At the Spring Parent-Teacher Conference, Brenna's teacher gave us an assignment based on the book, Flat Stanley written in 1964 by Jeff Brown (see last paragraph for more info). Brenna was given a paper with an image of a child on it and she was to decorate it to look like herself thus transforming the picture into Flat Brenna. Next we had to find someone willing to receive Flat Brenna, host her for a few days, take her to places of interest, and photograph her adventures.
As I went through the list of suckers, er potential hosts, I knew who would be the perfect person for the job - Granddad! He is retired, has recently acquired a fancy digital camera, and has a renewed passion for photography. So I called him up explained the project and he said, "Okay, sure. Send Flat Brenna to me. I'll see what I can come up with." Those might not have been his exact words, but they'll do for the purpose of this story. He had never heard of Flat Stanley, so he wasn't quite sure what he was getting himself into. So on a fine Saturday in early March, Brenna, Austin and I went to the Post Office and bid Flat Brenna "bon voyage".
On Wednesday, I got a call from a very excited Granddad. He had just finished visiting the Fort Worth Stockyards with Flat Brenna, and it seems all the cowboys and the locals know the story of Flat Stanley and were more than willing to help him with the project. He got pictures of Flat Brenna riding horses with cowboys, riding a longhorn steer (hook 'em Bevo), watching the cattle drive, visiting the local hooligans in jail, peeking into the White Elephant Saloon, driving Billy Bob's white Cadillac with great big steer horns on the grill and a host of other photo ops.
He took Flat Brenna to the Fort Worth Water Gardens and got a bunch of fantastic shots in all three pool areas. He even let Flat Brenna drive his shiny blue Corvette. Of course, they had to keep the car in the driveway, because she doesn't have a driver's license yet. Granddad is such a stickler for the rules. He took Flat Brenna to Harris Methodist Hospital and showed her what Nana does as Director of Continuous Improvement. He even showed her how to be an Ambassador, the job Granddad does on a volunteer basis at the hospital.
On her last day in Texas, Flat Brenna got to see the first tulip blooming in Nana's garden. This was pretty exciting, since we don't usually see tulips in Utah until mid-April. Nana told her all about the process for growing tulips in Texas. It seems you just can't put them in the ground in the Fall and poof tulips come up in the Spring like in Utah. There's a refrigeration period and planting in December with the hopes that ground is cold enough. Flat Brenna found this very interesting indeed.
Flat Brenna came back to us with a CD containing 65 pictures and lots of information about her adventures in Texas. The real Brenna was very excited to see the pictures and hear Flat Brenna's stories. With a little help (well okay, a lot of help) from Mommy, Brenna created a poster board and a write up of Flat Brenna's trip to Texas and took it to school this past Tuesday. She was very proud of her project. Thank you to Nana and Granddad for hosting Flat Brenna and sending us so many great photos!
Here's a little history of Flat Stanley in case you aren't yet acquainted. It is the story of a boy who gets flattened by a bulletin board hanging over his bed, but makes the best of his flattened state by entering locked rooms by sliding under doors, flying high in the sky as a kite and visiting friends by traveling through the mail. Eventually Stanley's brother gets jealous of all the attention Stanley is getting and returns him to normal using an air pump for footballs. In 1995, Dale Hubert, a teacher in Ontario, Canada, came up with the idea to create a picture of Flat Stanley and a journal to document his activities for a few days. Then they send the Flat Stanley and the journal to other people who are asked to treat Flat Stanley as a guest and chronicle his activities while in their care.
