Roots, Leaves, and Flowers

Last week, Toby's teacher, Mr. Forsline, took his first-grade class on a field trip to Minnehaha Falls. The field trip was developed and organized by Robin and Starla Krause, the "Sisters of the Loring School Garden." (These two wonderful women, with the help of volunteers, have created the Kids' Cook Garden at school and every child in school gets to participate in the growing, tending, harvesting of the garden, learning about cooking and nutrition in the process.)

The lesson of the field trip was "Roots, Leaves, and Flowers," and involved hands' on learning about the various parts of plants that we eat:
roots: carrots, radishes
leaves: lettuce, arugula, bok choi
and flowers: broccoli, tomatoes

The kids prepared a tasty salad with fresh salad dressing, prepared and grilled fresh fish (donated by a local seafood market) with herbs, salt and pepper. Rounding out the meal was bread with radish butter, and rhubarb lemonade to drink. Hard-boiled eggs with herbs provided a tasty protein snack.

Toby and his classmates hiked and explored the falls and trails, drew pictures and wrote about their day. They picked dandelion leaves and tasted them in their salad. They toured the Sea Salt Eatery, a restaurant specializing in fresh seafood, and learned about the different kinds of batter for fish. Kids sampled (and loved!) calamari and fried clams.

One of the regular garden volunteers, Charlie, brought his guitar, some drums, and a rain stick, and all the children had a chance to make music together: singing, dancing, drumming, and strumming. There was plenty of time for climbing on rocks and running around, and just before the end of the day, everyone enjoyed an ice cream cone, courtesy of the Sea Salt Eatery.

The day was amazing! Every child was engaged and involved; everybody learned or experienced something new, whether it was eating a new food or playing an instrument. At the end of the day, when Mr. Forsline asked each person to thank someone in the group who made the day special, there were many heartfelt words, smiles and even hugs!

It was an incredibly special day that I spent with Toby and his class and without a doubt the best school lunch served anywhere in the Twin Cities that day!

Cats!

Just before Easter, we visited the Humane Society and came home with two kitties, the newest additions to our family!


Bella is a four-year-old part Siamese cat who is very sweet but was pretty traumatized by her experience in the animal shelter. She is gentle and loves to cuddle and is gradually learning to trust us.

















Jazz (or Jazzy, or Jasmine) is a three-month old kitten, who, like kittens everywhere, is very playful, very curious, and very cute. She is very social and not at all shy! The boys love watching her chase, pounce, and scamper! And because she is tiny, she is easy to pick up and cuddle!












Zoey (the dog) has been quite gracious about sharing her home with new feline friends and a couple swats on the nose when she has gotten too close are the most she's had to endure.

XC Skiing!

One of our new favorite winter activities has become cross-country skiing. After Jonah began learning to ski in school this winter, we decided that it was time to invest in a new hobby. We familiarized ourselves with the local used-sporting goods stores and found skis for all! We have been very lucky this winter with great snow and relatively warm spells. Toby has been taking ski lessons through the Minnesota Youth Ski League every Sunday and we've been out several times as a family to ski.



Through trial, error (lots of error), tips from the boys' lessons, and careful observation of other skiers, Ken and I can hold our own and have learned to mostly stay on our feet, and perhaps more importantly, how to get back on our feet after falling.



The boys both signed up to do the MinneLoppet, which is a kids' event in an annual weekend of ski races in Uptown/Lake of the Isles in Minneapolis. Their school coordinated a bus to the event and 28 Loring School kids participated. Jonah did the 2K version and Toby skied a 1K race. There were medals for all participants and cookies and cocoa at the end of the race.