free lunches through the summer

during the summer our local school district provides free lunches to children under 18 at various schools. i think they do this because they feel that there are a lot of kids left alone during the summer months while their parents are working. our schools have a pretty high percentage of students that already qualify for free or reduced lunch. anyways, our girls love going. it’s not like they eat a lot. julia just kinda pecks at her food after being reminded to eat every couple minutes. but they like getting out of the house and going somewhere. and especially before the older girls went to school they liked feeling like “non-homeschool” kids by eating lunch on styrofoam trays in a gym cafeteria. plus during the summer when everyone’s home it makes it easy for us to feed the older sisters. there’s two schools that are the same distance from our home that we could go to. the main HS is really nice, has hard plastic trays, and the AC is on because there’s also summer school classes going on. but there’s also older HS age kids eating because they’re in summer school classes. the second school is the “alternative” HS. it’s the school that people go to when they drop out of the regular HS and then decide that they do want to graduate. (either that or they’re expelled from the regular HS and are sent to this school) anyways, it’s kinda ghetto. here’s a pic of the gym ceiling: but the reason the girls like this one so much is because there are no summer school classes and so it’s mostly all elementary age kids that eat there. and also i think it’s because it’s the first school we went to when we first heard about this “free lunch” program so in their minds it’s the “right place” to go. so that’s a daily part of our routine everyday during the summer (at least until the end of july when the the program ends). the only thing is that they only serve lunch from 12-12.30 and sometime it’s a challenge to get everyone’s shoes on, hair done, etc. because even though it’s a regular part of our routine we always seem to forget about it until noon and then we’re rushing to get there on time before they start putting everything away. if you’re in the area join us for lunch. 🙂 —————————- // today i’m thankful for: 1. the lawn got mowed today 2. my monthly haircut today 3. the way the keyboard lights up in dim lighting on my MBP 4. running with my wife/friend this morning 5. pictures of my kids