First Day of School And An Impromptu Picnic

Today was Tali's first day of school in the 3's. She picked out her favorite dress to wear for the occasion and insisted on a bow instead of her typical plastic barrette. There were no tears this year (a first!) and she would've stayed all day if she could have.

Tali's teachers this year are really into food and healthy eating (hooray!). They encourage parents to bring in "unusual" foods such as kiwi (not sure how that is unusual, but whatever) for the class to try. Their goal is to teach the kids how to try new things and hopefully expand their pallets. Each time a child tries a new food, he/she gets a "super try-er" sticker. These poor teachers are going to run out of stickers in just one month if they give one to Tali every time she "tries" a food. I warned them. Not sure they believe me, though.

So I told Tali about bringing in snacks and she decided that she wanted to bring in some Kabocha squash that I made on Saturday evening. I tried to talk her into carrots, but no such luck. She wanted the squash. So, today we brought some for her classmates. Only two kids tried it, Tali and her friend Lyla, and they both got stickers. No one else even touched it.

When I went to pick Tali up, they handed me back the squash and Eli saw it (it was in a bag before). So he pointed to the squash and then signed "help", indicating he wanted some. As we were walking to the parking lot, Tali and some of her friends stopped to play on the little bridge, around the stream and in the grass. Since Eli kept asking for the squash, I sat him on the ground for an impromptu picnic. While Tali played, he ate two big slices! Then Tali saw us eating the squash and came down to have another piece herself and feed one to Eli. As usual, all the other kids played and my kids ate. Someone should study them, really.