PHOTOS: Kate Mitchell Elementary in Washington D.C.

students' letters about the school's community garden and healthy foods landed them on a plane to the White House late last March.

Second graders Eva Kumsher, Evan Bay Brakke, Morgan Shimanek, Caroline Maifield and Evan Matthews helped the First Lady Michelle Obama in her Kitchen Garden Spring planting and she was kind enough to sign their shirts.

Morgan Shimanek's father Nathan said the experience seemed surreal because they heard that Morgan was picked just a week before the trip.

Trace Houge Brakke said all five children ran and jumped through the White House gates in elation.

Morgan's favorite part of the trip was planting the garden with foods that keep people healthy and told his mother Hayley Shimanek that Michelle Obama was really nice for signing everyone’s shirts.

Nathan, Morgan's father, said the trip was a great reward for the kids work in the Kate Mitchell Community Garden and their letter writing. They said that they were trying to add more healthy foods to their diet and were willing to try new foods.

Brakke wrote in an email message, that she wondered if the 8-year-old children would be able to understand what an honor the meeting was, but on the flight home Brakke heard Evan say,

"When I'm in college, I'm going to tell my roommate that I got to meet Michelle Obama, and she'll say 'WOW!!!' "

Brakke said “I believe they actually understood, as well as their 8-year-old minds could, the magnitude of the experience they just had.”

Read Patch's previous stories on the Kate Mitchell Garden below.