Lemonade Stand

Lemonade Stand: Complicated business venture where Mom buys powdered mix, sugar, lemons and paper cups, then sets up a table, chairs, pitchers and ice for kids who close up shop after three to six minutes and net a profit of fifteen cents.

My sweet 9 year-old daughter is very....... hmm....... entreprenuerial? I guess that's the word. She's constantly thinking up new money making schemes and enlisting me and my hubby to help her. She's got big dreams, I tell ya. Big dreams.

I love her and want to encourage her, but I can always predict how these things will turn out. She'll build up a head of steam, put all the plans together, gather all of the supplies necessary to start the business, run the business for about a week, then lose interest.

I want her to succeed at SOMETHING, but I wish she had a little more follow-through. She's more than the little engine that could.... she's the little engine that does... briefly. She's not the cross-country engine. She's the train you hop on when you want to take a day trip somewhere. She's the commuter train.

Her latest brilliant idea is a cookie business. She found a great versatile cookie recipe in my ScrapShare cookbook and made a chocolate chip version. The recipe calls for cake mix, eggs, oil and add-ins, which can be changed to create many different cookie varieties. Really, it's an easy, cheap recipe and I thought maybe, just maybe, this plan would work. I briefly envisioned my daughter being the next Mrs. Fields. Well, maybe not, but I thought maybe she'd make enough to buy that iPod Nano she's wanted FOR-EVAH.

My daughter and I planned out all of the possible combinations for cookies, made up a "menu" flyer and ordered some of those "free" Vista Print business cards for her new venture. We decided that she would just run her business in our small neighborhood for now, so she made up a batch of cookies and took them to a neighborhood barbeque. She guarded her cookie plate at the self-serve dessert table like a mother hen sitting on her eggs. I told her she wasn't technically supposed to be selling the cookies; she was just there to get the word out about her business. She did end up taking home a buck from a kind older gentleman who insisted on paying for his cookies. She was so proud and ready to get the business off the ground that night.

Two weekends ago I was out of town at a scrapbooking retreat. My parents were here to watch the kids and they helped my daughter make a few batches of cookies. They individually wrapped the cookies in plastic wrap and took them door to door to sell. My daughter came home with around $4 and made lots of contacts.

That's the last I heard of the cookie business. I think she's done with it.

Sigh.

Anyone want to buy a dozen or so lemon cookies? They go great with lemonade if anyone has some of that left over from their kids' 10-second lemonade stand.