Thirsty in Puyallup

So I can't take the credit for inspiration behind this post-My friend Kjrsten & her girls actually beat us to it & scored much higher on presentation! Shouldn't be surprised after all previous lil' entrepreneurial enterprises my boys have witnessed in our neighborhood year-round...we're talking everything from homemade bubbles to massages have been solicited door-to-door by kids who live nearby as well as toy trades-on more than one occas, my boys have come running home to ask if they could have some change to pay for toys that were peddled down the st. You prob don't even care re: whole story below, but just wanted to prove it was quite the process:
Perhaps motivated by the past week o' warm weather & hangin' out in Grandma Neecy's garage, Cole got the bright idea last Sat. around 5P that we should "make money for this house & me" by selling her Gatorades/cans of pop:) I told him we not only needed to ask Grandma's permission to sell her liquid but also be a little more prepared with better timing-I held him off until Weds, which was forecasted to be over 100 deg! Got a countdown goin' like every other momentous day in his life-Discussed price point in meantime & fact that good business would incl reimb mom for supplies not to mention tithing before made a profit! He woke up bright & early on Tues. am to make signs.
We cheated a bit by conserving Simply Lemonade already in our fridge. Decided to throw in complimentary cookies and water option. He wanted all "employees" to leave with $10 (enough to buy Dinobot he had admired) & spread the word to his Primary class on Sun. I told him he would earn less money with more people involved but he made sure his brother, 2 buddies and his 2 y.o. cousin had job descrip. in meantime. Gotta give my son credit for being thorough:)
Needless to say, we escaped to kind friend's pool on Weds to beat the heat (thanks Wendi!!) & I conveniently waited until we could spontaneously set up during Luke's afternoon nap on Thurs so smaller staff to supervise!
As it were, Dane got bored after about 2 min. & was my runner to check on his baby bro 'cuz I hadn't brought a monitor out to end of our st where Cole was flagging drivers down with his sign. Yes, I proudly waved a sign to support my 7 y.o. too:) Figured that would be more productive than our circle but turned out he only had a neighbor (nice college guy) stop & one car with guy who said he'd want someone to do same for his son:) Now I'm gonna feel compelled to stop @ every one I see on the road 'cuz he got so excited! I told him it was good practice for his mission when he was ready to give up & was tired of standing in the sun with no one interested in what he had to offer:( He said he wanted diff job but I reminded him that wasn't possible until he had customers...So next bright idea was to bring the lemonade to the people (maybe he will be politician someday too?!) Perhaps our sales would increase if we drove our refreshments to a park? Don't worry, we didn't abandon Huey:) After he awoke, cruised by baseball complex & concessions were already open. So as not to get in trouble by competing, headed over to Bradley Lk. All about supply & demand 'cuz right away a nice guy playing catch with his son obliged followed by a Marine Corps group who bought him out after their flag football game! With some coaxing, Cole seriously asked how many cups they wanted & the staff sgt. asked how many he had left?! Whoa! Then he gave him $5 tip to boot:) (pun intended) Not gonna lie, think Dane might've gotten heat stroke in the process so he was content to sit under tree with water bottle himself-ugh! Camera wasn't invited with our traveling sales 'cuz it was all I could do to carry cooler, bag, baby & prompt Cole with my head on a swivel as Dane hunted for shade.
Oh no! We weren't done there-With $16 in hand (& I threw in $8 that they had technically earned earlier in the spring but hadn't redeemed), we set out to spend the earnings right away (for the record, can't really teach savings to my boys when I haven't mastered principle myself-ugh!) Nothing caught their eye in toy aisle of Wal-Mart (we don't go there to browse, but I had exchanged something & grabbed a few groceries:) so on to little brother Walgreens...Alas! The Dinobot spotted earlier cost $4 more than mom quoted-oops! So over to Borders where I had some credit & in remembrance of those toys we hud back in spring (see Dzien Dzieci post if you're interested:)) If not, enough to know they had finally been discovered, reshelved & purchased by another lucky boy(s) much to my boys' dismay! So they said themselves they didn't want to go to another store & settled on sharing a Star Wars lego set, which we promptly put together that night after dinner-Talk about instant gratification! Not bad for their sales debut either!!