A teddy bear picnic at a pizza garden? This isn’t some childhood fantasy – it’s real life.

Or at least, it will be at noon, when the Children’s Museum will host a group of kiddos (and their favorite teddy bears) at the Western Montana Fairgrounds’ pizza garden (located near the hockey rink). The pizza garden is a pizza-shaped garden filled with living plants that grow good toppings for pizza – plants like garlic, tomatoes and herbs.

It’s a gardening opportunity and a picnic opportunity. If you don’t have any lunch plans, pack up a sack lunch and the kids.

And if you happen to drive by the festivities – don’t worry, you’re not hallucinating.

- MM

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Last night my little girl sauntered into the kitchen where I was in full-on dinner production mode, and announced, “Grown-ups LOVE to feed kids.”

I took this as her cue that she was hungry, and pulled up a chair so she could help me crack eggs and see what we would be eating. Willow loves to help out in the kitchen, and I’ve noticed that she’s a lot more likely to try new foods that she helped prepare than ones that just suddenly appear on the table. She’ll even eat “that slimy green stuff (retching noise)” so long as I let her scoop out the avocado.

And in the summertime, she will eat whatever comes out of the garden. At age 5 now, she could spend hours playing with worms and bugs and sneaking bites of baby carrots and peas.

So this morning, it was a treat to read about the Good Food Store selling copies of “The Helping Hands: Lowell School Garden Project Family Cookbook” to help fund the school’s garden. Copies are just $10, and you can find out more by calling Lowell School at 542-4040.

- MM

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Missoula fans of Kathleen Clary Miller, a local writer who lives in Huson, will remember her columns from the Missoulian’s Opinion page every Friday some months back.

Those who aren’t familiar should know that Miller is not only a prolific writer but also a mom of two grown daughters and two grown step-sons. She’s written many columns from a mother’s perspective, too. Here’s one of them:

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