La Vida Loca De Flores

This spring, Kolt's CTR 5 Primary teacher gave them a lesson on Faith - Faith is like a little seed and if we nourish it, it will grow. We have probably all heard and/or given this lesson at one time or another in our lives, and we may also have been given a small cup with some soil and seeds to plant as our faith and to nourish and watch it grow. Personally, I do remember having these lessons as a child and I also remember that not much ever came of my little cup of seeds beyond maybe a little green shoot and then, soon after, the death of my little sprouts. This was not the case with Kolt's little "Sprouts of Faith."

Kolt's teacher gave him a little baggie containing all the ingredients to grow his "faith:" 1 paper seedling cup, some soil, and 3 pumpkin seeds. So we filled the cup with the soil, stuck the seeds in the soil, added some water, and put the cup in the kitchen window. Kolt was very diligent about making sure that I put water on his plant and checked on it nearly every day. He could barely contain his excitement when he finally spied a small bit of green peaking through the dirt, then a few days later, a second! He was, however, slightly disappointed knowing that he had planted 3 seeds and only 2 sprouts had grown. Then, suddenly there it was the third seed had sprouted and he was ecstatic! He was so happy watching the little sprouts growing in the window and soon the roots were bursting out of the little seedling cup and he couldn't wait to put his pumpkins outside. The only problem was that it was May and it was still snowing outside! I didn't want to take the chance of his precious seedlings being frozen so we kept them inside until it got pretty consistently warm outside (although this summer never got really very hot around here).

Kolt was so excited when we took his pumpkin plants outside, he helped me dig a little hole by the house and we stuck the little block of soil in the dirt and buried it. The little pumpkin plants began to grow and grow and grow! They got so big that they were almost half the width of the house. Kolt checked on his pumpkin plants nearly every day and he was so excited when we FINALLY found a little pumpkin on one of the vines, then another and then one more. He watched them grow all summer and checked on them often. When he would go outside to play, inevitably, I would see him run around the corner of the house with a huge grin shouting..."Come see how big my punkins are!"

Three little pumpkins grew from 3 little seeds and Kolt could not have been happier if he had grown 3 acres of pumpkins! I think since we put the plants outside so late in the season, Kolt's pumpkins didn't quite have time to turn orange, but he didn't mind since his favorite color is GREEN!