Let them eat dirt

In this household, we do the best we can to celebrate the Earth everyday, but Bailey was pretty stoked when she discovered it had its very own day.  In fact, she could tell you what today was.  This morning, she was ecstatic to learn the day had finally arrived.  I'm guessing her Mother's affection for holidays is rubbing off on her, just a thought though.

In celebration, Bailey was shocked to find out I was serving dirt to her classmates.  She watched in horror as I put a fresh batch of gummy worms one by one in cups of dirt, sprinkling dirt on each one.  I had waited to do it before taking them in, so the gummy worms wouldn't get hard after being in the refrigerator all night long.  While doing this incredible act of torture, I listened to, "stop, Mommy, you're getting them dirty," "what are you doing to them?!," and "you can't do that!"  Apparently, Mommy had lost her mind and was all out of suitable ingredients.

I brought the dirt into her classroom just as I intended and when I returned later, Bailey's teachers informed me of how they had all of the kids help get the table ready and when they brought out the dirt, a couple children had intriguing reactions.  One child was asking about them eating mud and had a look of insult because he'd done all of this work to eat dirt.  Another child wanted them to wash the dirt off of her gummy worm.  Some of the other children seemed fine with this notion, even though they thought they weren't supposed to eat dirt in the past.

In reality, the mud tasted a lot like chocolate pudding and the dirt was like Oreo crumbs.  I witnessed faces and faces of a dirty mess.  The results of a last minute dessert (a decision I made as I was literally leaving work the night prior) seemed to have gone over well.  I forgot to take photos of the dirt though, but just imagine mud and dry dirt and you have a decent vision of what I fed these poor children.  Regardless, according to the teachers, one of the little boys pointed out that Bailey's Mommy always brings treats.  The kids seemed pretty excited about that.  Bailey thought nothing of it.

In addition to the mud, Bailey brought her classmates packets of seeds we had worked on together.  Each packet had a message from Bailey with her picture on them.  One of her friends in class, Brady, informed everyone in class when they called them flower seeds that they were actually Bailey seeds.  So you too can grow your very own Bailey, folks.  It's the latest rage this gardening season.

 

Celebrate Earth, plant a Bailey; oh and Happy Earth Day.