Sneaky Snake was the title of a favorite childhood song. It's a ridiculous song with a thick country twang about a snake that sneaks up on children and steals their root beer.
We've discovered a sneaky snake at our house. Actually, I always knew she was there but a new kind of craftiness has just come to light.
School lunch costs two dollars a day, which I feel is quite expensive, so this snake of ours is allowed to buy lunch just once during the week. Each student has an account which is accessed by giving a six digit lunch number. Last week, I wrote two ten dollar checks for each of the kids to deposit into their accounts. I was planning ahead, padding the accounts so that I wouldn't have to send more money for awhile. Imagine my surprise when I started getting notices that a certain adorable little first grader with a very sweet demeanor had a negative balance. At first I wondered if the check had been lost. When my charming girl assured it me it had been deposited, I was ready to blame the school for their mishandling of my money.
I went to the school kitchen, dragging Natalie in tow, where I explained (in my now-much-better-but-still-very-hoarse voice) that I had questions about my kids' accounts. "Yeah, they've been eating a lot of school lunch lately," said the lunch lady. What? She went on to show me the computerized documentation that school lunch had been consumed nearly every day for the past week and a half. What's worse? My checkbook had been left at home which required a second trip to the school, in the pouring rain, with a dawdling two-year-old.
My kids eat like birds most of the time so I hadn't been too surprised to see leftover food in her lunch sack every day. And my little snake also has a habit of snacking as she walks home so her lunch was always at least partially eaten. But as I drove home for the checkbook, it all came back to me. I recalled a brief conversation we had about the usual PB and J that, in recent days, were returning home untouched. I wondered if she had just grown tired of the overused standby but when I questioned her as to why she wasn't eating it, she just shrugged her little shoulders. Mornings are usually so hectic that I just made another fresh sandwich and didn't give it another thought. I realize some of the blame rests squarely on her mother's shoulders for being so easily taken for the ride.
No more. I'm on to her. I returned to the school to pay the balance and at her father's suggestion, even paid enough for today's lunch since we had already agreed this morning that today would be a hot lunch day. (I wanted to take her a cold lunch and let her know I had discovered her deceit.) We'll be having a talk this afternoon. I have a feeling this sneaky snake is going to be grounded from hot lunch for awhile.
10 comments:
Wow! Who knew this could be? That is pretty funny actually!
That's too funny! Little Liss is pretty sneaky:) Last year we let Ansel eat once a week (it is expensive...here it's $2.50) until I started offering him the equivalent to not eat. So he chose to just earn $2.50 for not eating hot lunches. Jonas could care less for hot lunch so there's not even an option there. At least she's smart enough to remember her ID number:) Good luck this afternoon!
I saw that kid eat (or not eat). I never would have thought that she could eat school lunch AND part of her cold lunch on the way home!
Guess the pizza and cheese zombies are just too big of temptations!
You're right, I am laughing. 10 points for "cleaverness," minus 20 for "sneakiness."
I'll bet you'll find tons of things for her to do around the house to "pay back" the lunch loan.
tara i just got your christmas card in the mail and had to contact you as soon as possible. hayden (6) is in the process of also being diagnosed with Aspergers Syndrome. and i work at a charter school for autism and aspergers. i run the behavior center and teach PE. i just wanted to let you know...maybe we could chat some about the fun stuff that goes with ASD. my school email is smunk@spectrumcharter.org and my personal email is capt.jac.sparrow@hotmail.com
So that's the story.. I feel bad for acusing the lunch ladies. It must be a first grader thing. I don't know if you remember how Landon was buying breakfast for awhile without me knowing when he was in first grade. I think it's taste of freedom for them.
BTW: I loved the sneaky snake song when I was kid.
Oh no! She better start enjoying those PB & J's. :)
Your PJ party looked like so much fun. I may have to copy your idea for next year. I think my friends would really enjoy it.
Have a very Merry Christmas!
ha ha ha... I can't stop laughing about this. What a silly girl.
I had some lunch room issues but it was because some other little child was taking Jared's card by accident. The only thing my kids will eat at school is breakfast (much cheaper) like .75
That is a pretty funny story. I swear lunch is high way robbery these days. You could almost bring them McDonalds for the same price (granted not very healthy) but still!
I actually have been really bad this year about telling seth to "Just have hot lunch today" It's this gluten free thing, I think. Sometimes, I just can't get myself to toast the rice bread first.
That is pretty sneaky of Alyssa, though. I don't think I liked hot lunch when I was a kid. I definitely don't have any strong memories of trying to get it. Too funny.
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