When life gives you lemons ... make lemonade!

With days starting to cool down and getting closer to the start of a new school year we are trying to take advantage of the final days of summer! 
After almost 2 weeks of VBS between our church here in town and our church up in Quebec, hosting house guests in our basement for over a month complete with a guinea pig, 2 funerals Wayne officiated and Will played violin for, WELS Canada meetings of which Wayne is on the board of directors and a quick Sat - Mon trip to Vancouver for Wayne so that he could have the opportunity to meet our brothers and sisters in Christ out West and preach - all of which was crazy and hectic at the time but blessings abounded through them all - here we are well into August! 
I had promised the kids since early summer that they could have a lemonade stand. I had been collecting a fast growing pile of garage sale worthy stuff and thought we could do a duel purpose event. I had found some lemonade stand decorations at Target that I just couldn't resist. The actual follow through was a bit more difficult! 
Finally setting the date, I got down to the nitty gritty of pricing items, grouping them and hauling them over to church which was where the blessed event was to happen. The other matter of the lemonade stand demanded separate attention as I wanted this to be a learning moment disguised as pure fun! 

Lemon flavored cupcakes were baked and decorated the day before. A list of what was need compiled. Directions read on the side of a frozen concentrated can of pink lemonade. We were ready to go!

Yep, they did good. As a matter of fact, they made out like bandits! They went through all 4 cans of lemonade, 5 cupcakes left, money made! Their investor (me) did point out that if I were to demand payback for the items I purchased for the stand their loot would be greatly diminished. Lucky for them, they have a generous benefactor:). 
The garage sale part was a pain.in.the.butt.  I remembered why I hadn't done it for awhile. But it was a lovely, sunny morning, I got to meet some new people and I had the satisfaction of getting rid of my pile by dropping off my stuff at Goodwill that didn't sell. 
We've been to a nearby beach twice this summer with different friends. The kids love to play in the sand and water and we all enjoy a picnic lunch in the great outdoors. Best of all, there's a local that comes around with his boat outfitted as "the ice cream float" selling ice cream cones to us! What a hit!

Hey, Dad, this could be an idea for you in between Harley rides!!!

And the ice cream was yummy - can you guess she had chocolate?


We also celebrated Daddy's first day off in 3 weeks upon his return from Vancouver with a day trip to the area water park. My kids are fearless and willing to ride practically everything. Honestly, it's hard for me to keep up! We had a super fun family day of playing in the wave pool, hurdling down water slides, being dragged along in the lazy river and enjoying a picnic lunch on a beautiful, sunny day! 


Zanna continues to relish being able to ride her bike like a big girl and we've attempted a few family bike rides. Her stamina is improving (I remind myself as I go painfully slow).


Next up I'll be revealing the schoolroom/playroom that I've been working on and our plans for the new year!