Flat Stanley Joins The Leenstra Travels

As the story goes Stanley Lambchop is flattened when a bulletin board falls on him. He survives and makes the best of his altered state, and soon he is sliding into rooms through the opening at the bottom of closed doors and being kind to his younger brother by playing as a kite for him. Stanley even helps catch some art museum thieves by posing as a painting on the wall!! But one special advantage is that Flat Stanley can now visit his friends by being mailed in an envelope.

Well Flat Stanley arrived in our postal box on Thursday to Maddie. Aunt Betsy sent him on his way. It took him over a week to arrive from the US. He came bringing lots of hugs from home!! Thank you Aunt Betsy!!!

Maddie was excited to take Flat Stanley with us on our Saturday travels. We went to a Lion Park about 40 minutes away from where we live.

It was amazing seeing the lions so close to us!!!

Maddie and Alex having fun with the wall painting

We were able to go into a cage with small lion cubs and pet them for 2 minutes (not a long time), but the kids were so excited to pet a lion. Alex kept saying "Awww kitty kitty"

They warn you not to run or the lion cubs will chase you - that was hard for Alex he wanted to catch them.

We were also able to pet and feed the two giraffes they had there. It was amazing.

Scott wanted a kiss from the giraffe (yes that is the giraffe's tongue!!)

While we did all the animal interaction we kept Flat Stanley tucked away in my purse to make sure he did not get attacked.

We then left for a safari ride through the lion park and Maddie wanted to show Flat Stanley all the animals.

We saw Hyenas

Zebras

A Cheetah

Wilde beast

and then came the fun part. They took us through 4 different Lion parks. What huge and beautiful animals. We had so much fun just observing the lions. The lions were so close to the truck and some you could just see them eyeing us as we went past.

Using a tree for a scratching post.

Just playing

3 females protecting the 3 cubs under the tree

One of the lions eyeing us

Dad - Mom - and three cubs

the 3 cubs waiting for the cars and trucks to pass so they could cross the road where thier mom was.

We did have an unexpected event and Flat Stanley was hurt (he is ok we taped him up), but it was a scary incident for Stanley. I decided I wanted to take a picture of Stanley with the lions for his memory book. So I hooked him to the cage and little to my knowledge Stanley was being stalked.

and then ..........

Stanley was attacked!!! This made us all jump (remember Alex and I are a couple inches from this lion). The lion jumped and grabbed Stanley

Scott grabbed him, but not without being ripped! Poor Stanley. He was shook up. The fun part was we were up close and personal with a lion.

I tucked Stanley back into my purse and I am able to report that we all made it out safe with smiles on our face (even Stanley).

What another great adventure!!!

Athletic Day

Maddie had a athletic day for school yesterday. Three schools - grades 0 - 3 - "competed" in 5 events: the 100m, 60m, bean bag toss, javelin throw, and three legged race. Maddie was very shy in the beginning and I could not get her on the field. She warmed up some - after some convincing from mom and dad. Here is a video of her running the 60m and some pictures of the other events. (PS - the video is a seperate blog entry - I have not figured out how to add it to this blog)



javelin throw


bean bag toss


three legged race


break time

I am also going to ask for a prayer request for Maddie. She is having ear problems again. She has excessive ear wax build up in her ears. The last few weeks it has been getting worse. The other day I could not even see in her ear because of all the wax and scabs. She has very little hearing in her right ear. This makes it hard for her at school and at home to understand anything. She had this when we lived in the US and she had surgery to unplug everything. The problem here is that we do not have a doctor for the kids and we need to find one. It would be to long of a wait if we waited until our visit in December. Please pray that we can find a good doctor who can refer us to a good ENT. Maddie gets frustrated easily with it and is uncomfortable.

Alex - Relaxing

If you bring it - they will come!

So what happens when you have a balloon launcher (sent to the kids from Auntie Sara) and two kids so excited to try it out at the park?

Well - you pump up the balloons with great determination



and then watch the neighboring kids flock around - who knew a couple balloons flying sky high was all the kids needed to introduce themselves to the other kids



soon it was almost out of control - everyone wanted a turn to launch the balloon


ready - set - go!!!


sorry it is hard to see but the picture is of one of the balloons flying through a thorn tree and landing on a neighboring roof


soon all the kids were having a chance at it to see whose could fly higher


alex running after his balloon


giving tips to the younger ones

Thank you Aunt Sara for the fun time at the park!!!

HAVING MORE FUN AT THE PARK

alex trying to give me a kiss while swinging


Maddie's turn - remember swinging like this in elementary school?



HAVING FUN AND SMILING FOR YOU AT HOME!!