In the Good Old Summertime

The boys have been wanting to have a lemonade stand since last summer. Somehow I got away with not having one. . .until now. I even delayed it for a few more weeks, and then promised the boys that last Saturday would be the day. Erin and the kids were delivering Mom to us from her visit in Utah, so I figured it would be a good way to pass the time until they arrived.

A few days before the Great Lemonade Stand was to take place we purchased all of our supplies. Holy cow. When did lemons get so expensive? Because no way were we making a lemonade mix! I am Floriene Moffitt's granddaugther for goodness sake! The scandal that would take place from serving up Country Time, well, I could just never live it down. So we made the boys' favorite lemonade "recipe" which happens to be Great Ruth's. After I took out a home equity loan to buy the lemons, we realized we didn't have the right size cups. Story of my life--how many trips can I make to the store?

As we were preparing to go get the cups, Declan rushed inside, total anguish in his voice. What? What? What is it? Did Finn get hit by a car? Was the Suite Life of Zack and Cody cancelled? What could be the source of this anguish? Unfortunately, Cameron, our next door neighbor, had scooped us and was selling lemonade on the corner. For $1 a cup! At first I thought this was highway robbery. And then I considered the price of lemons and figured Cameron had it about right.

So Declan was crushed when I explained that we should wait and have our lemonade stand another day. His little face was so sad. Which explains why I promised to bake him cookies to sell with the lemonade. Sucker.

Finally, the day arrived. As did Erin, Mom and the kids. Eamonn took the whole gang out to a pretty busy street corner. . .and they sold out in about 30 minutes. Their marketing strategy? All six kids standing there yelling, "Lemonade! Cookies!" at everyone within earshot. And in the case of Finn's vocal reach, a few people who were probably out of earshot.

We made another batch of lemonade. That sold out, too. In the end, they made $31 (That's gross profit though. Next time I'm removing my supplies fee!). (Side note: Cameron made $4)


The original price: 25 cents. Fortunately Eamonn convinced us to raise the price to 50 cents. The boys wanted to charge $10.

Now they're ready to spend their earnings. It's time for that "How to Save Money" talk.