Fridays are the only days the kids bring lunch to school with them. On all the other days lunch is served family style around small group tables with kids of different ages, and the kids try each food, and then afterwards, clean up. On Tuesdays and Wednesdays, with the help of a culinary arts instructor, small groups take charge of the lunch – planning menus, shopping at the neighborhood market for ingredients, budgeting and paying for the items, preparing, serving and then cleaning up. All of this sounds lovely to us, and is similar to the way we try to prepare and eat food at home – as a team, and as much as possible, open to new things.
But of course, lunch boxes are pretty cool things, and filling them up the night before is a treat. Chocolate pudding has been on the agenda since Tuesday, and tonight she whisked and poured until we had a refrigerator full of small white dishes brimming over with chocolate. I took a few pictures of her while she worked, and then we assembled the rest of the items. As I was putting the lids on the containers she asked why I wasn’t photographing the food first, and then she proceeded to stage this photo with great care and attention to layout and composition. My husband was truly frightened by this little demonstration. I, on the other hand, couldn’t have been more proud.

By the way, I’m not so nutty as to actually buy napkins that match the lunch box – they are just left over from her birthday party. I do fear, though, that some people might talk…


And then, oh! Oh! What is that? Yes, in fact, it is seven o’clock, and there’s the yawn – plus a little chocolate on the face that she was keeping for later. Looks like we wrapped this thing up just in time.