of lettuce I planted never germinated. Neither did the oregano or basil. I planted some beets later than everything else and I have a few things growing in the square I planted them in but I have no idea if they are beets or weeds, lol. I'll give it a little longer to see how they look. We also have a marigold plant that Shawn brought home in a little paper cup from school. It looked pitiful but we planted it anyway and we finally have a flower! Here's what the garden looks like now:

The small blooms on our tomato plant

Lots of green beans!

Shawn's marigold plant and a close up of the lone flower