Who doesn't like FREE Lemonade (and Cupcakes)?!

My sweet girl has been wanting to do a Lemonade Stand all summer. Today, her wish came true! And in her words, "Today was the BEST. Lemonade. Day. EVER!"

Since we have been doing our Summer Fun Schedule, we talk about our Thoughtful Tuesday task a couple days before. I asked the kids on Saturday evening what they would want to do for this week, especially since the donations to CCA and Passenger Treat Bags were all my idea. ;)

At the time, we didn't have any ideas. But on Sunday, Myla exclaimed, quite proudly...

"Ok, mom, so I was thinking during my rest time....(her hands all big and expressive) and I have an idea...(she paused super briefly as I continued to listen)...we should do a LEMONADE STAND...all the pink Lemonade will be FREE for the kids. And the grownups could have the yellow regular kind, they don't have to pay. No one will pay, we will just give it to them when they drive by. We can invite everyone, neighbors, kids, Granny ...." (ETC)

GENIUS idea, Myla. It's on.

Before gymnastics class, we headed to the grocery store to get a few things to make the lemonade...y'know, the mix, cups, a couple fresh lemons. 

Well, those "few" things turned into a $50 trip (oops!) because we just had to get lemonade dispensers (2 for each flavor), and cupcakes with pink lemonade frosting (they were delicious!) a tablecloth, straws, colorful cupcake liners, a cute chalkboard sign....yeah, we kinda went overboard, but it's OK. The overboard part was my idea. I mean, go big or go home...

I can hear my dad now..."Presentation, presentation, presentation." He IS Mr. Presentation and he's taught me a lot over the years. :)

We are just being thoughtful, right??

So, after bath, Myla helped me bake the cupcakes.

Then I whipped up some super fancy signs...

And I just couldn't have cupcakes without cupcake toppers (I know... OVERBOARD!) so M helped me put those together.  

Look at her use that hot glue gun like a champ! Makes mama proud. :) 

#Thoughtful Tuesday and Pass it on!!

YUM! And yes, they tasted even better than they look!

All set and waiting for our first GUESTS!

So excited!

We slapped this poster on an old "for sale" sign and Daddy & Poppa placed our other 2 signs around the neighborhood. (thanks, guys!)

A LOT of lemonade was drunk while waiting for thirsty friends to drive by.

Many people drove by and waved but didn't stop. This, of course, bothered the kids a little...

M- "What?? I mean, who doesn't like FREE lemonade!?" (Hence where I got the title for this post)

N- "HEY, HE DIDN'T STOP!!!"

It provided the perfect opportunity for me to explain that people may be busy, on their way to work or a doctor appt etc. 

But it still bothered them. 

And it got me thinking...

Really? Who can pass up FREE lemonade from these 2 cuties??

Granny was our first guest!

N taking a lick of Granny's cupcake and M looking desperately at the street hoping SOMEONE, just ANYONE will come by!

We had one nice lady walk up with $3 and just INSIST that we take her money. I tried to explain the whole "Thoughtful Tuesday" thing and that this was a gift etc... and she wasn't having it and left the $ on the table. 

In fact, several people gave us money even though we told them what we were doing. 

(I think they thought we were a little crazy)

So, this just brought up a good opportunity for us to talk about how THOUGHTFUL they were being to want to give us $. 

(The kids are splitting the money and adding it to their piggy banks)

Our sweet neighbors stopped by for some lemonade and cupcakes!!

When Noah realized it was trash day, he got all excited and couldn't wait to see the garbage truck come. He really wanted to give them some lemonade but they didn't come by while we were out. 

In fact, I think I just heard them drive by on our street now as I type this. 

Getting SUPER hot...putting ice on her face. 

And Noah couldn't help spill his lemonade down his shirt...over and over again.

Aunt Kimmy and baby James stopped by! Poor James was sad he couldn't have a cupcake. 

So, after an hour and a half, we packed it up because it was stinkin' hot. 

All done here!

My sister posted this from today...

with the caption, "Cutest niece and nephew ever!! And best lemonade in town by far...think Noah's shirt likes it too...lol #thoughtfultuesday" 

It was a great Thoughtful Tuesday task and we will most likely do again, but not this summer, definitely not this summer...it's only getting hotter out!!

If you want to try your own Thoughtful Tuesday lemonade stand, feel free to download these cupcake toppers HERE.

Also I found this cute banner on Pinterest, for free. You can grab that HERE.

Thanks for reading!

Letter & Lego Press and Marshmallow Painting on Motor Skills Monday!

Our Summer Fun Schedule is BACK! We took a brief hiatus from our daily activities since we were in California last week. 

And because we did A LOT of this...

And a little of this...

It is time to UNPLUG and do some motor activities. 

(Seriously, my kids have been on TECHNOLOGY OVERLOAD the past couple weeks. iPad, iPod, Computer, TV, movies...you name it...on vacation we were all plugged into everything!)

