Americana at its best

Big Sis and Buster Boy have been asking all summer to do a lemonade stand. They got a book one time at Chick-Fil-A that talked all about how to make homemade lemonade and from then on their hearts were set on having one for themselves. After finding excuses all summer long, I finally relented since it was the last Saturday before school started.

For a week beforehand we worked on signs to put in the neighborhood and made list after list of everything we needed. We read books about lemonade stands and watched YouTube videos on proper lemonade standing. It was a most excellent source of entertainment for a long week of smoking hotness and rain.

Finally the day came and everyone was up bright and early. Our next door neighbors were having a garage sale and the traffic started flowing at 7:30am. We moved into gear and had everything set up by 8:30am.

And then we waited.

And waited.

And waited some more. Sweating in the 175 degree heat. Helplessly watching garage sale customers get out of their car to peruse the sale and hop back in without a blink toward the lemonade stand.

Then came our first customers - 1 hour after we opened. Out of the front door, holding two adorable little twins comes DADDY TO THE RESCUE! Bearing quarters, nonetheless, and wanting to purchase some lemonade. You would have thought the President himself arrived. Buster took the money, Big Sis grabbed the cup and they went into gear.

"I just love customers!" Sis proclaims.

3 hours and 13 customers later we closed up shop, gave the neighbors free refills of the leftovers, counted their newly earned ice cream money and went inside to take 3 hour naps.

A job well done.


The sweetest part? After separating money into "Give", "Save" and "Spend" categories, the kiddos brought 10% of their earnings to church this morning to "give it to God" - their words.

I think we may have started us a tradition here.