Monday, April 13, 2009

Shout Out to Lemonade Stands

The sun was out. The weather warm. And the flowers blooming. It was a perfect day for a lemonade stand on Saturday, and my kids were all over it. Over the last year, they've become lemonade stand pros. They have their own stand, their own company name, they even sell cookies to spice things up a bit.

It's been a great way for me to teach them about "business." I grew up in a family where my father and mother ran my dad's CPA practice. I ate, drank and slept small business USA ever since I could remember. One summer, Dad employed me. I was ten. I spent a whole summer shredding paper. I got a break every once in a while when I got to take out old pages in the tax books and replace them with new ones, but mostly, it was 8 hours a day of paper shredding. Which taught me something. By the end of that summer, I knew I SO VERY MUCH wanted to go to college so that I didn't end up spending my life shredding paper.

Being an author means I don't have the paper shredding to motivate my kids, but I do have the all-American entrepreneurial spirit. The lemonade stand is the one thing just about any kid can do that will, if they work at it, earn them some cold hard cash. What kid doesn't want that?

Mine check weather reports this time of year to see if Saturday is ideal lemonade stand material. They make sure we have supplies. They talk up the stand around the neighborhood a few days beforehand. Come Saturday, they have a booming business. Now, they usually end up having at least five kids working the stand/taking breaks to climb trees and play, which turns the whole business into a great way to spend the day outdoors. I'm proud of them. They always make sure and take out part of the profits to buy new supplies, and the divvy up the earnings evenly across all kids who work the stand. They've learned about profit and loss and supply and demand and neither is ten. And they didn't have to shred any paper!

Yeay, lemonade stand! I love lemonade stands!!!

Which made it all the sweeter when Kim Kasch nominated me for a Lemonade Stand Award for great Gratitude/ or attitude. Yippee!! Virtual Lemonade Stands. I love it.

To accept the award I have to share the Lemonade by --

1. Post the logo on my blog.
2. Nominate 10 blogs with great gratitude/attitude.
3. List and link my nominees.
4. Alert them of their nomination on their blog.

The 10 blogs I nominate are as follows --

1. Barrie Summy
2. P.J. Hoover at Roots in Myth
3. Becky Ramsey at Wonders Never Cease
4. Tressa at American in Norway
5. Joy at On Finding Balance
6. Christina Farley at Chocolate for Inspiration
7. Drunken Bee
8. Keri Mikulski
9. Sonia Marsh at Gutsy Writer

And, just to make sure Christina isn't alone on the other side of the globe,
10. Maureen Crisp

Shout out to lemonade stands both real and virtual. They are the best!

19 comments:

Unknown said...

Hear, hear! And congrats :)

PJ Hoover said...

Thanks, Stacy!

Tabitha said...

Congrats!! :) Isn't it a pretty award? :)

Barrie said...

Thank you, Stacy. I am honored. And what a great post about your kids and their amazing entrepreneurial spirits!

Stacy Nyikos said...

Thanks, everybody!

Rebecca Ramsey said...

Stacy, you are a sweetheart! Thank you!

I try to make a point to ALWAYS stop at lemonade stands. Kids like that deserve encouragement!

Joy said...

thank you so much! I'll make sure to pay it forward. I really appreciate it.

Anonymous said...

How fun for you and congratulations!

Maureen said...

HI Stacey,
I feel very honoured,
I'd like to thank the academy, my hairdresser, my lawyer, my dentist, my PR person, my bank,my fellow nominee's,my mum, my editor,my friends, my lemon supplier, my kids....

I could completely relate to your post about author uniforms....
I hope Dragon Wishes is doing well!

Maureen (NZ)When are you coming back?...LOL when will I get to Oklahoma???

Christina Farley said...

Oh how fun! Thanks so much. I feel loved. :)

Brianna said...

What a fun way to celebrate goodness. :) And what a great experience for your kids and your community - I love that they plan ahead to drum up their business. Definitely more exciting than paper shredding!!

D.A. Riser said...

Congratz! I did a few lemonade stands back in my day. You know what I remember, though, is that I discovered reselling canned cokes at a profit earned me more money and took less work. Granted, it doesn't sound nearly as charming.

Sarah Laurence said...

Lemonade, sun and flowers- couldn’t be nicer! Good to see family traditions being passed onto the next generation. Congratulations on your award.

Gutsy Living said...

Thank you so much for this great award. I'm sorry it took me a while to come thank you. My son sold muffins and coffee when he was ten for commuters. It worked really well, and he got some good tips. I had to make the coffee though.

Stacy Nyikos said...

Yeah, I'm making the lemonade and the cookies so...that whole selling cans of coke thing is looking pretty good right now!

Thanks everybody for stopping by and getting your awards and/or browsing these cool sites. And a big thanks to Rena for starting off the Springtime lemonade stand awards!

Okie Book Woman said...

Wow! Sounds like your kids are getting some great lessons while having a wonderful time. Way to go, Mom!

I also had to laugh about your paper shredding. My experiences with jobs like that fully convinced me to go to college, too!

Pen Pen said...

U picked some gems!!

Keri Mikulski said...

Thanks, Stacy!!!! I really appreciate the award. :)

What a great story about your parents and their small business and how it motivated you. :)

Hugs.. :)

Bee said...

Thanks so much for this, Stacy. It may take me awhile to pass it on, though -- just as it took me awhile to collect it.

I've really enjoyed catching up with your latest posts. xx