canteen squad

 

after the lovely julia was stuck in new zealand and we finally accepted the fact she wasn't coming back, we eventually had to hire someone else for the canteen. i told my friend henriella she needed to apply for the job and not long after she started on board with our canteen crew. she used to own her own fish and chip and is awesome with food prep so i am so glad she applied. she's slotted in perfectly with our kooky team and we just love having her here. 

i started at the school canteen volunteering a while back just when i had a chance (mainly on the special lunch order days) and was eventually offered a paid casual position to be called upon when someone was unwell or not able to make their shift. that eventually progressed to a permanent one day a week. i'm certainly not complaining as i was happily doing it unpaid, this is just a bonus. plus it's non stop laughs when we are there - i couldn't ask for a better place to work!

the corn prank

recently, this kid has decided that he no longer likes corn. weird, because he's never had an issue with it before. i served up corn on the cob with dinner a few weeks ago and he literally turned up his nose and looked so offended - wouldn't even touch it and kept trying to take it off his plate. ugh

anyway. when i work in the canteen, the kids have a lunch order that day. wednesdays we have a special of chicken strips, wedges and corn on the cob. we sent his out like usual with the corn and at the end of the day he was like "why did you send me corn? i hate corn!" well. the lunch order bags have instructions on them and if you don't say no corn, you'll get corn. joseph: hmmmph

the following wednesday he carefully writes no corn on the bag and when i was hurriedly packing the bags, i accidentally gave him corn. mum. i don't. want. corn. oh my goodness i'm sorry i'll be more careful.

by this stage chantelle (the other canteen lady i work with) and i were in fits over it and when this bag appeared this week, she decided to play a prank on him. no corn. so what does she do? instead of his lunch, which was carefully packed (with no corn) and put in the warmer...

she gave him nothing but corn. we were laughing soooo hard about it and when his class collected the basket we kept giggling thinking of what would happen. but then it had been far too long and he hadn't appeared yet to get his actual lunch and we got worried.

around the corner comes his teacher, mr. omar, holding the bag looking completely confused and my little storm cloud following him stomping his feet and wearing a look of absolute infuriation. we lost it laughing and as soon as mr. omar realised it was joseph's own mother behind it, he couldn't hold back his laughter either. i was literally crying i was laughing so hard and he got so angry. "i don't want corn" he roared at me, at which time i gave him his actual lunch and told him it wasn't me! he replied, "it doesn't matter, you laughed!!!!" yes. yes i did. oh my goodness did i laugh. just another day in the life of a mum.

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update: the following wednesday he wrote on his bag:

no corn, no corn on the cob. no canned corn, just no corn! this means you chantelle. 

so what did she do? sent him a free bag of popcorn. solid gold. he actually ate that one, but now he's furious because he had no idea that popcorn was corn too. 😂

sports carnival 2021

today was our annual school faction carnival. our kids are in giles (red) named after ernest giles. all our school factions are named after early australian explorers (the others are forrest (green), eyre (blue) and gibson (yellow)) and funnily enough, he was the only one i hadn't heard of. maybe that was meant to be so i had to do a little research. in our 5 past years at the school giles has won 4 of the 5 carnivals, so we were certainly hoping for another. our hoping paid off and that's now 5/6. boom. no wonder the kids love being in giles, they always get to brag about their faction winning.

this year was a little crazy overall... when julia went off to nz, she had made sure that the date they returned would ensure that even if they had to quarantine, that they would be back in time for her to be there for carnival day. well. the world had other plans. after a covid outbreak in nz just days before they were meant to fly home, they've been unable to get back into australia, let alone into western australia and are still there. so it was all up to chantelle and her assistants - me and iris. she carefully chose a menu to make it all work, including food for parents and the day went off without a hitch. we even had doug (which would have been doug and hayden...) out the back of the canteen cooking sausages to make hotdogs all day - and we sold nearly every single one! what a trooper he was!

it was so fun and well thought out, even down to having jelly and mini m&ms's available in all the faction colours - plus she decorated the canteen in all the colours too!

the kids were so chuffed... she really got that one right!

go giles!

and because her hair is of course not red enough, here we are spraying it bright red year after year.

and seeing as this kid loves red, he's stoked to pile it all on for carnival day. i especially love that he's wearing madeline's adult sized spiderman socks which covered his entire legs! 

i managed to see joseph's race by an absolute fluke of luck as i ran out to check when he was up. he was stoked to takeout second place in his.

he's not the best runner so he was in the last division, making it easy to place.

proud as punch!

 

maddie is a pretty good runner, so gets placed in the high divisions, which annoys her, because she never places - but still still ran well. she wasn't overly impressed to not place again this year, but there isn't much we can do about that. thankfully she still had a great day and they both loved seeing their faction take it home yet again. yay giles.

back to work - in a mask

this may be the one and only photo of me in a mask that there is, because they are sure as hell not flattering. i started work at the school canteen for the year today, only this year it's a little different as i will be doing one set day a week. alex will be going to nannaleah for the day. so i get a break (and get paid for it! lol) she gets some alex time, and everyone is happy.

but that mask rule. wow. i had no idea how fun breathing my own air for 6 hours was going to be. yikes. i am so, so grateful that our state is in the position for this to only be a 2 week thing. but i made it through and most of all i am grateful that i was able to do the right thing. because in a nutshell: "we believe in being subject to kings, presidents, rulers, and magistrates, in obeying, honoring and sustaining the law." (article of faith number 12) i think a lot of people would do well to remember this instead of causing a scene when asked to comply with local laws during this time.

the lovely canteen staff for 2021. i'm very lucky to work with such a great bunch of ladies!