The "Free Lunch" program

Ok....confession time, we've been duped by a 6 year old. Upon registering Alex for school last week I had the brilliant idea to put money into his lunch account so that he could buy milk to go with his cold lunch everyday (all he ever eats for lunch is pb&j so we figured it's much more economical to just bring a lunch. Plus at over $2 per day for lunch, we can make A LOT of cold lunches). Anyways, the kids have to punch in a 3 number code on this keypad and the money is taken out of their account. Yesterday I asked him how it went and he said "Great- I had chocolate milk- there were thousands of them and they were free with your number". After explaining to him that it wasn't exactly free and that we'd prefer if he chose white milk, not chocolate milk, he seemed to understand. Later in the evening he said that they had pizza yesterday at school and it was delicious. I said, "How did you have pizza when you brought a sandwich?" "Oh, I was just kidding" was his reply. Fortunately I have the ability to look online to see how much money has been taken out of his account and when, but it is a bit delayed. So, we again sent him a cold lunch today (lovingly packed I might add). During the day today, the charges from yesterday showed up and apparently he ate hot lunch at school. When he got off the bus today I asked him about the lunch situation to which he said, "Mom, I don't know what the big deal is, there is so much food there, plus it's free if you know your phone number. I just couldn't resist it." When asked about the fate of his nutritious, well balanced lunch so nicely packed in his "Pirates of the Caribbean" lunch box, he said "Well, I didn' t have time to eat both lunches so I had to throw that one away." It makes me wonder- who is monitoring these kids at lunch???? Did no one notice that he already had a lunch box full of food and they still let him go through the line and purchase an additional lunch????? Oh yeah and then after dinner tonight, Alex said that he didn't need to eat breakfast at home tomorrow, he was just going to eat at school instead (they also offer breakfast everyday). I feel like I've lost control of my money- might as well have given the kid a credit card. Damn these schools and their PIN numbers. I'd have been better off sending him with the .40 each day for milk, at least then know he isn't going to burn through $5 in one day on cafeteria food!

Ok...enough ranting about the lunch situation. I guess I should just get used to missing money and getting lied to- must be a preview of his teenage years. In other news, Anna made it through her first day of preschool....although this was a parent/child day so I stayed with her the whole time. She was really excited and had fun when we were there. However, when we got home she cried for about an hour because she has decided that I need to stay with her everytime. Man, next week is going to be rough. Here are Anna's first day of school pictures.