Lemonade Stand

My daughters and their best buds next door set up a lemonade stand recently on a corner near our house. It was a blistering hot and humid day (after several cool rainy days), and the kids were relentless in their pursuit of potential sales. You could hear their mantra of "ICE COLD TEA AND LEMONADE!" five houses away. I was most impressed by the fact that the kids decided to donate all the proceeds to the American Red Cross to help with relief efforts associated with the devastating floods in the Midwest.

In the short span of two hours, the kids had raised $29.00--at $0.25 a glass! Granted, many people gave the kids $1.00 and did not ask for change. And all supplies were "donated" by my neighbor Wendy. But I was completely surprised by a few things:

1. The kids' perseverance in selling, even in 90 degree heat. I remember as a kid having a lemonade stand and hawking my wares for about five minutes, then deciding that watching "Creature Double Feature" seemed a better bet and hanging up my pitcher. The only reason our crew quit selling is that we made them come in and have lunch!


2. How many people driving or walking by completely ignored the kids, which was pretty hard to do since people walking by were almost assaulted by my 6-year-old. Not even so much as a nod or a smile by some passersby! How can you not smile at the first capitalistic venture of most small children in the United States?


3. Thankfully, though, the number of generous souls outweighed the misers. Like I said, many people didn't ask for change. A fair number even pulled over in their cars for a drink and were treated to curbside service.
   

So thanks to everyone who helped our kids learn a valuable lesson about giving. And to those who were Scrooges? Bah! Humbug!

Summer Camp

My 8-year-old is at summer camp this week. For one whole week! And she has no fears about it. None whatsoever. As a matter of fact, after I picked her up from mini-camp last year (a mere four days), the first thing out of her mouth was, "I'm going for a WEEK next year!" My 6-year-old wanted to go desperately this year, but was too young. "Next year," I reassured her, "you can go to mini-camp."

I never went to camp as a kid. When I recently asked my mom why I never went--assuming we didn't have the funds or the opportunity--she said that I had never wanted to go. That she'd asked me every year and that I'd flat out said no. I have no recollection of this, and can I can only imagine that I knew I'd be too homesick. I got homesick at the drop of a hat as a kid, which is too bad for me. I missed out on a lot of fun at camp, based on my daughter's report from last year. I'm just glad she missed the "homesick gene" from me and eagerly attends camp and sleepovers. As a parent, you always want your kids to do more than you did in life, and in this case, it looks like I've succeeded.

But I still wish I would've had the cojones to go to camp!

Wild about Harry

I'll admit it. I do love my Harry Potter books. I mean, not in a dress-up-as-Hedwig-and-go-to-the-local-Barnes-and-Noble kind of way, but in a stay-up-'till-4 AM-reading kind of way. Which is what I did after opened Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows at 10:00 PM on Saturday night.

There's just something about the series...getting lost in a completely different world. I'm not normally a sci-fi fan, but these books got me hooked. The characters. The setting. The matter-of-fact way Rowling writes about the wizarding world. I can't quite explain it, seeing as a I'm a Muggle, of course.

All I know is that I was completely emotionally spent after I finished the book on Sunday at 1:30 PM. Well, that and forlorn, knowing this is the last HP book. Ever.
But on Sunday night, I gave my copy of the first Harry Potter book--Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone--to my 8-year-old daughter to read. She had expressed an interest in reading Deathly Hallows, but I insisted that she start at the beginning (a very good place to start).

And now I get to experience Harry Potter all over again, through her eyes. And the series goes on...