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.