Flat Stanley Visits Dunedin, New Zealand

Hi all, Especially Ashelyn, Mrs Meiners and the rest of the 3rd grade class from James Walker Elementary School in Blue Springs Missouri.
 This post is about Flat Stanley Travelling over 1651 miles from Blue Springs, MO to LA. Then LA to Auckland, New Zealand I travelled another 6523 Miles! I was becoming a frequent flyer by this stage. The I travelled the 661 miles at least to get to Dunedin and I was truly happy to get out of that Envelope!
I arrived at The Kelsall's house hold that has 3 children and a Mum and Dad, 2 cats and a dog! The girls were on a school holidays so it was great time to arrive! (One Surprising thing that Flat Stanley found out was that all the children were adopted! He was happy to see how well they all get on and how much love they had for each other! However like all siblings there are a few fights! LOL!)
The Parents are Ruth a  trained teacher who is a stay at home Mum. (MOM) Keith is the dad and he is an Engineer Aiden Emily and Alice

 This a picture of our car and did you notice that we drive on the otherside of the road than you do in America!

 This is taken outside our classrooms at our School St Clair School Dunedin. http://www.stclair.school.nz/ is our school website you may like to check out Rooms 5 and 15 Blogs on this site and see what we are all studying!

 Here is Flat Stanley up on the bars! In our School playground.

 

 We went to a lookout to show you part of our city!  We found a monument that was dedicated to An American sailor who travelled from Dunedin all the way to the Antarctica.

 

 We then went for a swing at a community playground! A go on a flying fox! A sew saw!

 

 We then came home and did some craft and ate yummy dessert!

 

The next day we meet some friends and went out for lunch at the Best café! We all had yummy Fish and Chip lunches!!!  

 

 

 

 Then we went to one of the most photographed buildings in Dunedin our Railway station!

This is the Mozaic tiles they laid on the floor they are over a 100 years old and still beautiful.

Another day we climbed the steepest street in the world called Baldwin st!  

 

 We went to Hairspray the Musical to see Aiden in the cast! He is 18 and studies Music at University!

 

 

 Another outing was to the garden store to start planting up for Summer! Because we live in the Southern hemisphere we have spring in your Autumn (now!) and Christmas is in the middle of Summer! We get our long holiday from school then. 6 weeks off! then every 10 weeks we have a 2 week break!

Well I am afraid that I can't make it back in time to Missouri as time travel isn't possible! So I asked The mother( Ruth) to help me write a blog post so you all can see it quicker!
Good Bye for NOW!!!
Regards Flat Stanley!

He is what Emily wrote about Me arriving!
Flat Stanley arriving.
I was so exited when I got your letter and surprised to see flat Stanley arrive. When I laid eyes on flat Stanley I wondered why he was there then I read the note then I thought alright I am going to make the best holiday ever. Flat Stanley had pavalova and sausage in bread for his meal flat Stanley loved it. I showed him around the house and we liked the house so I put him on the table and it was dinner. Flat Stanley is lovely he has got great manners and very nice comments to say.

From Emily

 And this is Alice's Writing!

Flat Stanley
Flat Stanley can be very flat indeed! His journey hasn't gone long but he is having something for pudding it is pavalova with a big flake and some little flakes on top.
We haven't gone anywhere yet with him but we have taken a photo with him and his pudding it was very delicious and looked delicious too.
By Alice

We are back!!!

Well life has loads of twists and turns since I last posted!
My Mother and father both passed away in 2010 and then Aiden's Birth Grandfather and Great Grand mother in 2012.  Keith was out of work for 21 weeks last year. So all in all life has been crappy on many levels.

The saving grace has been the children. However we are standing on the edge of a great new adventure as Aiden heads off to University. He is at home but the High School years are behind him and now we have 2 children at school and one Uni student!

So I am back and will post on this blog regularly!

December 2012

Going Private

Hi
For those of the invited readers I am going private for a number of reasons one being able to safe guard myself and my family from unwanted approaches.
Regards Ruth

The last 6 weeks in review

We have spent lots of the summer just cruising with me trying to get my head in the right space. It has been a battle and I have focussed as much as possible on the children. They are all back at school now and heading into week 5. They have holidays in 4 weeks time!

Here I am at my 46th birthday and even though there was no money Keith did try (he did fail big time too!) We also celebrated our 26th Wedding anniversary.

I have a look on my face most days like this there is a constant fog and the smallest of things upset me.I have started having more migraines which is just the pits!

We have started to be more creative as well. Here is Uncle Sergio's Birthday present made by the children based on the circle and smiley face they made on the deck at their holiday house!

Blocks and creating towers have consumed many an hour which is great fun for all of us!

Alice is as Cheeky as ever and has truly made my days brighter. She certainly keeps us grounded.

The girls have found Aiden's cars and had a great time with lots of his toys from when he was little.

We have made Jars of jam and onion Marmalade! Yummo!
Then the last 2 weeks have been consumed with CNY

The beginning of the celebrations and two weeks later! 12 hours of dance class 150km travelled 16 hours sewing, 25 carrots 2kgs of Oranges,6 packets of crackers 6 kgs of apples consumed and 95,000 grey hairs induced................

And it was well worth the effort!

See the slippers I made them for each child to dance in! Alice got the first pair and has worn them and worn them!

Here is Alice on Aiden's shoulders watching the performance.

Emily is turning into a wee performer!

The day ended with a big bang!

Now we are caught up hopefully I am in a better space to post more regularly!

Hugs Ruth

Today

A day spent in the sun after weeks of rehearsals! I will update more over the next few days!
Enjoy my bright bubbly darling in all her dancing glory!
Hugs Ruth

Week two in review

Toni, Michael and Willow headed home to Edinburgh and as sad as it was to see them go they were ready to head home and have a normal routine back again. Hopefully next time they are home to stay!

Hard to imagine that Aiden is Toni's son here in the photo he is so tall! Willow went all shy and was sad to be leaving.
We also said Goodbye to Laura who was heading back to England and then We called in to Sergio belatedly for his birthday!

It has been a hard few months here and I feel still all backed up and working in little steps to try and regain some of the momentum I used to have. :(

Hopefully once this month is over and I have some more structure then I will feel like I am not constantly drowning!

Aiden enjoyed his time away and was glad to be at home when Annabelle came for her last visit as he had missed her!

He is so good with babies which is a worry!

The big and small of it all! He just loves babies and children.

Emily also loves babies!

My posing girls! I hope that this also means they are comfortable with themselves.

Alice too is blooming and it was amazing to see her nestle next to Alan which is a rare thing for children to do and especially Alice. It is great to see her comfortable in her space.

More posing! Help!

Then our friend Jenny sent this image saying there is always one in the holiday snaps!

Granny Sal complained that Aiden had been doing some of the same as in this photo and just to prove she is honest here it is!

Oh yes most of our summer photos have Aiden doing the eye rolls and funny faces very much the face of a typical 14 year old!

And we love him and the girls for who they are and how they stress us out on a daily basis!

Till next week!

Hugs Ruth