Friday, August 2, 2013

August 2: Lemonade Stand

Our neighborhood is having a garage sale this weekend.  And I was tempted to try to sell some things.  But considering that we already had two garage sales this year (and sold A LOT of stuff!), I figured I probably didn't need to do it yet again.  Instead, I asked Audrey if she wanted to have a lemonade stand.  I thought it would be a fun way to be out in the neighborhood and meet some more neighbors, and I was pretty sure Audrey would love it (based on how much she enjoyed helping with our previous garage sales).

So we started by baking a lot of goodies!  We made homemade brownies, chocolate chip cookies, and banana muffins.  Audrey helped me make all of it, and (for the most part) she was a very good helper.
I made some cute signs to hang up and let Audrey color on them.  Everything was ready to go.  Audrey was super excited all week for the day when she would get to have her lemonade stand!
When we walked outside this morning to set up, the first thing I saw was another lemonade stand set up down the street.  Then I turned and looked the other way and there was yet another lemonade stand!  And there were no garage sales on our block, which meant that people would have to stop their cars and get out just to come to our lemonade stand.  I momentarily panicked, afraid that we had set up Audrey for a huge disappointment.

Daniel and I put out pleas on Facebook, begging our friends to stop by so that Audrey could sell some of her lemonade and goodies.  And it turned out really well!  Between our kind friends, our neighbors and the strangers who were willing to stop for us, we sold just about everything! 
Audrey had to take a break for a half hour to go to swim lessons, so while she was gone, Isla took over.  All along, we have kind of treated this as Audrey's thing.  But Isla really enjoyed it too.  She was waving and saying hi to all the cars who drove past.  She would say hi to customers, take their money, give me a cup to fill with lemonade, and then say Bye and Thank You when they left.  It was super cute, and she was a good salesperson!  We were really busy while Audrey was gone (but shh...don't tell Audrey!!).
One of the most exciting things about the morning:  after swim lessons, Audrey's swim teacher stopped by to buy some lemonade!  Her teacher has been really great with her, and Audrey loves her.  We're not planning to take any more lessons this summer, but hopefully she will be back to teach again next summer.
At the end of the morning, Audrey made $38.  I hadn't really talked to Audrey about making money with this sale, partially because I wasn't sure if we would make any!  Plus our goal was really just to have fun and not make money.  But since she helped so much with the sale, we let her decide what to do with the money (with a little help from us).  We took a few dollars out for her and Isla to take to their classes at church on Sunday, then Audrey took us all to McDonalds and bought lunch for the whole family.  And then she got to go to Target and pick out a toy for herself.  She still has a few dollars in change left to save.

Audrey has never really had much money for her own, and she has no concept of how money works.  After spending most of her money today, she had a little meltdown tonight when she looked in her box and most of it was gone.  She said, "I want more green stuff!"  Which made Daniel and I crack up laughing, even though we were trying to be serious and teach her an important life lesson about money.  And the fact that it doesn't grow on trees!  =) 




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