Book Fair Money Mystery

I have a story to share, but first I want to show off the absolutely most perfect and beautiful little baby face you could ever see -

Isn't he just so ADORABLE?!?!? He is so freaking cute!!! And while I'm here, I will now show you the saddest little face you've ever seen -

That is what a heartbroken kindergartener looks like when she misses the bus home after school. She took toys to school today and was busy trying to put them all in her backpack, and it took too long, and she missed the bus. Abi saw standing outside from the bus and got off but then she couldn't find her, she was worried Natalie had gotten on a different bus and was going to be lost. Abi was close to tears and the principal was helping her look for Natalie, meanwhile Natalie was in the school office with one of the clerks and they had called me and I was on my way. It all ended well and I was able to pick them both up from school, but I'm hoping Natalie won't be scarred. I think that was as traumatic as little Natalie's life has gotten so far. She said she's never taking her dolls to school again.

Ok, so after all that drama, Abi told me an accusation she had against Lilian... "Mom, Lily has been at the book fair every recess!" and "She bought Kate a ton of stuff!" (a school friend) - "Like I saw Kate and she said 'Look at all this stuff Lily got me!'" Hmm, we both wondered where she was getting money to keep buying things. I checked a little metal bucket/tin thing in my room where I thought I had put some cash (the money the boys had gotten from the Peaks Tickets they sold) and it was gone. But maybe I gave the cash to Corey already? Lily came in the door, and I asked her about the book fair and where she got the money. She was being elusive... "Just sec, I need to go to my room..." "Lily, come here now. Where did you get the money?" She came over and had a guilty I'm-hiding-something look on her face said she and Kate had sold hot chocolate a few weeks ago and were doing other "service" and people gave them money. Ok. So I let her go, and sent Kate's mom a text to call me later so I could ask her (I didn't call cause I knew she taught piano lessons on Thursdays). Lily goes over to play at Kate's house, and then my little detective Abi took initiative and went to work. She got up on Lily's bed (the top bunk) and found a pretty big stash of items secretly tucked away under her big stuffed animal dog Bunky Bunky. I started to look at the prices of each thing... Ok, this is more than $30-$60 I was thinking... This little girl has been enjoying a full on 4th grader shopping spree the past few days...

I asked Corey what we should do. "Itemize the things, add it up, and let's see where we're at" Sounds good. Abi helps me tally the things. The two unicorn books on the right are what Corey and I bought for Sophi and Natalie - $13 each. the rolled up poster there in between is the beginning of Lily's things, and I used it to separate the items. Lily had bought: Dog poster, 3 Etch books, Glitter journal,

donut pen, 9 mystery writer pens, 1 metallic pen, 1 Star Wars pen, 3 color highlighter, Octicorn, Dragons book, 4 pack gel pens, chocolate bar calculator... with each thing we added my blood started to boil. It was over $130 bucks! No way this girl sold that much hot chocolate. "I'm going to go get her at Kate's..." I was able to calm down as I took that brisk walk. "Lily, come home, get the things you gave to Kate..." Kate's mom hadn't texted me but she had set the books aside and texted me later that Kate couldn't accept Lily's generous gift. Those books added another $45 to the tally. Lily started to cry right away as we walked home. I asked "You took that money from the little silver tin in my room, didn't you?" She nodded and cried "I don't know what's wrong with me!!" I told her we could fix it. I had everything in a box and she was going to come with me to the book fair to see if we could return some of the things. She asked if she could stay home. No. She asked if she could go straight to the car while I got the box. Yes. We drove to the school.

Lily took a little video of herself with my phone, here's some screenshots of her little repentant face

We walk into the school. I'm holding the box, she was still red faced and wiping away tears.

The lady working at the book fair register said it was no problem to return things, even things that had had their wrappers taken off (like each of the nine $4.99 mystery writer pens she got, yay!)

So, good news is that, eventhough school is out for the week, the school was still open cause of Parent teacher conferences. The book fair was still open too, and we were able to go in and return all of it except for the three etch books that Lily had already drawn in. When we got back home, I thought we were done, but after a few minutes Lily came down with a water bottle that she had also bought. It said "Books and Coffee" and was $25 freaking dollars. It was filled with water, but we washed it off, dried it, and hurried over to the school again. The cashier lady said "Wow, $25, that is a rip off!" Yay, she let us return that too. In all it was about $205 worth of stuff and we were able to return all of it but about $33 bucks. Lily had $9 cash, so she still owes us $24. I thought we should make her work it off through chores, but Corey thinks it would be better to close this case as soon as possible. So Corey is working with her to gather toys that she can sell to make up the difference, like some shirts and stuffed animals. I'm sure we're not really going to sell them, maybe give them to the DI, but I don't think she's really gathered prized possessions to atone for her thievery, they are more "I don't want this" items.

Anyway, so their is our little story of Lily's shopping spree. I remember lying to my parents in 6th grade (about dating/"going" with a boy named Gavin) and I still remember when I got caught in my deception. This will be a good learning experience/memory for Lily. I didn't have my mom blogging my lies to preserve it for me, but Lily's got pictures and her parent's perspective now forever typed into the family chronicles. We'll see if this "honest is the best policy" course is over or if there are more practice lessons to come.