Labor Day Weekend, Part II -- Elijah's First Lemonade Stand

By far, our most exciting adventure over Labor Day weekend was Elijah's first Lemonade Stand.  He's been hounding us for months to have a Lemonade Stand, since he saw some neighborhood girls open one this summer.  We were trying to find the right time, a weekend when we weren't too busy, and Labor Day Weekend gave us the perfect opportunity.  Scottie did an amazing job breaking down every step of the process to Elijah and coaching him through it.  He also emphasized that since it was his business and his profits, he had to do the work, too.  It turned out to be a great learning experience for Elijah who loved every step in the process.  First he painted the sign.  Scott helped him plan his sign, then Elijah designed it in pencil and Scott helped a little with the painting.

Next, they made the lemonade, as the sign said, from scratch.  Elijah helped by cutting the lemons in half, measuring and stirring the sugar and water and squeezing some of the lemons.

Then, once Daddy set up the sun shade, came the most exciting part --  selling his lemonade.  One of his most eager customers was his sister.  She loved helping us buy our lemonade.

 

 

After getting comfortable with the process by helping Daddy and I with our purchases, she decided to venture out on her own and buy a banana muffin.

  

She wanted to continue being a customer, but we'd all bought plenty so I convinced her to buy pretend muffins and lemonade.  She loved it and practiced buying pretend muffins and lemonade over and over again.  Although selling pretend products wasn't quite as exciting for Elijah.

 

During the slow times, Elijah practiced one of his new favorite skills -- Origami.  At the beginning of this summer, Elijah made every paper plane design he could get his hands on.  Then, around The Fourth of July, he started to design his own planes by combining elements of his favorite planes.  Towards the middle of the summer his interest in paper planes morphed into an interest in Origami, as they are intricately related.  Now, he's made countless Origami designs and it still continues to be a favorite activity.  These pictures show him making Origami bows.  Once he found this design online, I encouraged him to make it since I figured we could reuse them, instead of just accumulate them in bags, as we have with the rest of his creations.

 

Finally, here are photos of the two lemonade signs, hanging up on our sun shade.  We increased business a bit on the second day by also posting a sign in the nearby traffic circle.