January 24, 2000

Abbey has arrived in Niantic, Connecticut.  We are a village in the town of East Lyme, and our school is within walking distance to Long Island Sound. If you were to look on a map, we are located in the southeast corner of Connecticut near New London, Groton, and Mystic.  If you traveled directly north of the east tip of Long Island, you would reach Niantic Bay, where we swim in the summer.  However, the weather has been unusually frigid, so Abbey has not yet been to the beach to find some shells on the sand.

Abbey has been visiting Mrs. Pitman's Kindergarten class at Niantic Center School.   They have made a dog house out of Legos.  Because we have a leash law in our town, other children made Abbey a leash so that she would be legal when she traveled.  Another child brought in a smaller version of Abbey, so Abbey would not be lonely, but how Abbey could possibly be lonely with all the attention she is getting, I wouldn't know.

Today each of the children had their pictures taken with Abbey with our digital camera, and now the children are in the process of making a class book.

Please rest assured that Abbey is having a great time at our school, and she wants to say hello to all her past friends at other schools.

Mrs. Schneider, Library Media Specialist
for Mrs. Pitman at Niantic Center School.

PS We have started a web page here for Abbey at:
Meet Abbey and Addey Page, Niantic Center School
(http://www.connix.com/~jschneid/abbey.html)

Abbey continues to have adventures on her travels.  On Tuesday, January 25th, we had a snow then ice storm, and school was canceled.  Abbey spent a quiet day in school in her LEGO doghouse with another stuffed friend.

Then on Wednesday Abbey was missing!  Due to the ice storm, the roads were covered with ice on Wednesday morning, and school was delayed 90 minutes so the sun could help melt some of the ice.  Mrs. Pitman's morning Kindergarten was canceled, but Mrs. Pitman said hello to Abbey that morning.  But later Mrs. Pitman returned to her room, and Abbey was
missing.  She was no where to be seen.  Then she was found.  Our school has a before Kindergarten program we call Morning Glories. Morning Glories is for Kindergartners whose parents work all day. So a student
could go to Morning Glories in the morning, then Kindergarten in the afternoon.  Well, it turns out, one of the girls thought Abbey would be lonely in her dog house alone, so Abbey had visited the Morning Glories.

After school on Thursday, it was still cold, but Mrs. Schneider wanted to show Abbey the beach, so they went.  We will send the pictures Mrs. Schneider took with a digital camera. The day was sunny but cold.  There were lots of seagulls flying around to look at Abbey.  Perhaps they thought Abbey was going to feed them some bread crumbs.

Afterwards Abbey visited Mrs. Schneider's home to eat some homemade Boston Baked Beans as a treat in her travels.

Friday she returned to Niantic Center School for her last day before heading south to Orlando, Florida.

                                             Abbey at the beach                                          Abbey at Niantic