#63: Open a lemonade stand.

Makin' money makin' lemonade!

#63: Open a lemonade stand.

You know, as a kid people always talk about lemonade stands. On TV, characters will have lemonade stands (or in Spongebob's case, bubble stands!) You'll drive by kids in your neighborhood that are having them. But I'm one of those ones that never really took the time to hold one. (I was much too busy playing in a cardboard box castle with my Tarzan action figures.)

Well, now I'm older and I have the drive to do stuff, so I wanted to gie this a shot, and boy am I glad I did!

On July 2nd, the night before the stand, we started with the basics. First, we had to decide which charity to put the money towards. We narrowed it down to either a local park dedicated to a little girl who died of cancer or the local animal shelter. The park looked well funded, though, and we wanted to try and cross another item off the list (Visit an animal shelter), so we went with the humane society.

Mom pulled out some posterboard and markers and the boys (mainly Wes) and I went crazy. We made a big sign to put out on the table (stand) and then a bunch of smaller signs that we put throughout Aunt Leah's development.

Later that night (after chasing my naughty dog through the neighborhood before catching him sneaking back into the yard through the fence), Aunt Leah and I went to their local Giant and bought two things of lemonade (little did we know that we already had two back at the house), ice, cups and ingredients for brownies.

We were up super late baking three batches of brownies, two things (gallons?) of lemonade and a slideshow of pictures of dogs from the local homeless shelter. We ended up not using the slideshow, but I still have it and it is nice to look through. Plus, I got to meet the dogs a couple days later! (Stay tuned for that post.)

The next morning, we awoke super early. By the time I got upstairs for breakfast, the stand was already up, the cooler was outside, and the boys were already manning it for me! I had a quick bowl of cereal (and I snuck a brownie =P) and then jumped outside to get started. I grabbed Uncle Mac's outdoor speaker and hooked it up to my iPod (I made a kid-friendly playlist).

Business boomed in the first hour of the stand. All the neighbors and the kids' friends were guilted into coming over and buying at least one cup. People actually hung around in the yard to talk to the grownups and as a result, ended up buying multiple cups. It was really hot out that day (and yet we were still very strict about how much ice we gave people).

After a few hours, we were pooped out. By the time that Mom, John, Aunt Joyce, and Grandpa George got there, we were almost done with the stand entirely! Maddie was a little crabby from getting up so early, so she stole some of our money and ran away and played with it on the front porch for the whole time we were out there (supervised, of course).

I would like to take all the credit for the stand, but I have to hand it to a few people... Mom's work on the posters, Aunt Leah's baking skills, Alex's support and Wes' all around help (he did more than I did, actually!) really made the stand as great as it was. But I'll still take SOME credit. After all, it WAS my idea!

The stand was so much fun and we ended up raising an even $40 for the shelter (which we delivered in person a few days later... I will post that adventure in a few days.)

Another item checked off the list, another childhood dream fulfilled, another awesome memory to look back on, and another set of dry throats and empty stomachs satisfied. All in a day's work!