Friday
Today's blog entry is dedicated to Cerine, Mark's vegetarian sister ;) While Mark slept in this morning in anticipation of a long weekend at work, Sherry dropped Ronan off at class then joined some other parent volunteers with the Parent Support Group (think P.T.A.) to prep for the "Iron Brion Roadshow." The Roadshow is sponsored by New Zealand Beef & Lamb, and travels all around New Zealand visiting schools to talk about the merits of exercise and well-balanced diets. Of course, the Roadshow makes no secret of the fact that red meats like beef and lamb have the most iron, and thus the highest capacity to transport oxygen in our bodies, giving us the energy we need to excel in sports and feel great, or something like that.
Parents up early to assemble buns for the feast
After slicing tomatoes, then assembling the buns with "salad" (lettuce & tomato) to await the freshly grilled hamburgers to be given out after the Roadshow, the parents gathered into the Assembly Hall at school with the children to watch the show.
A burger thief lurking by the grill
During the very lively presentation, children played games with the Roadshow's charismatic cartoon-like star, Iron Brion, and were quizzed on the four food groups. The 45 minute presentation was chock full of primary school humor, including Iron Brion pretending to pass gas when he was talking about beans being rich in iron...of course all the kids roared with laughter.
Iron Brion was a hit with the kids
Afterwards, Sherry and her fellow volunteers headed outside to hand out burgers, or just "salad" on buns for the kids who weren't interested in the hamburger, no matter how cool Iron Brion was. Ronan, who asked about five times this morning before leaving for school if Sherry had packed his lunch, fell into the latter group. At lunch, he gave Sherry a quick kiss then bolted off to enjoy his PB&J as usual with the rest of his classmates. Although she didn't get the satisfaction of her son enjoying the burgers she'd worked all day to make, Sherry did receive a pretty sweet cookbook for her efforts from the Iron Brion team, Hot Ideas For Beef & Lamb. Mark was most appreciative.
Ro looking decidedly underwhelmed by his classmate's burger
When Mark asked Ro this evening what he'd learned from Iron Brion, Ronan replied "to eat healthy so you don't get sick" and then dutifully proceeded to name items from each food group. In honor of the day's activities, Sherry slaved over a hot stove for a couple of hours, making a delicious Mince Polenta Pie with Bechamel sauce, while Mark entertained Ro down at the pool. Despite the day's propagand...er, dietary education, Ro still had to be cajoled, as usual, into eating his meat at dinner.
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