Make a Salad Day

The South Bay Botanical Garden is bursting with color these days. Gorgeous plants are every where you look. Let me remind my local readers that this large garden offers a family annual pass for a whopping $50.00! For that sum of money they provide weekly activities for kids. I can't say enough about our Friday experiences. Today was Make a Salad Day. They started with painting with cut vegetables. They used potato stamps, celery, and bell peppers. Then they learned about different vegetables. They learned about the fruits: cucumbers, bell peppers, squash, etc. They talked about whether or not they were eating the vegetable's leaf, root, stem, flower, or fruit. They read two books about vegetables. Then came the fun part.

The children were encouraged to pick a carrot or radish, wash them off with water, and then sample them with ranch dressing. They also provided tomatoes, lettuce, and snap peas. The kids obviously very much enjoyed this experience. Nathan washed his carrot in between each bite.

After that they planted tomato plants and then walked through the vegetable garden to see artichokes, eggplants, etc growing on the plant. The teacher picked off an onion leaf. It was like a large chive. She ripped the tip off and allowed the children to smell it before guessing what vegetable might belong to the leaf. After revealing that it was an onion she handed it to Nathan. As you can imagine Nathan munched on the onion all through out the rest of the walk. Kaeley thought she must be missing out on something golden, and convinced Nathan to let her take a bite of his treat. Within a suck of the juice she winced and clasped her hands over her mouth in disgust. I don't blame her.

After the gardens we went to Rubio's Baja Grill for lunch, because I had a birthday coupon to redeem. The three of us ate two meals for under $6.00. It wasn't exactly a relaxing lunch, but what meal is ever relaxing when a two year old and a baby is involved? I must emphasise the two year old participation.