1. “Flat Stanley Journal” Flat Chanley from Hong Kong Visits with Benjamin May/June 2006

2. Wednesday, May 24, 2006 Flat Chan arrived safe and sound at our home in xxxxxx, MD, USA. We were very excited that he had arrived. He would be the very first Flat that our family would be honored to host.

3. United States of America

4. Thursday, May 25 2006 Since we homeschool, we need to have our notebooks reviewed twice a year. We took Flat Chan with us to drop off our Portfolios for our end of the year review. He enjoyed the car ride.

5. Friday, May 26, 2006 We picked up the Portfolios today. Everything checked out fine. We are finished for the year and are moving on to first grade for Benjamin and fourth grade for Gabriel. We’ll do some review pages and other stuff through the summer months then start back up with school days in August. We have been homeschooling for three complete years now, and we love it.

6. We went out to dinner Friday evening to celebrate the end of our school year. Benjamin thought Flat Chan would enjoy Chinese food, so we asked him to join us at our favorite Chinese buffet. It is called the King Buffet. Flat Chan felt right at home. But since he was in America, we gave him an American type nickname. We are calling him Chanley, Flat Chanley that is.

7. In America, we have many different types of restaurants. We can go out for Chinese, Italian, Mexican, Japanese, Indian, Korean, etc. Chinese is our favorite variety. We enjoyed our dinner, then had ice cream and fresh fruit for desert. On the way out we stopped to visit the fish pond and take a few photos.

8. Saturday, May 27, 2006 We had a quiet day today. Dad went to work and we just hung around the house and played in the backyard. I guess mom was busy, so we missed getting pictures.

9. Sunday, May 28, 2006 This morning was busy. We got up and went out to church. Chanley went to Sunday School class with Benjamin. Here is a picture of them together in front of a wall in his classroom. “Jesus loves the little children of the world.”

10. Benjamin held Chanley for a photo-op with a plaque of the Ten Commandments. They hang in the church lobby.

11. We played a game of croquet after lunch and Chanley helped. He also played with our dog, Sunny. Sunny likes to run after and catch tennis balls. But once you start throwing balls for him, he doesn’t want to stop playing.

12. Monday, May 30, 2006 Today is Memorial Day Memorial Day is a special holiday in America. It is a day we set aside to remember and honor those who have died while protecting our country’s freedoms in war. It is celebrated by parades, cookouts, and sometimes fireworks. We also use it as a sign that it is now officially summer. Our family did some much needed yard work on Memorial Day. Our yard work included mowing the grass, weeding, watering the garden, and picking up sticks. This picture is the left side of our backyard.

13. Tuesday, May 30, 2006 Today we had quite an adventure. We had a couple errands to do. It’s gotten really hot here in the last few days (into the 90*F). Since we are trying not to turn on the air conditioning yet, we decided to go to Wal-Mart to buy a fan for the window. We had been shopping for quite a while and were ready to go to the check out line when we realized we had lost Chanley! It’s terrible to lose something or someone. We tried not to panic and started looking all around in the different areas of the store we had visited. We had looked at the fish, the fans, and the Father’s Day cards. Benjamin had also noticed a basketball on the floor in the shoe department. We thought maybe Chanley was left there when Benjamin picked up that basketball. So we looked really hard in that area. We looked in all the isles and under the shelves……

14. Then a nice Wal-Mart lady who was working in the shoe department asked if she could help us. We told her all about our problem and described Chanley to her. She hadn’t seen him but was very helpful in helping us with our search. Thankfully she found him on top of a shoe box. We were so relieved and happy to have found him. Benjamin gave her a big hug. Here is a picture of the nice Wal- Mart lady. Her name was Sandy.

15. We made a quick stop at the US Post Office to ask about the regulations on what we are allowed to mail with Chanley when he returns to Hong Kong. United States Flag

16. While we were walking through town, we spotted a bird nest in a tree right near the sidewalk. Chanley went up into the tree (and the nest) to see if there were any eggs or baby birds. No luck. The nest was already empty. We don’t know what type of bird built this nest. But we do know it definitely was not the nest of an eagle.

17. Later that evening, we met dad at his office for a picnic and then spent a couple hours picking cherries. We’ll make a cherry pie for us and one for his boss. Then put some cherries in the freezer for later. Yuuuuummy! Well, hope everyone has enjoyed our journal. We have enjoyed having Chanley with us for the week. We are sad to see him go and would be glad to have him (or a different one) visit us again.