Tuesday, September 25, 2012

Enjoy Our Fall Gardens!

Colorful display for Outdoor Classroom
Cone flowers and hyssop for the
Butterfly Garden
There are several new plants planted around the outdoor classroom, butterfly garden, and vegetable garden for the fall. In the Outdoor Classroom: hyssop, asters, daisies, Russian sage, and sedum. In the Butterfly Garden: white and purple cone flowers and hyssop. And finally the Vegetable Garden: herbs--thyme, basil, lemon balm, marjoram; and Winter vegetables--collard greens, red cabbage, and kale.


Herbs and winter vegetables for the
Vegetable Garden
The beautiful new plantings are all thanks to Troop 304 Junior Girl Scouts, who are Terraset, Armstrong, Foxmill, and Hunterwoods 5th graders. The girls determined where each plant should go based on its needs, then they prepared the space by digging out a hole, making sure it had plenty of organic garden soil, and then planted and watered each plant. “How wonderful!” Ms Trout exclaimed on hearing the news. “I can't tell you how much this means to us.”

A huge thank you to Troop 304 for their thoughtfulness and generosity. “We will take good care of the plants!” Ms Trout promised.

Please take a moment to go admire the results of the girls' hard work! The weather is perfect for roaming around the gardens.

Amy Krull
Kim Lowther
Troop 304 Leaders

Wednesday, September 19, 2012

It Takes a Village

It was great to see so many people rally to help the Lawrence family! New to the Terraset community and expecting their fourth child, things did not go to plan when Charlotte hurt her foot.

On the second day of school, while walking her kids to Terraset, Charlotte was hit by a car! “Obviously not paying attention” Charlotte laughed. This happened at the intersection of Soapstone and Purple Beach Drive. A driver drove over Charlotte’s foot, she fell on the road, then was rushed off to the ER. All this occurred right in front of her children.

As it turned out, Ms. Trout, Terraset’s Principal, arrived on the scene. She immediately took care of the children while emergency workers were trying to reach Mr. Lawrence. The children were taken to Terraset and comforted by Mrs. Hunstad, Terraset’s Assistant Principal. Then four hours later, Ms. Trout went to pick up Charlotte from the ER. “First time we ever met! “ Charlotte declared.

Having just moved to Reston, the Lawrences had no family or friends close by to help. They needed some quickly, so Ms. Trout put them in touch with the PTA and the Terraset magic started to happen.  Firstly, the Goetz family stepped up offering to walk the younger children to school. They were quickly assisted by the Penn family (who actually lived a little closer to the Lawrences).

Charlotte Lawrence and her new baby, Bruce.
But more excitement was on the way. Baby Lawrence, Bruce, decided to come into the world just a little earlier than expected. According to doctors, the road accident caused “Baby Bruce to come two weeks earlier, when our three other kids were one week late.” Mrs. Lawrence told us. So, Charlotte found herself back in hospital. In marches a team of Terraset tigers -- teachers and parents -- with meals for the family. “Just incredibly nice people! We feel so lucky to be part of this community.” Mrs. Lawrence said.

Welcome to Reston Tim, Charlotte, Elliot, June, Vincent and Bruce. We are all looking forward to getting to know you better!

By the way, the driver who caused the accident was charged on site by the police and court day is October 17. “I wish we had more crossing guards near by the school....” Mrs. Lawrence commented.