A Flat Stanley visitor and our busy day

A young friend of ours sent us his Flat Stanley to host in Maine for a couple of weeks for his kindergarten class. The girls were enthusiastic to do it since it's been a while since we've hosted a flat friend. We started exchanging Flat Stanleys as a way to get my reluctant writers interested in journaling a few years ago. We spent several years hosting Flat Stanleys and sent out our own for adventures (he was our first traveler of the continents). During the Flat Stanley exchanges, G. developed a real love for photography and both of the girls decided that writing could be fun (the photos were key in providing the writing prompts they needed when we first started). So even though it's been a while, we reverted back to our former Flat Stanley routine (although our own Flat Stanley did join us in Acadia last weekend) and tucked him in to my backpack so he wouldn't miss all the 'action' of our busy Sunday. Our day began with an early morning trip to the farm so G. could work with her cow Sparkles and do her farm chores. L. and I were charged with taking a photo of Stanley with the cows but it was a little tricky. Whenever we put Flat Stanley near the cows, one of them tried to eat him (which was reminiscent of our experience with the pigs a while back at Wolfe's Neck Farm). But we did manage to get a shot with a cow that was a little less hungry. Then Flat Stanley came with us to photograph the Old Port Festival parade and hang out at the MaineToday booth. It was one of those busy days for us so our afternoon activities moved from the Old Port to a sand pit in Gorham to do some skeet shooting with the girls' 4-H shooting sports club. G. gave the skeet shooting a whirl but the kick of the shotgun was a little stronger than her .22 rifle at the gun club so her shoulder was sore after two rounds. Fino loved it (of course) and hit a couple of clay disks. Then I was my turn and he and the girls made a point to get a couple of photos of me trying to hit the clay disk (emphasize the 'try' part - I'm lucky to hit a non-moving target). By the time we got home from our busy day, slugging out on the couch with a movie was in order. I'm pretty sure Flat Stanley stayed awake for "Her Majesty" before turning in the for the night, which is more than can be said for me.