Gardens, gardens, GARDENS!

As many of you know Super Snack Lady helps out with as many gardens as she can during the summer months.  She is heavily involved in the Gather and Grow Friendship Garden located right next to Johnson School of the Arts and is also involved with the Garfield Garden when needed.  Check out the photos below of fun events that have taken place around the gardens along with some of the progress that is being made!

The Garfield Garden is famous!  Well, at least the dietician
who helps with it is.  On the left is Linda Ashley the
Hy-Vee dietician who helps with the garden and she is
pictured with Tiffany O'Donnell (red dress) and Corey
Christiansen (white shirt).  Hy-Vee even had a
grill out for Garfield families and interviewed the principal,
Joy Long about the garden.  How cool!

Here is Linda Ashley, the dietician, pictured at the actual
garden talking to girl scouts about healthy eating
choices that can come from the garden.

While their snack was cooking the girl scouts put together
a compost corral which will be used to make their very own
compost for their garden!  At the end of their snack
they put their paper plates and watermelon
rinds in the compost corral.

It takes lots of team work, and a Master Gardener,
to put together a compost corral.  All you need is
wooden pallets and some zip ties.  Very easy!

Ta da!  You can't see the corral, but it's there!  Thanks
Phil for helping us put it together and teaching us
what all we can put in it!

Welcome to the Gather and Grow Friendship Garden
at Johnson School of the Arts! 

The sunflowers are in full bloom and are looking
great on this summer day.

Watermelon or pumpkin?  It's kind of hard to tell!

Marissa is at a loss while trying to figure out where
to start with the vines that took over the garden.
The vines were burying other plants and needed
to be moved but it was such a mess that we had to
call in a backup helper- a Master Gardener from
the ISU Extension Office!

Baby, tiny pepper plants! 

 

Super Snack Lady Staying Healthy!

What have you been doing this summer to stay healthy?  Super Snack Lady enjoys yummy fruits in the warm (or in our case HOT) summer months.  Nothing cools her down like some black, frozen grapes, fresh cut pineapple, or a cool apple straight out of the fridge.

Along with trying to eat healthy Super Snack Lady has also been keeping active.  She wishes she had more time for the swimming pool or a gym that is inside but instead she's been casually training for a 5K run!  Well, this last weekend Super Snack Lady took part in the Color Run in Des Moines. What is a Color Run?  Well it's a 5K (approximently 3.2 miles) where you wear all white clothes and run/jog/walk and you go through check points. At these check points volunteers throw colored corn starch on you and you start to turn awesome fun colors!  At the 5K this past weekend Super Snack Lady saw young kids (4 year olds) and even grandparents all suited up for the race.  Check out the photos below to see Super Snack Lady enjoying her jog!

Super Snack Lady was all suited up in white.
Goggles were not needed but she decided
to wear them to protect her glasses and eyes.

Mary, Kacie, and Super Snack Lady during the race
and getting colored up!

The "after party" where they play music and
runners dance and throw more color in the air to
celebrate completing the run.

Good thing Super Snack Lady wore
goggles to protect her face.

This was the "tan line" from the color
on Super Snack Lady's ankle.
Luckily the starch color washes off after
a shower or two!