Nathan's summer dream was to sell lemonade to all the thirsty people driving past our house and Vivien wanted to introduce Americans to cookies that had real flavor, not some fake high fructose poison in them. At first I thought the idea was all Nathan's and that Vivien was joking but she put it on the summer list so it had to be done. As the cash provider for the project I required a business plan from Nathan. I was actually just putting them off for a while thinking that idea would fade away. Not so.
He presented his very detailed plan, asked which day we could do it so that it would be on the calendar and
I could not put them off any longer.
Opening Day would be on August 13th, a perfectly hot day for such an occasion. The chosen location would be
Porter Park near the splash park.
They were both pretty excited as they put all their decorating and mixing skills to work.
The thought crossed my mind that we weren't allowed to do this at the park without some kind of city permit but we planned ahead in case of rejection. This seemed to be a perfect time for that famous Fullmer Family saying, "easier to obtain forgiveness than permission". Who could deny such a hardworking boy and his European sister? They were just too cute to put out of business. And, if all else failed, Vivien could always claim she didn't speak English. Oh, yeah, this American Dream was going to come true even if we were kicked out of the park or fined.
Nathan practiced serving the yellow lemonade since it didn't have a spout on the container. Hyrum was more than willing to let him practice, and snitch the raspberry lemonade when he thought no one else would notice, and try the cookies for Vivien. Mmmm. We do love those European ginger cookies. All thanks goes to Angelika {Vivien's Mom} for the recipe and Vivien for converting all those measurements and braving the kitchen!
A sweatshirt in August while baking? Yeah, she didn't adjust well to the air conditioning or having the windows opened all night as I tried to cool the house down without the cost of the air conditioning. I felt bad for the first few days but then realized that all of my kids complained about it just as much as she did. I did sincerely feel bad that her room was so cold and I did offer to switch rooms for her (I'd LOVE to sleep in that freezing cold room all summer!) but she liked having her basement corner.
Now, back to cookies and lemonade . . .
My little salesmen put full vocal efforts into their business as they hollered out "lemonade for sale, cookies for sale". They also kept themselves entertained during the slow times.
A fortune was not made but they enjoyed the experience. I was expecting to see Vivien frustrated and ready to go when I went back to pick them up but she seemed to be having as much fun as the boys. I'm proud of them for doing all the work (except for those few ginger people she made me dress and the lemons that I didn't dare let Nathan cut), for sticking with their plans and having a positive attitude. They make a great team!
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