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Bush took part in a First Bloom event at Hamilton Grange, the historical house of founding father Alexander Hamilton, today.

Put together by the National Park Foundation, the First Bloom program aims to teach kids about nature through hands-on activities, including park restoration.

The children, who attend neighborhood schools or a local Boys and Girls Club, took home plantings in hundreds of biodegradable cups, including the same types of seeds used by Hamilton, including black-eyed Susans and dwarf sunflowers.

"It gives young people a chance to learn about the native plants that would have been here when this was all just open land," said the first lady.

"It's very unique, for kids to have that kind of hands-on experience, and we do it over three years," said President Vin Cipolla of the National Park Foundation.

The children were excited to meet the president's wife.

"It was fun. It was so exciting," said one young participant. "I was happy because I've never seen the president's wife in person."

"At first I thought that she would be different from other people, but like she was really a nice lady," said another.

The National Park Foundation will also launch a First Bloom program at the nearby Ulysses S. Grant National Memorial, where kids will design and plant gardens around the 19th-century president's tomb and a new visitors' center.

In April, Mrs. Bush attended another First Bloom event in Battery Park.

She is the honorary chair of the program, and has helped bring it not only to New York City, but also to Austin, Texas; Los Angeles, California; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; and Washington, D.C.