The kitchen is closed and the lessons have all been taught.

The trays are stacked and cleaned and soon the freezer will be emptied and turned off. My first year as manager has come to a close. I must admit that the transition from part time to full time was a lot harder than I expected.

At times I felt like I simply couldn't do all that needed to be done. The funny thing about summer break is it always comes just when you need it.

Here's a few things I learned this year.

Kindergartners are simply my all time favorite. There's been much talk in my district about returning to half day kindergarten and I truly hope they do not. First and foremost, I think this would be a HUGE step backwards and not in the best interest for our district. But the second reason is simply selfish. I would miss those little buggers in the lunch line. Who would ask me for baby grapes (blueberries)? Who would tell me the white broccoli is the bestest? Who would eat the bananas without peeling them?

Lunch participation is a hard thing to predict. I'd like to figure out why my free kids aren't eating. I'd like to figure out why some kids come to breakfast and others don't. I'd like to increase participation. I'd like to make sure the kids that are hungry are getting enough to eat. I'd like to figure out how to do that.

Ordering food isn't as intimidating as I thought it would be. When I first had to do the ordering, I thought I'd never get it down. But as the year progressed, I got a little better at it. Sure, I forgot to order pickles and I sometimes had way too much pineapple but it all worked out.

It's best to be over prepared. I planned for about 300 people at VIP breakfast even though only about 55 RSVP'd. That turned out to be a pretty good estimate. Apparently RSVPing isn't all that fashionable.

Most days, I love my job. Since accepting my position as kitchen manager, I've been offered two other jobs, both which paid significantly more. Turns out, I truly like what I do. Sure, some might not think it all that important. Some might think it beneath them. But in the long run, it only matters what I think. And I think that doing something you feel passionately about makes a difference.

And isn't making a difference what life is all about?

A certain kind of crazy happens in my school cafeteria on hotdog day. I imagine that it happens elsewhere as well, but I can only speak for the kind of crazy that happens in my kitchen.

Five things you will only hear in hotdog day (hopefully)

"Hey, you broke my wiener" said a 2nd grader as he discovered his hotdog had split a little. My response, "That's so you know where to put the ketchup."

"It's time to catheterize the hotdogs," said by one of my coworkers or me as we temperature those little buggers.

"His pickle is bigger than mine," said by a kindergartener in reference to the dill spear he received with his lunch. Best response: "never compare pickles. It only leads to hurt feelings."

"I've got a wiener in my pocket," said by a first grader in a bad attempt to parody this song. This version might be better than the original.

Finally, we just can't serve hotdogs and baked beans without some little kid telling us the beans are a magical fruit, the more you eat the more you toot."

One thing's for sure, I do have a lot of fun at work.

Less than 20 lunches need to be prepared before summer break is upon us. I have to say that it has been a bigger adjustment than Inexpected going from part time to full time but I have no regrets.

Here's what we learned this week.

Apple crisp: No one wants the apple crisp until you run out. I'm pretty sure there is some kind of law of supply and demand related to this very notion.

It's easy to piss off the bank. You'd think that people who have hours like 9 a.m. until 4 p.m. would be super pleasant. My deposit from grandparent's day had A LOT of coins in it. I separated them all into little ziplock bags and wrote on the bag how much was included but I didn't have any rolls. Guess what came back in my bank bag. Tons of rolls and a note about being required to roll all coins. Who are they trying to kid? I know they have a coin counter. I've been to the bank before.

Kids will notice. Sometimes it feels like kids could care less about school lunch and they'll only notice the negative. But this week when I took the time to make kiwi/orange/blueberry cups just about everyone of those little buggers noticed and were super excited about.

Refried beans still get a reaction. No matter how many times we serve them, we still get a few gasps from the littlest customers who definately judge their food by its appearence. Foods that looks like poop is a hard sale on a K-3 level.

Excited about changes and ideas for next year. If the goal is to continue to improve service and provide healthy meals then we are headed in the right direction.

What did you learn this week?

It's been awhile since I've shared some cafeteria adventures. I was feeling a little burned out from blogging but I'm ready to make a comeback.

Here's hoping that a few of you are still reading and that maybe you'll bring a friend or two with you.

Being a superhero is pretty darn cool. May 3rd was School Lunch Superhero day and we were treated to some really cool cafeteria decorations, thank you notes and even a dance number. My favorite were the notes depicting my hairnet.

Sunflowers are my favorite. The preschool class gave me a sunflower they planted from a seed and told me "Happy Mudder's Day". It may have been the single cutest thing that happened to me this week.

