Lemonade stand 2

Inspired by the lemonade boys of a few weeks ago (see post on in June called Lemonade stand --I can put a link here, but how?), H and K wanted to sell lemonade yesterday. It wasn't ideal weather, overcast and a bit rainy, but I let them go with it. It started with Hadley making musical instruments out of jars and beans. She wanted to sell them for $5 because she wants to buy a pet frog to replace the tadpole. We saw some at Meijer on Thursday and she has been consumed ever since. Though I doubt a pet frog will be much of a pet, I've have been surprised by all we learned from Fred Grapey Wells (the new name of the Beta fish). Because, animals are a good learning experience but there are no dogs or cats on the horizon due to allergies, we've decided she can buy herself a pet frog or two--we already have the small aquarium.

Major side note: this morning's conversation

H: Why can't I get a cat when I grow up?

Me: You can, but I won't be able to visit you then.

H: But you'll be too old to drive to my house anyway.)

Back to the point, I told H she couldn't sell jars with beans for $5 because they were not worth that much. After a long discussion about how her instruments were nice, but not worth money, she settled on lemonade. I made the girls go door-to-door and ask for a juicer, we found an antique one at house number four. Then we made a sign, I helped by printing out some graphics to color and with some of the spelling. Next we went to Jack's. I made H buy the lemons (no powdered stuff for this stand!) with her own money. She only brought enough to buy four lemons which only made about 1/2 cup of juice. I ended up donating evaporated cane juice, cups and bottled lemon juice. But we used the juicer we borrowed and made lemonade. We even boiled the sugar in a cup of water to ensure it would be evenly distributed throughout the juice. We put the ingredients together and tasted, added more water and sugar, and then stuck the pitcher in the fridge. We found a "cash box" which was a pink cardboard pencil box, found change, talked about costs and profits, though I don't think H really got it. And then set up.

The girls were shy sellers at first but cute enough that people stopped. Later the neighbor girl Anna stopped by, she was much bolder and led truly inspired chants at all the cars that drove by. Our street is not a super busy one, but generally in the afternoon, a car drives by every 3-4 minutes. Not one man stopped, but several mothers and grandma's did and often people paid more than the $0.25 we charged (if H had actually used all real lemons, purchased her own sugar, and cups, we would have needed to charge at least $0.75). I was unsuccessful in getting a picture of the numerous times one of the girls held up the sign upside down or even on the blank side of the poster board as they screamed at passing cars. All in all, after paying Anna and K their "wages" and subtracting the cost of the lemons, H made $8.00 and had lots of fun in the process. Oh and I failed to mention that K spent the whole day with her leggings inside out and her tag waving as she ran up and down the sidewalk!

Lemonade stand

After playing bug bingo at the library this afternoon, we drove over to South Middle School, to check out what will become H's new elementary. We drove around the building trying to guess where a playground could go, etc. Nestled behind South is this short street with gorgeous old homes--large, well manicured homes and none of them are for sale. It was a pleasant surprise in this city of problems. This story though is about the boys on the corner. They were selling lemonade from a Staples box. We weren''t in a hurry and the girls were thirsty so we stopped. There were three of them: two brothers and a friend ranging from 7-10. Lemonade was $0.25. The girls each took a cup at which point the entrepreneurs informed us that we had to give the cups back because people had been taking them. I wonder how big my eyes got when they started whipping around the rag they used to wipe the cups clean. The girls had already taken several sips, so I merely suggested they get a bucket of warm water and soap to wash the cups. They were "raising money for the big white house with the pillars." I had seen it and inquired what the house needed. "We're raising money for our in-ground swimming pool, but he (the blond second grader) doesn't live with us so he gets a kick of our profits." Oh, OK. Then they told me they had made about $4.50 but the oldest had a half dollar someone gave him that he wasn't going to spend because it had Pope John Paul II on it. To which the other boy, who attends St. Stephens, said, "He's dead." And the third boy, who also attends St. Stephens said "He is?" I wish it wouldn't have been rude to laugh out loud because I swallowed so much laughter it hurt and now it won't come out.