Lemonade, Anyone? . . . Anyone?

For months the girls have been pleading to have a lemonade stand. On Saturday Mike decided he'd help it happen. Rather than just your boring old cups of lemonade, he took them to the store to buy cans of soda pop and ice. They borrowed a card table from Mike's parents, let the cans cool in the freezer, set them up in a cooler with the ice, colored a sign, found their camping chairs and got everything all set for business.

For some reason this image made me laugh and then nearly cry. Not the kids. The chair. I had told them to get my camping chair out too so I could be out there and make sure they were safe. Notice where Goldie put my chair? In that spot of shade? It just seemed like the saddest and cutest little gesture to put me in the one patch of shade in the yard. Look how big the patch is. Here Mike and Abe help with lemonade stand set up.

And finally, here the girls are all sunblocked up, set up, and ready for customers. Don't you like how they have the beverage options on display? We live on a fairly busy street -- several cars pass by each minute -- so, even as I tried to take this picture, they were getting nervous that I better hurry and move so the customers could start coming.

Initially they would wave eagerly at each passing car. After twenty minutes of fruitless waving in the 90+ degree weather, they simply sat and patiently waited.Still waiting.At one point Abe went out and bought a soda. A little later I did. And, bless their grandma Gayle, she drove all the way over and bought two sodas well above the asking price. But other than that not one car stopped. They waited patiently for an entire hour -- their little faces growing redder and hotter by the minute. As I said, several cars passed by each minute. Initially they had been discussing how much they'd make if all their cans sold. 40 minutes in, they would have been so happy and excited if even one unexpected driver had stopped. I used to always stop at lemonade stands. Lately I've been less good at it -- assuming plenty of other people are already stopping, but I have recommitted myself to stopping at every sad little stand I ever come across.

h

P.S. It wasn't a total bust. After the first sad little hour, Mike had them put the cooler in our little red wagon and go around selling soda to our neighbors who, perhaps because they were cornered right on their doorsteps, were more than happy to buy a few cans.