Old people make me laugh. While serving lunch to a ton of grandparents this week, I was asking if they'd like milk or water. One grandpap asked "Got any beer back there?"

Vanilla milk takes down chocolate. Can you believe that there is a milk flavor that can take down chocolate as the champion?? Turns out my kiddos are in love with vanilla milk. It sort of tastes like melted vanilla ice cream. I'm still shocked that so may of my students love this milk.

"I don't wike the wed things." I don't know how you feel about red peppers but I think they are delicious. The students, on the other hand, are not all that fond. They are totally convinced that they are spicy. Now they've started asking me to take put all the "wed" ones.

They don't know what's good!

What have you learned while I was gone??

This week we had a snow day that was really a rain day, we served green eggs, we wore chef hats and we learned what makes a day awesome and what doesn't. Here's what I learned.

I do not like them Sam I am; I do not like green eggs and ham. I had a lot of fun attempting to color the scrabbled eggs on Monday. We had shades from shamrock shake to Oscar the grouch. Turns out if you mix the shamrock with the grouch you get a more authentic green. Who knew?

It is not the greatest day ever! When an entire second grade class squeezed into the elevator because a student with an injury couldn't take the stairs one little boy exclaimed "this is the greatest day ever" to which the teacher replied "one of our classmates has a disability. This is NOT the greatest day ever. "

Hello, I'm Janet. From the Department of Agriculture. AYFKM? Apparently a quick glance into the dry storage and the cold storage was all she needed to see. She was also very interested if I had prominately displayed my federally required poster indicating that all students are welcome no matter their race or economic status. The entire visit lasted less than 10 minutes.

Middle of the week snow day. The blizzard of 2013 turned into a mostly annoying rainstorm. The worst part about having a day off in the middle of the week is that Thursday starts to feel like Monday.

National school Breakfast week can be fun. We had a lot of new faces at breakfast this week and that's always exciting. What I learned from that is if you offer a prize, they will come.

What did you learn this week?

This week the kitchen was full of laughter and a few AYFKM moments.

Here's what I learned.

Wholy Cwrap! That's alot of milk. Yesterday I ran out of chocolate milk and when a first grader saw the milkman there at breakfast this morning he asked me if he brought the chocolate milk. I said "oh, he sure did" and then the little guy asked me how many. "This week he only brought about 650." He responded with a heartfelt "wholy cwrap." I don't even serve it a breakfast and we are the smallest school in the district. It really isn't all that much but I suppose its all about perspective.

Heart shaped egg patties and toast: I had a valentine themed breakfast on Thursday complete with matching napkins. Too bad it was our lowest count of the week. It was freakin cute.

Have you seen my bowl? It's possible that when someone is frantically search through the snacks and looking for their bowl that they really are just looking for a soup bowl. Who knew?

Valentine's Day can bring out the awkward. Whether that be kindness misinterpreted as something more or a big punch in the face on the playground. It really is just another Thursday.

Can you grab me the salt? Um is it appropriate to ask the very pregnant teacher to fetch you the salt so you don't have to get up. I'm leaning towards no.

What did you learn this week?

With a portion of my family down with the flu this week was a lesson in juggling work duties with home needs.

Thankfully Middle G is back on her feet and ready to tackle the three day week we have on the horizon.

Here's what I learned:

Sometimes you wanna go where everybody knows your name: When my co-worker's second grader went down with the flu and she went home, it was a sight for sore eyes to see my former boss, who popped in to have lunch with us. She slipped back into a hairnet and helped us serve. It was a win-win.

Mac & cheese took a right hook this week. The thing about lunch count is we desperately need them to stay pretty high. I mean, with school districts cutting everything, it's not uncommon to have the cafeteria staff outsourced. I really don't want that to happen and as of this writing it doesn't seem to be a discussion item. That being said, I can't figure out how the minds of our customer base works? Mac & cheese used to be one of our most popular meals....this week not so much.

Everybody likes s'mores... We had a campfire themed lunch on Friday of hot dogs, baked beans and a low fat s'more. The key to increasing lunch count, may simply be adding chocolate. We had a lot of new faces in line.

Where's the sub? One of the days I had to leave early, the sub filing in would complete her work and then sort of shadow one of the other girls until they told her what else to do, It was similar to the game we have all played with our toddlers. You know the one...(insert high pitched voice) Where's little G? Even though you know he's right in front of you, he thinks you can't see him because his hands are over his face and he can't see you.

