Today is the day Flat Stanley left Connecticut to go home to Valdaijah. He had a great time here, but was glad to go home.

Keep an eye out for him Valdaijah! He’ll be home soon.

Stanley is going home tomorrow, so they decided to celebrate by making a delicious, homemade sushi dinner. No one there had ever made sushi from scratch before, so it was a little bit of an adventure.

The spread . . .

Cutting a yellowtail-avocado roll.

They couldn’t decide who would get the last peice of salmon roll, so they decided to split it.

Garden update! The arugula is the first to bloom!

Here is Flat Stanley with the first plants:

Today, Flat Stanley helped Denielle to create her garden. Right now, she is only in the process of planting the seeds into little plant pods. She will keep them there until they germinate and start to grow. Once they are tiny plants, she will transplant them into a larger garden.

Do you know what the word germinate means? Germination is when a plant starts to grow after a long period of rest. Actually, Flat Stanley and Denielle found something that was germinating a couple days ago. Do you remember what it was?

Here are pictures of Flat Stanley and Denielle preparing her seeds.

The Beginning . . .

Flat Stanley! Get out of the dirt!

Denielle had just planted tomatoes and lettuce in the first two rows.

Flat Stanley is keeping an eye on the eight round pots. Those are the herb pots. They contain basil, parsley, chives and oregano. These herbs are most delicious on homemade pizza. Have you ever had home made pizza with fresh basil and fresh oregano?  It’s delicious. If Flat Stanley stays here too much longer, he might become FAT stanley!

It’s still pretty chilly out. It’s only 42 degrees out. You have to protect the new baby plants against the cold. These plastic covers will provide some protection, but not a lot.  We will need to bring the plants inside at night, when it gets even colder. Every morning, we will have to take the plants ouside again so that they can get sun. Plants use sunlight to make their own food.

Today, we planted tomatoes, squash, green beans, yellow beans, fennel, okra, beets, radishes, red lettuce, green lettuce, arugula, green peppers, and jalapenos. These are common plants in New England. What do you grow in Florida?

Today, Denielle saw something wonderful while she was walking to her car on her way to work. She noticed a little acorn that had broken open and started to grow! She ran inside to show Flat Stanley. These pictures show Flat Stanley with the little acorn seed.

Flat Stanley and Denielle ran to a space in the woods and planted the seed.

In time, this little seed could become a huge oak tree!

Flat Stanley and Denielle have gotten into the habit of taking long walks in the woods. Spring in Connecticut is very tempermental. Some days are beautiful and the sun shines down brightly and it is warm. Other days -like today – it is cold and everyone has to wear jackets. But even though it was cold and damp, Flat Stan and Denielle decided to venture out anyway.  It’s a good thing they did, because on their adventures, they came across some interesting things!

On this day, they came across about five different types of fungi. The word fungi is plural for a fungus. Do you know what a fungus is? A fungus is a weird type of organism. Mushrooms are one type of a fungus. I bet you thought that mushrooms were plants, but guess what? They’re not. Mushrooms – and all other fungi – are not quite plants. But they’re not animals either. They have their own category.

It’s important to know that most fungi are very, very poisonous. Even though people can eat mushrooms you buy at the store, there are many more mushrooms people can’t eat. Generally, most fungi make people very sick. This is why Flat Stanley and Denielle only looked at the fungi in the forest. They didn’t touch it or pick it.

The first mushroom they found was growing off the side of a tree. It was the size of a dinner plate! Flat Stanley pointed out that it was so big, he could build a home on it.

There were also some small mushrooms growing off a dead tree.

Flat Stanley also found some really strange orange mushrooms growing off a tree. These are also a type of mushroom, except they’re very poisonous. He got close enough to take a picture, but he didn’t touch them.

Today, Flat Stanley learned all about stone walls.

There are stone walls found all over New England. When they were first built, they were used for everything from animal pounds to boundary lines to animal fencing. Now, they are everywhere! They run for miles and miles and miles without anything in sight. Many people think that the stone walls that are found throughout New England are some of the most important and beautiful walls ever built. 

To see the stone walls, Flat Stanley and Denielle went for a walk behind Denielle’s house. They walked almost six miles into the woods.

     There were no people.

        There were no houses.

           They didn’t even see any animals.

But there sure were a lot of stone walls!

Who made them all?

Today, Flat Stanley went to visit the University of Connecticut.

The University of Connecticut is a university located in northeast Connecticut. We call it “UConn.” It has a lot of students – almost 20,000! And more than half of those people live on campus. That is a lot of people! Good thing that UConn is very big.

On this day, the camera died, so they could not get any pictures with Flat Stanley. But he enjoyed looking at different parts of the school.

They went to the UConn farm

They also went to the building in which Denielle works.

And then they caught a sunset over the University:

Overall, it was a fun day, although it was tiring walking all over the school. Flat Stanley decided that when he is ready for college, he might go to UConn. It is a neat school!

Today, Flat Stanley arrived in Tolland, Connecticut.

Connecticut is a little state between New York and Massachusetts. Uncle Jeff and Aunt Maureen and Uncle Jack and Aunt Stacy all live in Massachusetts. They live near Worcester, which you can see below. Your cousin Michelle lives in Rhode Island, which is next to Connecticut. She lives in the capital of Rhode Island in a city called Providence. You can see it on the map below. Denielle lives in Tolland. Tolland is right between Worcester (Massachusetts) and Hartford (Connecticut.) Can you find out where that is on the map below?

When Flat Stan opened his eyes for the first time in Tolland, Connecticut, he noticed two things. First, there are a lot more trees in Tolland than there are in Florida. Second, it is colder here. It was only forty two degrees when he finally came out of the envelope – and it’s almost April!

Flat Stanley spent the rest of the night hanging out with Denielle. Flat Stanley wanted to hear all about Connecticut. Denielle wanted to hear all about Valdaijah. They obviously had a lot to talk about!