The Stand

The day began with final preparations for The Lemonade Stand. The most hilarious part was when I tried to get Jimmy's "desk" (aka our first kitchen table - it is very, very tiny for a kitchen table mind you, and is more sized as a desk) out of his room to put out on the driveway. It wouldn't come through the door frame! I had the kids come and see when I had managed to wedge it pretty good, so there was space above and below, and his room was pretty unattainable. I don't remember the last time they were that astonished. Thanks to some quick thinking on his part, Jimmy managed to dislodge the table so one could enter his room, but one could still not get the table out (and I wasn't savoring the thought of unhinging the door all in the name of The Lemonade Stand).

So we went with Option 2 (which really was Option 3, because my neighbors were going to bring by their folding table and leave it by our garage early this morning on their way to an early morning soccer game). Option "2" was our good ol' coffee table. We emptied its cubbies of their contents, marched it outside, and slapped a tablecloth on it. I don't think any passerby (or customer, except for our first one which I'll get to in a minute) would have guessed our family room furniture was sitting out on the driveway.

Signage was made and duly posted. A last minute money-maker idea was hatched - for only 5 extra cents one could have a straw of their choice with their lemonade. And then of course a sign was made to indicate that (Jimmy provided that excellent service). And then we waited. And waited. And waited. And waited.

What seemed like hours later (but really was only 25 minutes) our favorite babysitter pulled up. She had been finishing up at the gym when my Lemonade Text came and decided to quench her thirst. How delighted we were to have a real customer! And she paid up big-time. Very, big time. (Always helps I think to slightly over-pay your babysitters. They then will always want to come back, even if it is to a lemonade stand and they will pay 4 times as much as the going rate). And as our first customer, she got to pick her very own straw out for FREE. Big Deal. I'm pretty sure she knew it was our coffee table that provided the support for her lemonade and her straw. I'm pretty sure she didn't care.

Nate arrived to help with the last 15 minutes of our business hours. A few more customers came by so the decision was made to extend business hours. In the end a game of 4 Square was played by three people (is it then called 3 Square?), things were picked up, and we have a gallon of homemade lemonade taking up prime real estate in the fridge. Oh and we had another learning experience as well, Jimmy discovered that leaving one's crayons out in the sun will cause them to melt like crazy! Super-fun discovery.

So we had lessons in business, marketing, lemonade making, cleaning up, 4-3 Square-ing, and the process and result of wax melting.

A very good Saturday morning, if I do say so myself.

thirsty

At long last, we will finally be checking something off the Child Bucket List - having your very own lemonade stand. We will be stationed on our very own driveway, thereby (hopefully) bypassing a few crazy rules about kid-run enterprises.

Grace is super gung-ho about the whole thing. Jimmy is being rather supportive by making various signs and posters (though what Pokemon has to do with lemonade, we don't know).

So if you are thirsty tomorrow or want to quench the drive of a 10 year-old's dreams, come on by. Apparently we'll be in business from 10-11 a.m.

warm up

I mentioned a few days ago we had our Primary program this past Sunday. You would think that to prep and warm up for it, on the morning of we'd sing Primary songs such as I'm a Child of God or I Hope They Call Me on a Mission.

Nope.

Instead we sang Smoke on the Water all the way to church.
That, my friends, is how we roll.

flex and point

I have joined the ranks of a select group - 

The Few

The Proud

The Middle-Aged Ballet Dancers

Yes, you are so right in saying, "you are NOT middle aged." I agree, but a majority of the ladies in my class are! 

We point, we flex, we help Joanie up off the floor after our point and flex floor exercise. We then head to the barre where we (mercifully spend most of class) and point and flex and do leg raises and point and flex some more and then end everything with a series of plies. And of course Grande Plies.

Did I tell you its fun? It is. Its sort of like a silly secret to be taking an adult beginner ballet class (though apparently Susan is not a beginner anymore, but she likes to stay in the class anyway. I think she's about 75).

After class I head over to the gym and lift my guts out with weights. It really is a great exercise in compare and contrast - ballet to weight lifting. There's a lot more sag in class and a lot more ripped abs in the weight room.

falling

You know how you feel after a long, cold winter when the first signs of spring sneak in? You kind of want to go outside and breathe deeply, you want to sneak the windows open for a minute, you think about eating something fresh and crunchy.

That is exactly what is happening over here. We are at the end of a long and hot summer. We made it! And we keep doing things we haven't done in months!

Just yesterday I went on a 3 mile walk (outside!). We went on a family bike ride in the evening (outside!). We went to the park (outside!)

We ate a fresh Thai green curry for dinner on Sunday with spinach and peppers. We had watermelon coolers to drink. Jimmy couldn't stop eating the fancy Armenian cucumbers that came in our CSA delivery.

Hallelujah! Fall is coming!!!

a weekend of productivity

This weekend was productive (one of Nate's favorite words for a weekend). We took on the task of organizing our pantry. It was awful. I will now state out loud, for the record, I do not care for pantry or closet organization. If anyone else out there enjoys that sort of thing - I've got a front closet for you!

It was also our congregation's Primary program. Primary is the Sunday School organization for the kids. I lead the music for the kids. As you can imagine, there is a lot of music involved in such a program. It went very well, but I was beat! I guess 14 songs is a lot. I took a 1.5 hour nap that afternoon and then went to bed just north of 9:30 that evening.

The weekend also consisted of:
taking the French horn into the shop for a tune-up
a trip to the Home Depot
a grocery run
some swimming
more cleaning
pizza night
a very sad football watching experience (the U won, in case you didn't know)

this is where we were for 9 years

A city full of treasures.
Here is St. Louis from Anastasis Films on Vimeo.

fall

Its now September and finally cooling off! Perhaps we won't see the upper side of 104 for a while. This is joyous news for us.

Here are a few things I found out today:
1. There is a gifted program meeting tonight I did not know about.
2. There is a band instrument exchange tonight I did not know about.
3. There is a general note from the band teacher to families I somehow did not get.

Here are a few things I found out the other day:
1. Jimmy would like to don a pair of overalls. He claims they would "make him a new man."
2. Real men (according to James) work-out without wearing shirts.
3. Grace is rather insistent on trading in the flute for the French horn.