Today we did 2 activities focusing on Fine motor skills. We have been doing some different things for over a month pretty regularly. And just today, I noticed that M didn't need any help opening her peaches! Those darn things are hard to open, I have 2nd graders who still can't open these by themselves.

Coincidence? Or maybe our little activities are paying off? :)

Sure, she still spilled the juice a little but she didn't need any help.

(I don't open anything for her unless she really has tried on her own. Once she shows me she really can't is when I will help her.)

So, parents of littles, if you are still opening, buttoning, pulling up undies, ETC, go for a Fine Motor Check and see if your kids can do it on their own. They may surprise you. Sometimes I feel we do more for our kids because it's just faster and easier that way. For so long, I was getting Myla dressed as she just stood there when she really could do more on her own. 

Anyway, back to our activities for today...

Playdoh Letter & Lego Press

Materials: 

Play-doh (50 cents at Wal-Mart right now!!)

Legos or Duplo blocks

Magnetic Letters (don't have to be magnetic but all I had, letter stamps would work too)

Small rolling pin (optional)

Placemats or tablecloth

Knowing my "audience", I knew the kids would love to explore with the blocks and Play-doh first.

And opening those darn Play-doh containers is tough! Or is it just me??

I finally got this one open and she pulled out the Play-doh. 

The kids loved exploring and rolling out the play-doh. I grabbed Myla's play rolling pin which was the perfect size to roll it out. N preferred to use his hands which was great, since I only had one. :)

Then they began pressing the Duplo blocks into the play-doh to make different imprints.

Myla thought it was pretty cool to try all the different sides of the block and see what "design" it made.

Silly boy...

Such concentration...

She liked smoothing it out over and over.

After a good 20 minutes or so, (and it was a nice and quiet 20 minutes!) we moved on to the letters!

The Dollar store had both capital and lowercase letters, which is one of the things we are working on with M, so these were perfect. 

My idea was to have the letters sorted and we would match them up and press into the Playdoh. 

Look carefully and you can see I sorted one in the wrong spot! Can you see it?? ha ha :)

I chose a Capital letter from the pile and pressed in the play-doh. Myla had to find the matching lowercase letter and press next to it. 

Then here is where the fine motor practice came into play...picking up the letters out of the Play-doh. She learned not to press it in too much!

Then we took turns and Myla chose a letter for me to find...

And would you believe it??? The lowercase "x" was NOWHERE to be found. Strange...so we moved on to another letter.

Meanwhile, Noah had fun smashing letters into his play-doh as well as his cracker crumbs.

Finding the letters in her name to press is next!

 Pretty neat!

After we were done, we found the little "x" under the table! Can you see it??

The kids really loved this and it will definitely be something we do again. 

Next activity...

Painting with Marshmallows

Materials:

Marshmallows

Toothpicks

Washable Paint

Large sheets of construction paper 

Ice Trays

Paper

Tablecloth!

Before we started, I told the kids we would be painting today, which they LOVE. 

BUT... I told them we didn't have any paintbrushes to use.

Here was their reaction...

"So, mom, what are we going to do??"-Myla

"What?!"-Noah

I explained we would be painting with marshmallows!!

(Whoo-hoo!! Can we eat them too?!)

I got bowls for the marshmallows..I got the tiny size and I also found some shaped as stars. Fun. 

I got two old ice trays for the paint.

 They would take a toothpick and stab a marshmallow, dip in paint and PAINT.

Then I made sure to get lots of toothpicks so they could use one for each color.

Noah jumped right in!! (he preferred the smaller white paper)

And started mixing colors, of course!

Myla was a bit more careful not to mix the colors.

I had them put their used marshmallow in the empty ice space while they used different colors and that worked pretty well. 

They did eat a few marshmallows, without paint on them, I think, as they worked on their picture.

I tried to get them to use the marshmallow paintbrush to make dots but they liked to smear it instead, which is fine.

Here is the one I made! 

Can you tell the yellow spots at the top are supposed to be stars?! Yeah, didn't work very well but it was fun having the different marshmallows.

Noah is so proud of his marshmallow painting...

Myla was still working...

She noticed the marks the toothpick made as she pressed harder when she painted the paper...

 All done!

Just beautiful. ;)

Then it was clean-up time. (my least favorite part.) 

And because I am cheap and hate to see paint go to waste, I used a teaspoon to salvage what was left of the paint! As long as it wasn't all mixed up, I saved it!

Overall, it really held their interest, was super fun and helped sharpen those fine motor skills. 

Win-Win!

Myla already asked if we can paint again tomorrow. :) 

We shall see! Tomorrow is Thoughtful Tuesday and we are planning to have a Free Lemonade Stand. Should be fun...in the hot Texas heat. Think 7am is too early for a lemonade stand??

Yeah, probably...expect to see some sweaty faces as we hand out free lemonade tomorrow. :)

Until next time...

Thanks for reading!