Reason #3,546 why the flu virus loves elementary school. Kindergarten student to another kindergartener: "what does your cheeseburger taste like?" Other student, "I don't know what does your cheeseburger taste like. You try." They then proceeded to swap cheeseburger and try a bite of each others. Afterwards the first boy said, "Wow, my cheeseburger tastes just like your cheeseburger."

What did you learn this week?

This week was a sprinkle of snot and vomit wrapped around a pesky little flu virus. My middle daughter is down and out with the flu virus. Sickest I've seen her in a long while ;-(

Here's what I learned:

No matter how you slice it, kids are all alike. While having lunch this week, I listened to a coworker complain about how humorous her kids find flatulence all while slicing her orange as daintily as possible. Clearly, farting is funny. No matter how you slice it.

I wallowed my toof. A kindergartner was crying at breakfast. That pancake and sausage did the trick with his loose tooth. Of course, he wasn't expecting it and promptly swallowed it.

Breakfast and blood. A kindergartner came through the line at breakfast with a bloody gash over his eye. Me: "do you know your bleeding?" Him: "Yep... (Nameless) accidentally hit me with a wooden block in my face." Hmm... I didn't realize I could accidentally hit people in the face with wooden blocks. Thanks for the tip. The school nurse patched him up and all was well.

Happy birthday! I said to a first grader whose name was announced in the morning as having a birthday that day. Her facial expression was complete confusion. Me: "Isn't it your birthday?" Student: "I don't know? I'm not sure when my birfday is? Now that I'm 40...I've decided that's an excellent approach.

Beans kids will eat. I've been charged with coming up with a kid friendly recipe that elementary student will like. I'm leaning towards jelly beans. What will Michelle Obama think?

What did you learn this week?

WE'RE BACK!

We eased ourselves back into the kitchen this week with a long three days. Kids were a little deflated after all the hubbub of Christmas and seemed to have forgotten even the basics of instruction like how to form a line.

Here's what we learned at the start of 2013.

Be careful where you place your scratch and sniff sticker. My co-worker went to a pickle drop for the new year (another blog post entirely) and she brought us all back scratch and sniff pickle stickers. I proudly placed it close to my....um...heart only to have an entire class of students attempting to sniff it. Um... That too close to my.... um... I took it off and passed it around. Crisis averted.

That haircut makes you look... Taller??? My co-worker told a third grader that they looked like they grew an inch or two over the holiday. Her response " Well, I did get my haircut." I suppose she has a point. If I make my neck look longer than people might think I'm taller. I'm seriously considering it.

Whole wheat pasta sucks. When I say sucks I basically mean sucks all the Alfredo sauce out of the pan. Next time... More sauce....

Most popular Christmas present... (Drumroll please). The iPad and the iPad mini. Wow. That seems like a pricey present for a 1st grader. Remind me to ask Santa for a MacBook next year.

The strawberry milk is AWOL... again. I returned to work on Monday to take down the holiday decorations and to make sure the milkman delivered some goodness over the break. Again the strawberry milk was replaced with chocolate. Curiouser and curiouser.

What did you learn the first week of the new year?

Let me start this post by saying that there isn't a school employee anywhere that didn't have a difficult time going back to work this week.

That being said, elementary kids are capable of making you focus on all that is good. All that is positive.

Here's what I learned this week.

Making cookies will cheer you up. We have a kindergarten class who is buddies with a third grade class and this week they had a Christmas cookie baking party. They learned things like how to break eggs and read recipes. I had the pleasure of baking them. Some of those little kids never made a cookie before and they saw the pure magic in such a simple thing. It was awesome.

Even the garbage disposal looks pretty at Christmas. With all the fresh fruits and vegetables that we are required to serve we often end up with beautiful trash.

It's possible to have never seen Rudolph. A kindergartener animatedly told our janitor about the movie he was watching in class and how he just couldn't wait to find out tommorrow what happened to the "willy scary snowman".

Where is the chocolate milk? The cafeteria ran out of chocolate milk on Friday which actually resulted in giant tears from some if its customers. This never ceases to amaze me and I believe is a direct result of being shielded from all of life's little disappointments. There was white milk...there was juice... There was even fruit Slushies. But life remains unfair because there is no chocolate milk. Sigh.

Merry thanksgiving! We were showered with tons of holiday greetings on Friday from Happy Holidays to Merry Kissmass. But my favorite was a kindergartener who wished us a Merry Thanksgiving to which we replied have a great Fourth of July!!

