Young Entrepreneurs

It's one of the hottest summer days we have had so far and the boys decided they wanted to sell something. Lemonade stands have been pretty popular around our neighborhood as of lately. So they wanted to be unique and they found the sno cone machine we have hidden in the basement hoping that someday they will forget about it.  It was a gift from my in-laws about 3 years ago and it is the biggest pain in the a** to operate, especially for a kid. It's Mickey mouse and you dump ice in his head to make crushed ice and then put syrup over it. This has been a problem because we never have sno cone syrup handy. Who does? Plus it's not the first thing on my mind when going to the grocery store. We have used anything from alcohol mixers to the syrup in a jar of cherries.  This time however, Don got the freeze pops that need to be frozen in their natural pre frozen state. It was actually perfect.
It was however,  a production to
a) make the stand
b) run electricity to the sidewalk
c) keep the ice..ice.
They managed to make the stand out of the box our sectional came in (once again, a reason to toot my own horn about the sectional being a wise choice) and a little paint and saw horses. The electricity was done with extension cords. I was at work when all of this took place so I was a bit surprised when I came home to find a stand that looked alot like Nancy's advice stand from Peanuts.
Parker and Fin were ecstatic and sweating like crazy. I had no idea the determination and drive that they had hidden deep inside of themselves. Parker worked with zealous to crush the ice while Finegan took orders and poured the syrup.  At the end of the day they made $21.91. Not sure how that is possible considering they were 25 cents each.  And that they were only "working" for an hour.

It's funny what will bring neighbors outside.  I think we all have had ( if we were lucky) been able to experience our first lemonade or kool-aid stand as kids. Seeing one as an adult just brings us back to our childhood in some way.   Our customers were very generous, one guy even gave the boys "5 whole dollars" and didn't even take a sno cone because he said, they just looked like they were working hard.

The highlight of my day however is when a neighbor who has a dog named Ralph stopped by.  Parker is slightly dog obsessed and makes his way around the block to visit neighbors dogs..( 5 total) regularly.  He recently had his glasses bitten and crushed by a puppy, but that is an entirely different story in which the details keep changing. Anyway, She expressed that our sons, were little gentleman and just very kind hearted. They were always polite and pleasant to be around.  At first I wondered if she had me confused with another mom, my boys? The ones who fight because they "saw" someone fart?

Indeed she was and before breaking down in tears in front of the abandoned sno cone stand, I just politely said thank you and went inside.