Lemonade Stand!

While in Tennessee, we participated in an classic childhood tradition of a lemonade stand. I cannot remember where Cosette got the idea to do a lemonade stand, but she got in her head that she wanted to do one. In just a few short hours after the idea was conceived, we put together a lemonade stand. Everything went surprisingly smoothly, and the process was not very difficult. 

Since it was Cosette's project, I made sure that she was in charge of everything, and helped her with every step that we had to take. She had the final say. It was a really fun activity. She went with me to the store to pick out the lemons. She helped me cut the lemons and juice them. Then we made a sign for our fresh homemade lemonade. 25 cents a cup. It's a bargain.  

I was not sure how it was going to go. You never know with these things. We set up it up on my parent's street, which gets pretty good traffic, foot and car. She was really shy at first to announce our presence. Every time a car would pass we would wave and say "hi" and tell them to come and get some fresh lemonade. Once we started getting customers she got more into it and was jumping up to tell people about our fresh lemonade. 

I texted my mom friends to get the word out, just in case it was a bust. I could feel a little bit better knowing I really tried. I was really worried that nothing would happen and I did not want her to be disappointed. To our delight it was a huge success, more so than I could have ever imagined. 

Of course the family stopped to pay their 25 cents for a cup of her lemonade to support her. And we had a friend stop by. Mostly it was people driving by. We had several people stop their cars and turn around. Our first non family customer drove by, stopped and ran over saying he had not seen a lemonade stand in forever. He paid her two dollars, and it was so exciting! More and more people came, and most paid well over 25 cents for a cup. It was really exciting. We were doing it!

Henry came out and helped us wave to people and call "fresh homemade lemonade". For his help he rewarded himself by drinking as many cups of lemonade as he wanted. He almost put us out of business, haha. I had to made him stop. 

It was a blast. Lyndon said I looked like I was having more fun than the kids doing it. I am not sure, but I loved it. One of my favorite memories from the summer. 

We were out there for barely two hours before we had sold all our lemonade, except one cup saved for Pa. She made a total of $32.75! I was shocked. The whole family was. I kept saying over the next few days how I could not believe she made $32.75! People were so generous, paying way more than 25 cents. We had some people give us $5 or more. The insights I got from our customers was that it was very nostalgic. We had a neighbor come and tell us that a lemonade stand was his first job. It was very sweet, and she was so happy. 

It was a good lesson on work and patience. She would get antsy at moments when cars were not driving by, and I would remind her that we had to be patient. If you want to make money it takes work, and you have to be patient. Nothing happens over night. I was just so happy that it was so successful, and she had a good experience. 

Everyday since, she has been asking to do one. Oh, I love her enthusiasm. We have plans to do an apple cider, and hot chocolate stand once the whether turns a bit cooler, and we have finished unpacking. Unpacking is taking precedence over everything here.  

All of you in NYC keep a look out for it. If you do not see it, you will hear us calling out "get your fresh apple cider here!".