The lunch ladies are now on a much deserved holiday break.

Wishing you a Merry Thanksgiving Kissmass and a Happy New Year!!

First let me just say that my heart is still breaking due to the events that occurred in Connecticut yesterday. As an elementary school employee, I am shaken to the core that someone could be so heartless.

That being said, I want to remember the kiddos that made me laugh this week. The kiddos that remind me every day to try and find the good.

Here's a little bit of the good.

You can't bring your dead fish to breakfast no matter how much you love him. I'd like to believe that I'm somewhat hard to surprise. When students ask me if I wanna see what they have in their pockets, I'm game. However, when a third grader brought in a dead fish on Monday, I have to admit I was a little taken back. Because we aren't found of making people throw out their "friends", we let him "store" his fish in a tightly sealed bag in the nurse's fridge.

What do you mean there's no holiday treat? I learned this week that asking the day before the holiday meal what the holiday treat is may result in learning you were supposed to order one. Craptastic! Thankful, ice cream can still be ordered one day before! That was lucky.

Hey Miss Wendy! There's a squirrel in my pants! After the fish, I was a little scared to look. Thankfully, he just had a bad case of the wiggles.

You can't walk around without your pants no matter how hot you get. When the nurse noticed a student in a pair of tights and a tshirt she stopped her and said, "Aren't you supposed to be wearing pants?" Student: "I was gettin' hot so I put them in my backpack." Nurse: "You're gonna need to put them back on. Lets go get them." Goodness I just love kindergarteners.

Have you seen my pink hat? Every day for the last week as we lunch ladies are finishing up our lunch with the custodian and the principal, a little girl approaches and reminds us that she still has not found her pink hat. "Is it light pink or dark pink?" I asked. "It's more of a magenta," she replies. Oy vey. Well played, my friend. Well played.

I have to be honest. This week was LooooooooNnnnggggg. I didn't think it would ever end.

Here's what I learned.

FRENCH TOAST LOOKS LIKE CAKE. Confused by the three French toast sticks on his tray one of my favorite little first graders asked my coworker, "Awe we hafin' cake?"

FIFTEEN IS NOT EIGHTEEN. We had one of those math errors this week that makes you go "awe nuts" and causes you to run out of cheese stick Dunkers. It's a good thing elementary kids are pretty easy going and not THIS guy who lost his mind over a piece of cheese.

THERE'S CORN IN YOUR MASH POTATOE BOWL Would you like a cup of veggies? I'll have corn. Um...that's not a choice. Would you like veggies. Nah. I'll have corn.

VOMIT IN THE MORNING. It's not uncommon to have a puker come to breakfast. However it might surprise you to learn that kids are mostly indifferent to this. As adults, if the person we are dining with vomits on their plate, we would likely move away while politely asking if they are okay. Kids?? They just keep eating. Sometimes I actually have to tell them to move down away from the vomit.

STRAWBERRY MILK HAS RETURNED. For unknown reasons, the strawberry milk has been "missing" from my order for the last two weeks. The milkman didn't wanna talk about it. Today it returned to a few loud cheers from the students.

Maybe it just needed a vacation...

What did you learn this week??

This week in the cafeteria we learned:

Not all cupcakes are created equal. When a kindergartner offered me a leftover cupcake from her classroom birthday celebration, I graciously accepted. When the cupcake holder popped open and all the remaining cupcakes came tumbling out into the hallway her 1st grade companion said, "Don't worry that icing's like cement. No germs can get through." Is it wrong that I helped them put them back into the container and continue with their deliveries?

Wanna hear a funny story? asked a 1st grader. "Sure," I said. She was laughing so hard in the breakfast line that it was almost hard to understand her as she recounted how her dad shot a deer the size of a dog and how he was embarrassed by its tiny size. Only in Pennsylvania.

If you give a teacher a garbage disposal... It might just make their day. When a teacher came down to the kitchen with some rancid fruit, we just told her how to operate the garbage disposal. She was giddy with power!!! LOL

I'll have hashbrowns, said a kindergartener. Confused I replied, "today's choice is corn or veggies with dip. I don't have any hashbrowns." His response... "Awe nuts."

There's no strawberry milk and I don't want to talk about it. For the second week in a row, we didn't recieve any strawberry flavored milk. When I asked the milkman why, he said "I don't really want to talk about it"... Um... Ok. I don't like talking about my flare either.

What did you learn this week?

