Letter No. 7: Mifflintown, Pennsylvania

And we finally have a letter from Mifflintown, Pennsylvania!

Mifflintown is a bit of a big deal in our household, since it's where I currently work, where I first took dance lessons at the Margaret McCann School of Dance (many eons ago...), where Freja now takes dance lessons, and where I often go when I take the kids to the library. 

It's a really lovely little town in Juniata County, which - when not covered in ice and snow and the grey, grey cold that is currently smothering the area - tends to look like this:

I know, I know. It's lovely. It's full of farms and little towns and little shops and Amish and I love it.

ANYWAY...

Dani sent a wonderful letter to Freja (who was very excited to receive a letter from a place she's been to before). 

Freja quickly grabbed her colored pencils and writing paper and began dictating her letter in response.

Dear Dani,

Thank you for your letter! I dance in Mifflintown! I play in Mifflintown, too! I like the library in Mifflintown! (Ola: I like the library, too!) I got "How To Train Your Dragon" there, and "Curious George". I like those books.

And I drew a princess for you!

Love, Freja

The princess.

So thank you, Dani, for your great letter! It was wonderful to hear from Mifflintown, which is a place that has been a part of our lives for over twenty years!

Letter No. 6: The Lake District, United Kingdom

Today we look at our second postcard of the project, and our second out-of-states piece of mail, all the way from Jeni as she vacationed in the Lake District, which is located in Northwestern England.

Seriously. Go Google Image Search "The Lake District" and then come back and tell me why you haven't made any plans to vacation there yet. 

Freja loved the postcard, loved the picture, and asked me if she could go swimming in the water once she learns to swim this summer. Hahahaha... ha... ha... erm. (I don't have the heart to tell her that the local public pool is about as far as she's going to get this year.)

No, honey. Not even when you smile so sweetly. Maybe when Mommy wins the lottery we'll all head off to England for a spell. 

So after prying the card from her fingers, we went to the computer and looked up pictures of sheep, and Eurasian Skylarks, and more lovely waterfalls that Freja asked if we could slide down when we go to visit.

*ahem* Yes, Freja. When we go to visit. Sometime in the next *coughcoughmumblecough* years.

We also looked up William Wordsworth, who moved there later in his life and became known as one of the "Lake Poets". (I did not know that!) He even wrote a Guide to the Lakes, which helped to make the region famous.

And then we added a mark to our spiffy new map! Freja insisted on doing it by herself, which meant a lot of standing on the computer desk and FREAKING OUT because she was a whole three feet from the floor while Mommy held her securely around the waist.

So that's three out of seven continents. Not too shabby!

And now, I leave you some wonderful words penned by Wordsworth:

"I wandered lonely as a cloud

That floats on high o'er vales and hills,

When all at once I saw a crowd,

A host, of golden daffodils;

Beside the lake, beneath the trees,

Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine

And twinkle on the milky way,

They stretched in never-ending line

Along the margin of a bay:

Ten thousand saw I at a glance,

Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced; but they

Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:

A poet could not but be gay,

In such a jocund company:

I gazed—and gazed—but little thought

What wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie

In vacant or in pensive mood,

They flash upon that inward eye

Which is the bliss of solitude;

And then my heart with pleasure fills,

And dances with the daffodils."