Same, Same But Different

Guess what?  We have pen-pals!  Back in February, Sam and I had the opportunity through Clickin' Moms (the online photography forum I'm a member of) to get matched with another Clickin' Moms family and exchange pen pal letters.   The organizer tried to match up families who lived in very different parts of the country or world, but had children who were similar in age.  Our family lives in a small town in Minnesota that just got their first McDonalds!  I'd say that's pretty different from where we live!  There are two young boys in their family and we are having fun sending letters and little presents back and forth as we learn about each other and the places we live.

So far we've exchanged drawings, favorite books, pens, paper airplanes, crafts, stickers, and of course, photos.  Their mom and I write letters and email each other, too.  They are a super-sweet family and I'm so glad Sam was up for trying this.

The photos below are from our first pen-pal letter-writing session back in Februrary.  We decided our first letter should have a Texas theme.  We sent Texas coloring sheets, Texas stickers, and an "About Me" page that I helped Sam fill out.  He needs lots of help writing, obviously, and quite often he just dictates to me what he wants to say (which I also help him with) and then I write down what he says.  He loves to draw for them and whenever we're out running errands, he's always spotting little treats we could send our pen-pals.

Before we started, we read a book about two boys who are pen pals and live on opposite ends of the world.  It was a really neat book with a great message.  Being the visual person I am, I really

loved

the illustrations!

What have we noticed is the same about our two families?  Well, we're both families of four, and we both have little boys who like playing outside, reading books and doing crafts.  What's different about us?  Mostly where we live - a small town vs. a big suburb - and we live in different climates.  One letter we received said they were expecting more snow and we were well into spring weather here in Texas, with hot weather just around the corner.  I think we'll be jealous of their summer temperatures, but come next winter, we'll probably be glad we live in Texas!

I decided that I would take quick iPhone pics of everything we send our pen-pals.  That way we not only have everything they send us, we can remember all the things we mailed to the boys.  Below is the book about spring that Sam wrote, and a collage of some of our letters and drawings we've sent.