This week in the cafeteria, we served one day of hot lunch.  As stated in my post last week, I was told to brace for Hurricane Sandy and be prepared for a possible early release on Monday. 

Well school on Monday never materialized. 

School on Tuesday also didn't happen

We had a two hour delay on Wednesday which cancelled breakfast.

Thursday and Friday were previously scheduled teacher work days so we had school for approximately five hours.  Of which, my son, proudly announced that he watched Pippi Longstocking.  It is an excellent movie...

Here's what I learned one the only day we served lunch this week.

Only those over the age of 10 like black bean salsa.  When I mix black beans with salsa and corn the adults come a running.  Add some rice and put taco salad on the menu and you'll get some takers.  The kids...not so much.

Walk Away Tacos is a culturally diverse meal.  Me taking temps:  Rice - Mexican 167 degrees; Beans - Black - 145; Turkey - taco - 160;  bahahahaha  For some reason it made me laugh.  Maybe you had to be there.

Stupid can use a photocopier:  My co-worker was given a pamphlet at the Halloween Parade containing multiple versus of scripture and indicating that her mere presence there was proof she was going to hell.  Um...it's a parade.  It's not genocide?  It's not sacrifical offerings.  It's firetrucks and candy. 

Halloween is not a good day to have school.  There are days when kids get excited.  Right before Christmas Break.  The first snow fall.  Every freaking full moon.  Nothing compares to Halloween after having two weather emergency days.  WOW.

Seashell pasta and meatballs  Seems this meal is our lowest count and it might be on the chopping block.  What is your kids favorite school lunch meal?  Did you like school pasta when you were a kid?

What did you learn this week?

I'm convinced there was a full moon this week as we had a lot of significantly strange behavior and it's not snowing yet.

Here's what I learned.

Fire safety week. Nothing screams fire safety week like little kids proudly announcing to you that they know what to do if they catch on fire. "Stop, drop and wool. Thas what you need to do."

Sometimes you wanna go where everybody knows your name. Sometimes I take breakfast to teachers. Sometimes I drop off pudding cups with cookies and cream whipped topping to someone I know might need a little pick me up. It never fails to make me smile when, like Norm from cheers, all the kids stop what they're doing to say my name. "Hello, Miss Wendy"

I've got a feeling. In a super odd move this week, I just got done saying that I thought it odd we had not seen the state inspector yet and within five minutes of my statement he was in the kitchen. All remains well in the cafeteria although I may have to have some service on the dishwasher. This is sort of a bonus as the dishwasher repairman is quite pleasant to look at.

Bampire bumpkins are hard to make. I'm usually pretty good at deciphering kid-speak, but when a first grader told his teacher he was making a bampire bumpkin it took me quite a while to figure out just what his Jack-o-lantern was going to look like.

Breakfast for lunch. Kids love pancakes and sausage. It continues to be our most popular meal with the least amount of alternates. It out scores pizza and that's saying a lot.

I also learned that I'm gonna miss having one of my own kids in the building. Here we are embarrassing my son with a birthday basket.

What did you learn this week?

Our yummy black beans!

This week was a pile of chaos wrapped around some lunch. We had a TON of laughs, some stray teeth and a lot of trouble understanding each other.

Look at the bread and stop calling me BIMBO. Seriously? Who names a bread company BIMBO? Every time they come to the door, I think they're calling me a name. Also, it's important to look at what they deliver or else you might find out that they dropped off a boatload of hamburger rolls when you were expecting bread for toasted cheese.

Is there teef in these beans? Due to the Healthy Hunger Free Kids Act of 2012 I have additional bean requirements. Last week we tried refried beans and this week black beans were on deck. Since black beans alone are a little bland, I decided to mix in a little salsa and corn. Fan.freakin.tastic! All the grown ups, LOVED it. The kids...um...well they are all about appearance. One little boy asked if the corn was teeth. Seriously?

You said underwear... Like small children, when my coworker and I got a teacher to say underwear we burst into gut busting laughter. She was looking for plates and I told her they were under the table. She said, "under where?" Bahahahahahaha

Apparently I can't hear the difference between pudding and pooping. When my coworker disappeared while serving I thought she said she went pooping and I was like WTF? But what she said is that she was going for pudding! Talk about a snort laugh!

Miss Wendy, what does ripped mean? Me: "It's kind of like when you have a lot of muscles. People say your ripped." Third grader "Oh..then why is it on that grave stone." Dohl... Stupid Halloween decorations making me look like an idiot.

What did you learn this week?