Sunday, August 26, 2012

Lemonade Stand

A little math equation for you:

(Grandmother A takes grandchildren to American Girl store)
+ (Cousin B spends her savings on small dog at American Girl)
+ (Grandmother C gives grandchild 5 dollars for her 5th birthday) ______________________________________________________
= Georgia is obsessed with saving enough for the dog by the time she is 7.

Well, thank you, family. That was an easy introduction to the concept of long-range savings for our daughter. But where to get more money?  Enter the lemonade stand.

[Warning: I am about to throw down the gauntlet in the sub-category of Children's Pictures: Quintessential Americana.  I dare you to try to top this, but leave me a link in the comments if you think you have a contender.  Norman Rockwell, read 'em and weep.]

Child labor

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I love how in most of these photos June has about 4 straws in her mouth. That's pretty accurate. Let's just say she was put on "quality control".

Speaking of straws, here's a pro tip (I can call myself a lemonade stand pro now, right?): people go nuts for stripey straws. Definitely worth the marketing line item.

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A team of crack accountants is still crunching numbers (Holy subtraction lesson, Batman!), but it appears that after covering expenses and overhead, Georgia's haul will be about $7.75. Not bad!  I know I'm biased, but I think these girls were pretty much at their peak of cuteness for such an endeavor, and the clientele tipped heavily to reward their entrepreneurial spirit.  

11 comments:

TomT said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
TomT said...

Cuteness OVERLOAD!! I love the giant lemon painted on the side. Your kids are adorable. Stripey straws RULE!

Emily said...

Too cute. I love June's hat. And in the earlier post, I love that the girls are checking out what's going on in that van, although I'm not sure I'd want to know what they saw!

Kate said...

Thanks, Tom - June painted the giant lemon. (Well, I drew her an outline and she painted it in.) I was most impressed with Georgia's stripes on the pitcher.

Emily - we were actually on our way heading into church when that van photo was taken, though it looks like I'm perhaps about to ship them off with a stranger to live down by the river.

jessica said...

Striped straws?! Really? Nice touch Jordan Ferney.

How much is an American Girl dog?

Maggie said...

What is hilarious about this is that WE did a lemonade stand on Friday ourselves. I literally set the lemonadde pitcher on the table and Abe decided to pour it himself, without my knowledge, resulting in the ENTIRE supply landing splat on the kiddie table. We hadn't even sold one drink. It didn't make the blog.

Kate said...

Ha ha ha! The striped straws were left over from the kids' birthday party. Although, I do feel kind of addicted to them. There is just something about them that makes you happy.

Come to think of it, I do not even know how much the dog is. But nothing there is cheap. I bet it is somewhere between 30 and $50.

Kate said...

Maggie - but will it make your reality TV show that Anna's working on? That's good material.

I'm sure June or Georgia might have done the exact same thing. Even with our spigot container, we lost a fair amount of product.

Beth said...

Oh! Sorry! Your time on Price is Right is over! Meatloaf the AG dog is approximately $25.

Charging them for supplies? That is hard core accounting for a first lemonade stand! I don't even make Alice pay tax on things she buys with her own money (do you KNOW how disappointing it is in Chicago to find out that something marked $8.99, when you have $9.00, will ACTUALLY cost you $9.90?) I can't teach those lessons - I'll save tax for 3rd grade!

Beth said...

p.s. My personal favorite part is the real cash register!

Kate said...

I didn't charge her the *actual* cost of all the supplies, but I felt like I had to charge her something, otherwise she would've made WAY too much money (and gotten the false impression that all you have to do is have a lemonade stand to get what you want immediately). We sold two full pitchers, and like I said, people were big tippers.
Also, Georgia seemed to think she should get ALL the money, with none going to June. June's too little to care about money, but that didn't seem fair so we made her kick at least a dollar over to her sister.