For anyone who knows me well, they know that I am unable to walk by a lemonade stand without making a purchase. The way I see it is simple – it is important to support entrepreneurs, especially when they are kids and often quite adorable and inventive when selling lemonade on a hot day. As a kid, I LOVED having a lemonade stand. I thought it was so much fun roping people in, crafting a sales pitch that would convince the passerby, hanging out with a friend all day and finally, making money from a hard day’s work.

And so, as the saying goes, “the apple does not fall far from the tree” as my four year old daughter, Ruby set up her first lemonade stand this past weekend. It all started when we were hanging out on our stoop in the morning and Ruby said it would be fun to sell stuff (we have a neighbor who from time to time sets up a table and sells hats and other miscellaneous memorabilia). I started to tell her that when I was a little girl, I used to sell lemonade and before I finished the story, she was sold on having her own lemonade stand.

We made a sign that Ruby carefully decorated with “gems” for more of a statement and then picked fresh mint from our garden (her favorite way of drinking lemonade). We decided to set up our stand outside of the artists market my husband and I started 8 years ago as we felt that location would have the most traffic. We set up our table, posted our sign, made the lemonade, purchased ice and Ruby was in business. It was hilarious to see her interact with her customers as she demonstrated excellent customer service in thanking people for their business but exercised questionable sanitary measures when touching their ice cubes! At times it was heartbreaking when people pass by without acknowledging her but more often people said “no thank you” and Ruby wondered why they weren’t thirsty. An hour and $14.00 later, Ruby (and her sister) started to get bored, hot and tired so she decided to close shop. She decided to save her earnings for another day and said she would use some of the money towards a purchase for her sister who helped out.

All and all, it was a great day, a cool learning experience and a wonderful moment as a parent to see my daughter in action.