GREY MATTER LIFE

They’ve been asking for over a year to have a lemonade stand and while we’ve supported their idea, we had to be sure they understood that while we live off of a main road, our little street barely gets any traffic. Expectations were set fairly low, but we were optimistic and encouraging nevertheless.

A right of passage for all kids, running a lemonade stand is simply a part of childhood. It had been Tucker’s idea to have a lemonade stand (he wanted to do a bake sale too) and it was his idea to give the money to charity. While Cooper agreed that giving money to a charity was a great idea, he didn’t shy away from expressing his desire to spend some money at the toy store too. He’s a kid and I can’t blame him.

In the end, they both agreed that the money was best allocated to charity which left Paul and I feeling proud that somewhere along the way we’d managed to instill in them an awareness of those around them and the importance of supporting and helping others.

With the Race for Research a few weeks away, it was the right time to get out there and attempt to sell some lemonade and see what we could raise for a worthy and very personal charity for our family.

Thanks to some very supportive neighbors, morning bikers, a few cars and of course Paul who bought a few servings of lemonade, the boys raised $22.  What was even more impressive was their drive and perseverance to drum up business as they stood out by the entrance to our neighborhood, next to our large painted sign and yelled at cars driving by for hours on end.

Lemonade for Charity! One Dollaaarrrrr!!! They’d scream.

Salesmen

So, at the conclusion of our 6 hour, two-day lemonade stand, I didn’t mind that it was 90 something degrees with insane humidity and my hands, ankles and legs swelled to elephant like proportions and I was generally miserable. My boys were putting their persistent charitable hearts out there and who am I to say it wasn’t worth $22.  Every dollar counts!

The Stand, Sans Pregnant Puff-Puffy Mommy.