Stanley Says Goodbye - Thurs 11th Mar

Stanley's time in Canberra has come to an end. We are sad to see him go. We've had fun taking him around Canberra and elsewhere. He is looking forward to getting back home, and sharing news of his adventures with Gabrielle's family and her class.

Here are a couple of things that weren't included in the other blog entries that Stanley wanted included in the last one.

Some of the views from the home where Stanley stayed.

Stanley also got to see some Australian Rules Football on television too. He didn't understand the rules, but it was a lot quicker than American Football, and nobody was wearing any padding. The players were able to jump in the air and catch the ball, and kick it a long way. The East family are big fans of the West Coast Eagles, a team that plays in the Australian Football League, and wanted Stanley to see some Australian Football.

And finally, a video showing a bit more about Canberra.

Just to let you know that the American woman who is speaking in this video doesn't say Canberra properly. She says it so that it sounds like "Can-bare-rar" ... when Australians say Canberra, it sounds like "Can-bra" - the "e" isn't really pronounced.

Good Bye Stanley!!

Hot Air Balloons - 10th - 11th Mar

To help celebrate Canberra Day, during the last week, there has been a Hot Air Balloon festival in Canberra. Each year, Canberra has a Hot Air Balloon Festival about this time of year. Each morning, about 20 to 30 Hot Air Balloons go floating over the city. The one's Stanley saw were all shaped like normal balloons, but Adam showed him some photos of balloons in previous years. Some of those hot air balloons,were in different shapes like giant bees, a house, a birthday cake, and even Mike Wazowksi from Monsters Inc.

Stanley wanted a souvenir to take home to Gabrielle, that she could also show her class, so he got to go into the middle of Canberra on Wednesday with Adam. They went shopping and found something for Stanley to take back to America. We won't tell you what it is ... Stanley wants it to be a surprise.

Jewel's & Canberra's Birthdays - 7th-9th Mar

Fun and sadness for Stanley. He's gotten to do some more fun things, but he is sad that his trip to Australia will be finishing soon.

Monday was a public holiday. It was Canberra Day - celebrating the day when Canberra was founded. Canberra is only 97 years old, so it's still very young for a city.  The kids didn't have to go to school, and Adam & Elissa didn't have to go to work.

On Monday, Jewel also had her 6th birthday party. She invited 9 of her friends from school over for the party. Jewel and her friends played a lot of similar games to Jayde. They played the Chocolate game, and Don't Eat Jewel. They also played Musical Statues and Pass The Parcel. Jewel got lots of nice presents, including another Barbie. Jewel has a big collection of Barbie dolls.  She also got given a CD with lullabies sung by the singer Jewel.

Stanley got to try some different party foods - one that he liked was called Fairy Bread. Fairy Bread is made by spreading butter on a piece of bread, cutting the bread into triangle shapes and then covering the bread in "Hundreds and Thousands". Stanley said that in America they don't have Hundreds and Thousands, but they have somthing similar called "Sprinkles" or "jimmies". Stanley thought the Fairy Bread was yummy.

Jewel's birthday cake was Belle from Beauty and the Beast. The top part of her was a doll, but her dress was made out of cake. Stanley though that Belle the Cake was pretty. She told Stanley, that No, she couldn't go back to the USA with him ...

At the end of the party, they had a Piñata full of chocolates and lollies. The Piñata was shaped like a heart with pictures of the Disney Princesses on the front of it.

Something else that Stanley noticed that was different at Jayde and Jewel's Birthday parties was that after singing Happy Birthday, they then sang it again in a different language. Adam explained that the kids used to go to a different school. At that school, once a week they had a class learning about Japan, and they learnt some Japanese words. They even learnt how to sing Happy Birthday in Japanese. Since then, tt has become a tradition for Jayde, Seth and Jewel to sing Happy Birthday in both English and Japanese at their birthday parties. Most of the kids at the party didn't know it, as in the new scholl they are at, they don't have classes about Japan. They have classes about Indonesia. Indonesia is one of the countries near Australia. Stanley said that in America, the children sometimes learn some Spanish words, not Japanese or Indonesian words.

Stanley was thankful that he got to stay for Jayde and Jewel's birthday parties. Thank you Gabrielle!

Jayde's Birthday, Taekido and Emus - 3rd-6th Mar

More fun for Stanley over the last couple of days. Jayde had her 10th Birthday. She got a yummy roast dinner on her birthday - that's her favourite meal, and on the Saturday, she had her birthday party. She invited nine of her school friends over, and they had a "Masterchef Party". Masterchef is a TV show in Australia where people compete in a compettion to make yummy foods. At Jayde's party she and her friends all got to make their own pizzas for dinner, as well as decorating cupcakes, and making their own ice cream sundaes. It was a yummy party! Jayde got lots of nice presents too - clothes, and books were main thing. Jayde really likes reading, so people knew that books were good presents.

They played some fun games at the party. They played Sardines - the game that they had played at Family Home Evening earlier in the week. They played the "Chocolate Game". In the chocolate game, a big block of yummy chocolate is put on a plate, next to a knife and a fork. There is also a jacket, a hat, a scarf and some gloves next to the plate. Everybody sits aropund the plate, and then to start the game one of the players rolls two dice. If he get's two 6s, something special happens. If he rolls anything else, then the person next to them then gets the two dice and rolls them. This keeps on going until somebody rolls two 6s. When somebody rolls two 6s, they get to eat the chocolate. The catch is, that before they can eat any of the chocolate, they must put on the hat, the scarf, the jacket, and the gloves, and they can only eat the chocolate once they have put all the clothes on, and then they must use the knife and fork to cut up and eat the chocolate. Whilst the person is trying to get dressed and eat the chocolate, the other players keep rolling the dice. If they roll two 6s, then the first person has to stop eating the chcolate, take the hat, scarf, jacket and gloves off, the the new person who rolled two 6s must put them all on before they can eat the chocolate. The person wearing the clothes and eatingg chocolate changes everytime somebody rolls two 6s. You keep going like this until the chocolate is all gone.

