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"Today was a very special day for me and my daughter Katie, 14. In less than ten days, she will be celebrating that first big milestone in a teenager&amp;#039;s life: Eighth Grade Graduation. To add to the excitement of this event, on Wednesday of this week she will be going on her class trip to New York City. On this excursion she will get to go shopping in Times Square, see Spiderman on Broadway and have a formal dinner dance on the Hudson. I don&amp;#039;t think that I&amp;#039;ve ever seen her so excited. And while I share her anticipation, I can&amp;#039;t help but sigh as I watch my little girl grow up before my very eyes. So today we got to have a &amp;quot;Mom and Daughter&amp;quot; day and go pick out her formal dress and shoes and have a lunch out together. Now that she&amp;#039;s a teenager, days like these are few and far between and the chance to spend an entire weekend day with her and her sister was treasured. We giggled, were completely silly and no one argued or even bickered. It was wonderful. But it was expensive. It frustrated me to think that to enjoy a day of lunch and shopping with my girls could cost $250. And it&amp;#039;s not like we did lunch at a fancy restaurant or anything. Here&amp;#039;s how it broke down:  Three lunches at the Chinese restaurant in the food court: $30. (I know. Ten dollars each isn&amp;#039;t so bad, but it&amp;#039;s the FOOD COURT!) One dress at Macy&amp;#039;s that was exactly what she wanted: $70 One pair of silver shoes with a little kitten heel at Payless: $25 One faux diamond necklace, matching earrings and bracelet, along with a faux diamond hair clip and glitter makeup at Icing: $65 (I almost choked). One outfit for my daughter Hannah, 13 to wear to Katie&amp;#039;s graduation (she is playing in the band): $40 One silver wristlet that will get Katie around New York AND match her formal dress: $20  We had planned to get manicures but that wasn&amp;#039;t even an option with the pile of receipts in my purse. The girls didn&amp;#039;t mind a bit. I take full responsibility for the expense at Icing. I thought that it was a cute little teen accessory store that was really inexpensive. Wrong! I didn&amp;#039;t even look at the prices!! I thought that what she had in her hand would add up to about $25. I just about hyperventilated. Katie could see the expression on my face and kept apologizing and offered to pay me back. I didn&amp;#039;t want her to feel guilty so I told her that I wanted her to enjoy them but to learn from my mistake. &amp;quot;Do not practice mindless purchasing.&amp;quot; She got it. And I got a ton of appreciation in return. She was so grateful and hasn&amp;#039;t stopped thanking me. Yes, I spent too much and I know this. I&amp;#039;m going to have to make some cuts to cover it. But sharing this special time with my daughter was invaluable and every once in awhile the memory of a wonderful day is worth the price. Don&amp;#039;t you think? "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.womansday.com/life/a42941/whats-a-special-memory-worth-9389/>