No Such Thing as a Fun-Free Lunch

Olivia and Emmy at lunch today

I have some random memories from my grade school lunchroom: the time I found a tooth in my hamburger, the day chocolate milk became an option, the oddity that was the “salad lunch.” None of these memories came flooding back when I dropped in on Olivia’s lunchroom, but I was reminded just how fun a thirty-minute stretch in the middle of the school day can be, especially when you add food and friends to the mix.

Olivia put on quite a show, from walking down the halls holding Tre and Emmy’s hands to fluttering about the lunch room as its resident social butterfly. I can see now why she comes home most days with half her lunch uneaten. I reported my observations to her mother, and she in turn asked Olivia if she had ratcheted up the antics because Reed and I were there. Our daughter’s response? Yes, she said, I was so excited to see Daddy and Reed there, and so I threw in some extra jokes.