Jayde really likes a book called Lord of the Rings. Her birthday cake was a "hobbit hole". Hobbits are characters from the Lord of the Rings. Elissa made a cake that looked like a house built into the side of a hill - because that's what Hobbits live in. The cake even had two plastic Hobbits in the front garden of the hobbit's home.

Stanley got to go with Jayde on Thursday night out to her martial arts. It is called Taekido. It combines two other types of martial arts - Taekwando and Aikido. She goes to martial arts for an hour each week. She is  a Brown Belt, and is practising to try and become a higher level.

Stanley also went out for a drive with Adam, Seth and Jewel down to Tidbinbilla. Tidbinbilla is a nature reserve about 15 minutes from the Easts house. When we got there, there was a group of about 15 emus all wandering around eating. Emus are very BIG birds. They are about as tall as an adult human. Stanley could then see that behind the emus, lying in the shade of the trees and bushes behind them were about 20 kangaroos, all keeping cool.

Stanley sees Kangaroos - Tues 2nd Mar

Stanley went to work with Adam today. The exciting part about that was the drive to and from Adam's work. On the drive there and back, Stanley got to see wild kangaroos. There were three mobs of kangaroos on the drive between the East's home and Adam's work. (A mob is a name given to a group of kangaroos).

The nearest of the kangaroos were less than a mile from the Easts home. There were about 10 kanagaroos in each mob. Most of them were spending their time eating grass. Some were lying down in the shade of the trees in the afternoon.

One time Stanley saw a mother kangaroo hopping with a joey hopping behind her. A joey is a name given to a young kangaroo. When they are really little, Joeys live in a pouch on the outside of the mother kangaroos tummy. You can sometimes see the joeys head's sticking up out of their mother's pouch.

The kangaroos were mainly in fields by the side of the road. Adam explained that kangaroos can hop and jump very well. This is a problem, because kangaroos can jump over fences - some can jump as tall as Adam. Kangaroos can jump onto roads during the night time and get hit by cars. In Canberra, there are about three car crashes caused by Kangaroos every day. That's over a thousand car crashes caused by kangaroos in Canberra every year! That's sad, as the kangaroos will often get badly hurt or killed if they get hit by a car. Stanley though that was sad too. Adam explained that there are lots and lots of kangaroos around because there were fields and bush for them to live in, but you normally wouldn't see kangaroos living in any of the really big cities in Australia.

Stanley wanted to get some photos of the kangaroos in the fileds to show Gabbi, but Adam was driving and couldn't stop to take photos, and the cameras are too heavy for Stanley to hold. Adam said that he was hoping to get to take Stanley to a park nearby on the weekend where he could get to see the kangaroos close up.

Stanley and Family Home Evening - Mon 1st Mar

The East Family had the missionaries from their church over for dinner today - they had an extra yummy dinner. After dinner, the missionaries stayed whilst the family had Family Home Evening.

Every Monday night, the family has Family Home Evening. It's designed for the family to be able to spend time together discuss important things and to have fun. The family start out by having one of the family member's start with a prayer. Then, each member of the family gets to choose a song which the family then sings. The songs the family sang included: Popcorn, Book of Mormon Stories and Advance Australia Fair (the Australian National Anthem).

After singing, Jayde taught a lesson. The lesson was about "Testimonies" - about what a testimony is. After Jayde's lesson, we played a game. Seth chose the game, and it was called Sardines.

Sardines is a little bit like Hide and Seek. Instead of one person counting and everybody else hiding, in Sardines, one person hides, and everybody else counts to 20 before going to try and find the person who is hiding. In sardines, if you find the person who is hiding, you then have to hide with them. As more and more people "find" the person who is hiding, they too have to hide in the same space  - so it can get really squashy - like a tin of sardines :)

Seth hid underneath a chair in the downstairs Family Room. he was hard to find. Eventually more and more people found him and were trying to hide under or near the chair so othe rpeople couldn't find them. Seth is really good at playing Sardines.

After playing the game, the family closed off Family Home Evening by havinga treat. Our treat was having some more of the Mexican lollies that we got sent.

Stanley goes to Church - Sun 28th Feb

Everybody was tired after the busy day and long drive home on Saturday.

Stanley got to go with the Easts to church today. He went to the Tuggeranong Ward of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. It's only small - there were about 80 people at church. At Church, he got to hear different people talk and teach lessons about how to live better lives. Everyone seemed to be nice and friendly.

In the afternoon, because everyone in the family was still tired, the family spent a quiet afternoon at home.

Stanley got to see some more Australian birds during the day. Some Galahs flew up onto the roof during the day. They are pink and grey colored parrots. He also got to see lots of Galahs in trees or one the ground when they drove to Church (The Chapel where the East's go to church is about half an hour drive away).

Later on, when the family was sitting down to eat dinner, they could see several Rosellas in the tree outside the window. It must have been dinner time for the Rosellas too, because they were eating some of the seeds on the tree they were sitting on.